In the international Vincent motorcycle community, you’d have a hard time coming across many names with a greater expertise than Terry Prince. Prince, who grew up riding, racing and wrenching on British machines, knows these bikes ridiculously well, in part because he himself was one of the people behind several Vincent-Egli creations before going on to spend his career doing what he did as a kid, (riding, racing, wrenching on Vincents) only on a world class level with his lifetime of experience. The fact this 67-year-old example was built by Prince himself should hold a lot of weight.
The seller said the Vincent-guru’s build was updated with modern dampers, front and back, though I keep having to remind myself the Rapide came from the factory in ’49 with a monoshock. Other amenities include modern carbs and upgraded brakes with front brake hubs made up of four-leading-shoe internals. This bike is said to have a total of $5k in upgraded parts alone, albeit that doesn’t seem like much when considering the price tag on this two-wheeler.
This entire Rapide was rebuilt from the ground up by Prince, interestingly his first bike was a crashed Rapide. Making the deal even sweeter is that the powerplant on this bike, (also built by Prince), only has TWO miles on it which you can watch via the video linked below. If you’re going to make the substantial investment that is purchasing a near-pristine classic Vincent, than Terry Prince is the person you want to have built it. What I personally think is so cool about this bike is that Prince seemingly built it to be ridden instead of keeping this prestigious bike all-original, after all, (as cliche as it sounds), motorbikes were made to be ridden and enjoyed so I hope the buyer puts some miles on it.
You can find this 1949 Vincent Rapide example for sale here on Los Angeles Craigslist with a price of $67,000, though the bike is located at Vincent Works in Colorado with shipping options presumably for extra.