The Black Lightning was a Vincent-HRD motorcycle first built in September 1948 at the Vincent works in Great North Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK, and produced from 1948 to 1952. At the time the Black Lightning was the fastest production motorcycle in the world.

Taken from this wiki page.

Mark Knopfler was born in Glasgow but raised in Newcastle so I think we can forgive his claiming other famous people as Geordies :-)

Perfect rhymes? One that always tickles me is by a master wordsmith and says

I left my cap in a public-house, my boots in the public road,
And Lord knows where, and I don't care, my belt and my tunic goed

I'll let you look up where it comes from :-)

DtG