M. GODET AND HIS EXTRAORDINARY TWINS
It’s already ironic that safety-minded Switzerland should have produced the kind of motorcycle that in the past half-century has conceivably brought more fun on two wheels to more people than any other. That’s the Big Twin cafe racer, which Fritz Egli invented back in 1965 by building the first of the Egli-Vincent 998cc V-twins. It’s even more improbable that, for the past 40 years, the most dedicated and capable restorer and re-creator of Vincent motorcycles, as well as the most successful Vincent exponent in topline Classic racing, should not be an Englishman, but a ‘bloody Frog’. Using that term denotes no sense of chauvinism (though, of course, Monsieur Chauvin was indeed, erm… French), for that’s what the late Patrick Godet, French Vincent expert par excellence, always called himself!
Patrick Frog passed away suddenly last November, aged 67, at his home in the Normandy countryside north of Rouen, and his loss will be keenly felt by Vincent owners and enthusiasts all over the world, as well as by his many friends in the Classic racing scene. Lots of them used the vast array of high quality Godet Motorcycles parts to restore or maintain their original Vincents, while others were fortunate to own one of the 280 superbly constructed Egli-Vincent V-twins produced by Godet Motorcycles over the past 25 years, with the approval of Fritz Egli himself. During that time, Patrick Godet produced the only officially recognised Egli-Vincent re-creations, one of which Fritz Egli, now aged 81, himself acquired, and thanks to the electric starter installed on all such Godet-built bikes, still rides today.
Patrick Godet purchased his first Vincent in 1974 at the age of 22, a Black Shadow. ‘I saw a couple of British registered Rapides in Rouen with Vincent Owners Club badges carrying all the gear for touring, and I thought – that’s the bike I want,’ Patrick once told me. ‘So when I got back from doing National Service with the Army I went looking for one, and although for a very short period I first had a Norvin café racer, that
