Indian-Vincent

Vindian | V-twin | Bonhams auction | Philip Vincent | Ralph Rogers | 1949 prototype

What happens when you cross a Vincent with an Indian? You get a 1949 Vindian, which is a bike that many, if not most, classic bikers are well aware of. What's less well known is the (immediately) above Indian-Vincent, also built in 1949 as a collaborative venture between both firms, but in the event never saw production.

Ralph Rogers (manager at Indian in Springfield, Massachusetts) and our own Philip Vincent were, naturally enough, the driving forces behind the two-bike project. The motorcycles were aimed squarely at the US market which then, as ever, had its own ideas of what a motorcycle ought to look like.

Indian supplied the frame, such as it is, and the electrics. Other Yankee-oriented features included the left-side gearshift, the crash bars, the "high" handlebars, and the extra lights. Both the Vindian and the Indian-Vincent were assembled at the Vincent factory in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. The bikes were paraded a little and displayed to the media. But neither saw extensive road testing.

Phil Vincent subsequently took the Indian-Vincent to Australia where it remained for most of the past 60-odd years. But now these hallowed wheels are headed for a freshly waxed auction block in Las Vegas courtesy of Bonhams, and if you visit the Rio Hotel on Thursday 26th January 2017, you can plant your peepers on this machine and cross it off your must-see-before-I-die list.

Bonhams is estimating $250,000 - $300,000 for this Indian-Vincent. And we reckon you can pretty much write the headline for that one. But then again, it's still a fickle world, even where classic bikes are concerned. And if this one doesn't lure the hardcore Vincent boys and girls, there are currently another 16 Vinnies on the January consignment list.

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it's difficult to see how either party might have thought for one moment that such a hybrid/bastardisation could have been successful. Both were great firms that produced excellent touring V-twins. And both firms had their dedicated fan base with all the implied and attached prejudices and loyalties. But the brand identity and engineering ethos of each company were hardly comfortable partners.

It therefore seems inevitable that this project was never going to be anything other than an interesting sideshow in the great motorcycling funfair. But had we been around in the day, with all the ignorance and hopefulness of the moment, we might well have seen the future very differently.

Here at Sump, we're agreed that a Vincent twin and an Indian twin would suit us very nicely. But merging the two simply muddies the heritage of both and provides us with a dish that's neither fish nor fowl. Doesn't it?

Either way, expect to see some even bigger pockets bulging at Vegas come the new year.

See the Feilbach story below for another interesting V-twin headed for Las Vegas in January 2017.

www.bonhams.com