Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128316
Bernard Li: In Pur§uit: of Excellence h~ilt-protQYP-e, which uses a replica ' Li's Vincent Black Ughtning 5 (left) sits parked next to of the origin a l Vincent eng ine. The Lightning 5 uses Honda RC·S 1 power. - -- _ _ because for all its conservat ive ar chite cture and rangy rid ing position , it' s fun to ride , pro vided yo u reme mbe r its limita t ion s of ground cle ar anc e and hand ling a nd don't get suc ked into thin king it's a sportbike , w hich it 's not. I have a fee ling I'd appreciate riding the more focu se d Lightning ST sports tourer more tha n its spl it pe rsonality "5" sister, because the architecture o f the chassis w ill su it it be tte r, but it' ll still be powered by that fabulou s Honda engine. O r even the Black ag cr uise r, where the long wheebase will tu ally be an adv antage. Contrary to opi ions expressed in some parts of the vin bike press, Bernard Li comes across not fact as an opportunistic Yank entrepren with an eye on the main chance, but as an ardent enthusiast of motorcycle history w ho's ready to devote a good slice of the million s he made from his life's work of pro ducing a pro pe r po lish to re viving one of the most illustrio us names of Britain's motorcycle heritage - even if in doing so he 's somewhat so ftened the focus of the bornagain marque's products. Face it .. we don't th ink twice about Husqvarnas' being made in Italy, as they have been for the past I 5 years, or Royal Enfields in India, or Husabergs in Austria - so what's the big deal about Vincents' being made in Detroit? The world is a much smaller place nowadays than it was half a century ago when Vincents were about to go out of busine ss. If Bar ney U is prepared to stump up his own cash to produce a born-again range of bikes with the Vincent name on the side , good luck to him. Especially if you eN do n't have to kickstart them. 48 MA RCH 24, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 40th Anniversary Now 58, Bemard li is living proof of the American dream. Born in Chenzing, China, on the cusp of Mao's Communist revolution, he came to the USAwith his parents when just six months old, originallyso they could attend university ther e. "My folks went to New YorkCity to study at graduate school, but while they were there, the control of China changed , so they were left stranded because as intellectuals from a prosperous family they would have been considered , part of the capitalist elite by the new ruling party," says li . "But they fortunately got work at the Voice of America radio station , so they could stay on here - my dad always said it was probably the only job in America he was qualified for!" Barney li 's love affairwith bikes began after the family moved to suburban Maryland, when a high school friend taught him to ride a BSASpitfire. Seduced by the experience, he saved up to buy a rough but ready 305cc Honda Scrambler, which he then spent countless hours fettling and polishing'til it was unrecognizable from before. "I'd sit out for hours under the tree hand-polishingthe engine cases with valve-grindingcompound and a lot of elbow grease 'til l had them looking pretty nice," says li. "That was the start of a personal career path that eventually led to EagleOne. I wanted things to look good , and providing like-minded people with the right products to help them achieve that was a pretty satisfyingbusiness." Some 27 motorcycles later - including a Norton Commando, which introduced him to the acclaimed handlingand glorious heritage of British bikes - li hopes to have done just that by buildingthe prototype born-again Vincents. In between times, armed with a universitydegree in history, li had moved to Californiain 1969 with just a CB-450 Honda motorcycle to his name, plus $700 earned by drivingsomeone's car out West, with a U·Haul trailer strapped on to the back containing the Honda and all his worldly possessions. A series of clerical jobs at City Hall in Los Angeles were followed by a three-year spell running his own Yamaha motorcycle dea lership beside the San Diego Freeway before sellingout and going to work for a tire specialist, with a spare-time job cleaning people's wire wheels . "I was used to doing that on my bikes, but in the mid-'lOs they got real popular for cars, too ," li says. "People hated having to clean them because it was so time-consum ing, but I figured there had to be a better way, so I developed my own formula for cleaning off the filmof dirt - and it took off from there. We started Eagle One in 1978 with the help of three veterinari ans as investors who my wife was working for, and we made money from the first mont h. We weren't afraid to invest a lot of experimentation time to make sure all our products worked really we ll- but it paid off, because we developed what was recognized as the finest range of car care products in the world . Plus, I'd also started the Cycle Care line to get reinvolved in the motorcycle industry and reconnect with people I'd known from back when I was a dealer. Twenty years on , I sold out to Valvoline - and that allowed me to focus again on my first love, motorcycles." li had remained a bike owner all through his EagleOne days, covering 10-15,000 miles annuallycriss-crossing America and latte rly also Europe in company with his wife Elizabeth and their close friend Bill Babcock on a series of touring bikes - curre ntlya BMW K 12ooRS, Harley-Davidson Road King, and Yarnaha FJR 1300 all share space with the four Vincent prototypes in the li garage. "Back in the early '90s we were thinkingabout what to get next, and we were loo king at finally buying Harleys for the first time ," li recalls. "But I remember Bill sayingto me , 'You know, it's not that we want Harleys and all the freight that comes with them - they're just the closest thing to what we 're loo king for.