Bill Weissman had heard rumors of a Vincent motorcycle in a Philadelphia-area basement for decades. Beginning in the 1970s, after graduating from college and employed at his first job, Weissman heard that a Vincent Black Shadow was languishing in a unique manor house in the greater Philadelphia area, but he could never get specifics.
“In the spring of 1977, I read Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” Weissman says. “I had heard of Vincents before, but became hooked on the idea of owning one after reading the book.”
Unable to find the mysterious Philadelphia-basement Vincent, he traveled to Hershey, Pennsylvania, for the annual fall flea market. There, he purchased a 90 percent complete Vincent Rapide. But because he was also in the process of restoring a 1969 Hemi-powered Dodge Charger 500, he didn’t have the time to spend on the Vincent, and eventually sold it.
A few years later, the Vincent bug bit again, and Weissman started to ask around. Again, he heard about the Vincent in the basement, and again he could not get any details.
Find the hidden Vincent! Weissman had heard the rumors of a hidden Vincent in the Philadelphia area for years. Putting together clue upon clue, he was finally able to locate it in this basement. BILL WEISSMAN
Weissman had to pull apart the Vincent into its three main pieces—front, engine and rear—to get it out of the cramped basement and up the stairs. BILL WEISSMAN
By the mid-1980s, Weissman purchased his first Vincent Black Shadow from Vincent expert Somer Hooker, of Nashville. Later, he also purchased another Rapide and a Comet, but still, the basement bike eluded him.
A fellow Vincent enthusiast from Oregon called Weissman in the 1990s and told him he had heard rumor of a Vincent in a Philadelphia basement, and this time Weissman received vital information that narrowed his search. Weissman’s resolve was renewed; his parents lived in the greater Philadelphia area, and he decided the next time he visited them, he would explore the neighborhood for the unusual manor.
Once there, as he walked the streets, there it was; he didn’t have a doubt. He knocked on the door, but no answer. Then he stopped at town hall and researched the name of the owner.
He began to send notes and letters to the owner of the house but received no reply. But after he sent a Vincent Owner’s Club T-shirt, he got a surprise phone call. “It was the owner of the Shadow in the basement,” Weissman says. “Yes, he still had the bike, and no, he did not want to sell it. We chatted for a while, and he inquired about Vincent people he knew.”
Not the news Weissman wanted, but he had finally made a connection to the mysterious bike. Over the years, Weissman stayed in touch with the Vincent’s owner, and they become friends. The elderly gentleman still had hopes of restoring his old bike.
Then one day in 2013, nearly 40 years after first hearing of the bike, Weissman got a call from the gentleman. “It’s time to sell the Shadow,” the owner said, who went on to explain the bike was buried in his basement.
Weissman was overjoyed. Over the next couple of weeks, he disassembled the bike into its three main sections and carried them up the stairs. “I am happy to finally own it,” he says. “Somehow, in the last 25 or 30 years, I started to consider it mine anyway.”
