The British Superbike That Changed The World

In this Rare Motorcycles documentary, we go into the history of one the most iconic motorcycles ever made – the first true superbike. The Vincent Black Shadow. This late 1940’s and early 1950’s icon was one mans vision of the perfect bike – and once it came out it was the fastest motorcycle in the world without question!

This video aims to provide a short history of these unique and rare motorcycles so you can learn about them in a quick, easy to digest video.

*Note, we are not historians. If you see an error in our research then please mention it in the comments!

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Over 50 years have passed since the Vincent Black Shadows final production run in stevenage England yet its Legacy indors lauded as the era’s Pinnacle of speed it is revered as the inaugural Superbike a machine that even today commands the respect of even the most hardcore performance Fanatics and with

Good reason bone stock these black Shadows had a top speed of 125 mph which for 1948 wasn’t just fast it was downright unheard of and all this was done without a giant engineering budget or a team of mathematicians this bike was built and developed in a very recently recovering post-war England

This is the story of the world’s first true super bike the Vincent Black Shadow the story starts all the way back in the late 1920s with a man by the name of Philip Conrad Vincent Philip was an avid motorcycle Enthusiast who wanted to build motorcycles himself he ended up

Getting the opportunity to purchase a motorcycle Manufacturing Company whom already existed called hrd in 1928 elated by this opportunity Philip was able to use some family money to help acquire the company which he then promptly renamed to Vincent hrd they started off making their own motorcycles powered by outside engines sourced from

Jaap or Rouge python but little did these suppliers know one event would change the trajectory of Vincent Forever by 1934 Vincent had been toying around with the idea of building his very own engines but these things were abruptly jolted into motion when at the 1934 Isle

Of Man TT every single engine on the Vincent race bikes failed all of which were acquired through external suppliers this shifted Vincent into damage control mode where the first step was getting their own engine built and they would go ahead and do so with the help of engineer Phil Irving who would design

Vincent’s first bespoke engine a 500cc single cylinder motor that would make 28 horsepower and would be called the meteor but Phil Irving then thought to himself what if he could take this new one-cylinder engine and put it together with another one to create what essentially would be their own 1000cc

Harley style vwin this would give them monstrous per performance and it would help be something that could truly set their brand apart from others this engine would effectively be known as the raped and it was about to change the world as we know it this new 47° 1000

CCV twin was an absolute Powerhouse but they needed a place to put it the first production version of the vinsent raped was based largely on a modified Vincent Comet motorcycle frame which was then changed to be able to fit this new v20 up front this new bike would utilize a

Set of Brampton gerder forks with the rear suspension being Vincent’s very own Canal lver suspension which could only be found on Vincent bikes as it was their own bespoke design they would also feature a wicked dry sump oiling system which was really quite the feat for the

Time overall the combination of this new engine resulted in a mill that made a whopping 45 horsepower in the late 1930s a number that was really imp impressive no matter where you were in the world this allowed the raped to Glide to an effortless 110 mph top speed even with

Just a four-speed transmission now the Reds were not very daily Rider Focus bikes these were marketed as perforance machines and the best for Vincent was still yet to come these initial bikes would be referred to as the series a which would be produced until 1939 and

Why 1939 in specific you might ask well this was the year that England entered World War II and this meant that all the manufacturing efforts had to be shifted to support the war effort vinsent as a company shifted their business to help with the war effort until

1945 then it was time to get back to work building motorcycles in an era of post-war Clarity Vincent reworked the raped into a series B version which was now significantly lighter by utilizing the engine itself as part of the frame as a stressed member this did require a

Change in engine degree though from 47° to 50° at this point in time raw materials were also hard to come by after being used for tanks and ships for the past half a decade mainly steel but other materials like stainless steel aluminum or any other alloy that was not

Used heavily in armored vehicle manufacturing could be deployed with relative ease this new series B Vincent was about an inch shorter and it was now lighter it made these new series B bikes even more spry even only running on a lowly 6.8 to1 compression ratio due to

Fuel rationing at the time but what followed the series B in 1948 was the iconic black shadow and that bike changed everything the black shadow was essentially a heavily hot- rodded version of the series B and C vids and Rapides that got hotter cams ported heads significantly better air flow a

Higher 7.3 to1 compression ratio and of course a pair of better carburetors but then with all this new power it was time to give the black shadow itself a look that was unlike anything else on the road as a result the bike was blacked out which gave it its Sinister look and

The amazing opportunity to name the bike something that would become so iconic the black shadow but the black shadow itself almost never even came to fruition the managing director of Vincent at the time named Frank Walker did not want to authorize the development of the bike as he thought it

Was a poor use of funds but they did it anyway behind his back and unveiled it to the world at the 1948 Motorcycle Show and it was revered with absolutely phenomenal praise journalists love the bike and especially its insane 125 mph top speed which blew everything else out

Of the water this was the fastest bike in the world by a significant margin and nothing else could touch it the black shadow was in a league of its own motorcycle racer Ry free would then help even further catapult the Vinson black shadow to start him with his 150 mph

Bonville Salt Flat run with his heavily modified version of the black shadow this was the iconic shot of him doing 150 mph laying on the back of the black shadow in just his underwear which is probably the most insane photo ever taken this bike was motorcycle Nirvana

For any Enthusiast it was amazing but at just under 500 Great British pounds in 1948 it wasn’t cheap either the black shadow was initially based on the series B raped and then was refreshed on the series C raped which also included the changing of the front fork design away

From the Brampton Forks to a new set of Vincent’s own design which were a notable Improvement but the end of the black shadow was rather abrupt Vincent as a company was taking on water financially and by 1955 production for the world beating black shadow as well

As any other bike they made was halted and the company went into receivership in 1959 marking the nail in the coffin for the Glory Days of the rapid and the black shadow in total just over 1,700 black Shadows were built throughout the production run and they are some of the

Most sought after collector bikes in the world today for good reason their story of one man’s desire to create the perfect motorcycle transcends time periods and it will always remain as a Beacon of Hope for enthusiasts who one day wish to do the same and that is a

Short story of the iconic Vincent Black Shadow if you have any other motorcycles you’d like us to make a video on then comment them down below and if you enjoy this video we’ll greatly appreciate it if you could drop a like and also share this video with other enthusiasts also

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