The Egli-Vincent

Egli-Vincent by Egli

This fabulous Egli-Vincent story takes roots in 1965 when Fritz Egli started to race his Vincent Rapide in the Swiss hill climb championship. After two seasons of heavy modifications on the engine and the chassis, and the impossibility to win races, his conclusion was final: the chassis of his Vincent was completely outdated compared to the benchmarked Manx so he designed a new one during the winter 1966 to 1967. As Fritz also intended to produce this new bike in small batches, he did not focus that much on the 1967 season, but he won magisterially in 1968. His official riders Fritz Peier and Florian Burki added to his performance with three more titles in 1969, 1970 and 1971. A legend was born.

Fritz Egli racing his Black Shadow, this was the very first season! during the winter he put together what will become the Egli-Vincent

Fritz Egli racing his Rapide (and not a Black Shadow as often written); this was the second season during which he swapped the Girdraulic by this Matchless G45 front fork. (Photo © Robert Pfeffer)

Fritz on one of the first Egli-Vincent manufactured for customers. Likely in 1967. (Source Egli Racing)

Fritz in front of his workshop at Bettwill (CH)

Fritz in front of his workshop at Bettwil (CH). Fritz stands just behind EV1.

One of the most famous EV, completely original which has been featured in numerous magazines. It has the famous “Banana” tank.

This bike has a quite rare tank. However customers favored the "banana" model.

This road model (Shadow) has the standard “US” tank that replaced the banana of the earlier prototypes. Most of the machines delivered in 1968 and 1969 had this long range tank, until the “Fritz Peier” tank became the standard fit. (see next picture)

This Comet has a the GT tank, completely original and still used on the Godet Sport GT

This Comet has a the “Fritz Peier” tank which was fitted on the late production models.

Fritz Egli in front of a genuine Egli Vincent assembled by Godet and tested on its dyno and ready to be delivered to a customer.

Fritz Egli in front of a genuine Egli-Vincent assembled by his staff at Bettwil from Godet components and tested on his dyno before being delivered to the customer.

Fritz Egli and Patrick Godet in front of new Patrick's Racer, the Egli 500 Comet. This picture was taken during the Chimay Classic Grand Prix in July 2013. © Philippe Haulet

Fritz Egli and Patrick Godet in front of new Patrick’s Racer, the Egli 500 Grey Flash. This picture was taken during the Chimay Classic Grand Prix in July 2013. (Photo © Philippe Haulet)