Among motoring friends we had the quote: If you want to travel on two wheels, buy a Vincent; if you can't afford a Vincent, then buy a motorbike". I had old Ariels, couldn't afford a Vincent.
In 1986 I found an advert in Classic Motorcycle from Atlantic Motorcycles in Twyford, offering an "Egli Comet" for a price I could afford. After a short testride, the bike was sold by payment in two terms and taken over the Channel in spring 1987.
Home I found out the frame wasn't Egli's, the frame number being HM101, but what was it?
In his book " Vincent Motorcycles, the untold story since 1946" I discovered my bike on pages 276-278: The Phoenix 500 by Hillgate Motors.
They only built two machines of this type: a pre-production of the road bike and a racer (sold to William Glyn Johnson) before selling the business. Mine is the pre-production road bike.
Philippe mailed me a copy of the original roadtest in the July 1973 issue of Bike Magazine, in which is a photograph of the tester on the bike, showing the number plate BDB49L (BlastingDeciBels), that is still mounted on my bike.
After importing it in Holland, I had to get a Dutch registration, which was difficult on dB-production at this time. On a test-ride at home the exhaust broke out of the cilinder and some other minor adjustments had to be made, for which I didn't have the time. And so the beast rested many years untouched in my garage, until recently. I sold my last Ariel to make some space and decided to spent the upcoming next corona-lockdown to finally restore the Vincent. So here I am to find support.