The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
THE VINCENT ‘BLACK ‘FLASH’ (2025)
Run Time: 3:07
Producer: Malle London
Cinematography: Jed Leach
Editor: Joshua Sakk
Voice Over: Sam Retford
Key Cast: That bloody ‘Black Flash’
FILM MAKERS
Malle London started as a harebrained scheme in a late night bar back in 2013 to make elegant yet functional motorcycle bags. They did that in spades, and along the way they also began organizing some of the best rallies around. The Beach Race, The Great Malle Rally, The Mountain Rally just to name just a few. Now, in August of 2025 they will set off on the Great Malle Arctic Rally, the longest motorcycle rally ever attempted across Scandinavia to the northern tip of the mainland Arctic. See link below to get in on the fun!
SUMMARY
In the words of Bob Dylan “There’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all”. Introducing The Vincent ‘Black Flash’. Six weeks before The Great Malle Rally, we got word of a 1950 Vincent 500 barn find, that was last running in 1974. We dragged her home and the dream was set, to build a lightweight Malle Rally Vincent. Our aim was to complete The Great Malle Rally, the longest motorcycle rally in Great Britain on the oldest motorcycle to ever attempt it, on a custom Vincent, inspired by the infamous Vincent ‘Black Lightning’ and the Vincent ‘Grey Flash’… …After the Vincent suffered a catastrophic fuel leak on the final stage of the Rally, with petrol pouring over a hot engine, it was thrown into the bracken and put out with loch water. The Rally Marshalls played ‘pass the parcel’ with the rider to get him to the finish line on the backs of their motorcycles, 212 miles from Rally checkpoint to checkpoint. To pass the time, he wrote ’An Ode To The Black Flash’. Read out on the Rally finish line at the Castle of Mey, at the very Northern tip of Scotland. Custom Vincent by The Malle London team.
RELATED MEDIA
Learn more about entering The Great Malle Rallies
If it features a Vincent … it can’t be bad .
But this … well this is one damn fine video from start to finish . Between the story ( of failure but a great tale regardless ) the prose .. the cinematography.. ( damn fine cinematography ) .. the individual reading the text .. right down to the background music …
…Damn fine indeed .. toss in the fact its about a Vincent ( albeit a bit of a tragic Vincent ) .. and you’ve got yerself 3:07 of pure unadulterated enjoyment .
Ever since I caught wind of this a few weeks ago … I’ve been bouncing around Malle’s other videos hoping to find another like it .. and although the quality is consistent .. I’ve yet to find one that this video’s equal .. regardless of the subject matter .
So … hmmm … perhaps this particular video should be elevated to the status of … Art ? Hmmm … jury is out … but there’s sure as hell enough evidence to justify it … hmmm
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Ok .. couldn’t resist ..
Advice to any owner/ potential owner when brining a Vincent ( especially one of the early series Vincents ) back to life ;
Unless you’re related to Big Sid or are one of the remaining experts when it comes to Vincent restoration / modification;
Rule #1 – Spend a lot of money
Rule #2 – Spend even more money
Rule #3 – Then Spend even more money than that .. which when ‘ done ‘ leads to ;
Rule #4 – Coming to grips with the fact that a Vincent M/C in the hands of anyone other than an experienced well stocked and well trained Vincent expert … is an eternal financial Black Hole .. or better yet .. a Financial Endless Enigma
Chose to modify / hot rod said Vincent ?
Take all the above rules and multiple them times ten … at the bare minimum
But ahhh … the reality is … the above rules apply to all classic bikes of UK/EU/US origin . The sole exceptions being the 60’s and later Japanese iron .
And yeah … the above is rather harsh and cold blooded .. but then again so is reality .. and thats the reality when it comes to Vincent motorcycles .. I love em … but .. ahh .. I’ll let others own em …
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BTW .. to anyone who cares … the Vincent centric film ;
” Speed Is Expensive ” …
….is now readily available and free via most cable providers … and yes .. its definitely worth the watch … just wish I coulda paid something for it tossing a couple $ into the hands of those who spent the time and money creating the movie … but … oh well … at least I did finally get to see it in its entirety
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