San Diego businessman Bernard Li, whose Eagle One car and motorcycle care products are a veritable empire in the motorized world, unveiled no less than four prototype Vincent motorcycles during a party and press conference at his magnificent home in Rancho Santa Fe, California, on the night before the Del Mar motorcycle weekend.

Li, a lifelong motorcycle fan who has been laboring to acquire full rights to the Vincent name since the early '90s, now hopes to turn his prototypes into production models, and he is optimistic that he will be able to begin filling orders for the beautiful black machines by autumn of 2004.

"There's still a lot of work to do," Li said. "I've been wanting to do this for so long, but the search for an engine... We've been talking to the different OE guys for years. Finally, we made some headway a year and a half ago when the Honda guys said, 'How about if we sell you an engine?' At first they wanted to sell us VTR engines, but then they came back and offered us RC-51 engines. We were all over that, because that's the type of engine that really captures and crystallizes the type of performance that the Vincent is all about." Li said that Vincent now has about 16 trademarks in the U.S., and that the company is now ready to go forward.

Of the four models that Li unveiled (all powered by Honda RC-51 Superbike engines, thanks to that agreement with Honda), the Vincent Black Lightning appears to be the flagship model. It was presented in two versions: the quart-faired version that Li is astride for our photo, and a sport touring-oriented version that features a full fairing (think along the lines of the older BMW K-type sport tourers, although the Vincent's is uniquely styled, for sure) and squared leather-style saddlebags. Also, unveiled at the party were a Vincent Black Shadow, which appears to be more of a naked hot rod standard, and the Vincent Black Eagle, whose lines definitely plant the bike firmly in the custom cruiser category.