Egli-Vincent motorcycles by Patrick Godet

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...