The French have a knack for classy, timeless motorcycles. There was Jean François Vicente, in the days when he owned VD Classic. We recently featured restorer Jean-Claude Barrois, who created the Rudge ‘bitsa’. And then there’s Patrick Godet of Godet Motorcycles of Malaunay in northern France, who created the machines you see here.
These bikes are Egli-Vincents, and built under licence. They’re based on the 100-or-so originals produced in Switzerland by Fritz Egli in the late 60s and early 70s, and the appeal is just as strong today as it was four decades ago. Today, Godet offers two variations on the Egli-Vincent, a single-seater Café Racer model and a twin-seat Sport GT.
Both use a Black Shadow air-cooled 50º V twin specification engine and weigh around 172 kg (378 lbs); the difference is mostly in the bodywork and the trim. It’s worth noting that Godet Motorcycles are not restorations, but completely new hand-built machines, created using new components that are faithful to the original Vincent specifications.
A Godet/Egli-Vincent was featured in the Guggenheim’s Art of The Motorcycle exhibition; what I’d give to have one in my garage.
