Home at last!

So, After 18 months living in Bristol in rented accommodation with no garage or workshop we've moved back to our house in Surrey and I've reclaimed my triple garage and outbuildings and a yard. Today my first treat was to unpack the jet washer and give the SD the best clean it's had for a year. A good soak in cleaner and a thorough wash - you don't know how good it made me feel.

Only blot on the landscape is that the removals company ran out of space in the big truck and didn't have room for my workshop stuff and tools which were all in a storage unit so until I can get back there with a hire van I have no actual ability to work on my bike. Had to leave the Kawasaki triple there as well.
by , on Flickr

Very cool! But why the double relocation? Massive remodeling?

Long story mate.

Two years ago felt that I needed to down-size a bit to reduce cost of living and got this great offer to rent out our whole property. There is a guy who had bought the Hesketh Motorcycle company and wanted a place to live with his family and build the bikes. The rent we got covered the mortgage and also the rent for a smaller house so we moved to Bristol to see what it was like.

To cut a long story short Hesketh ran into financial troubles earlier this year, they stopped paying their rent and so it's been a bit of a journey to get them out and reclaim our property back. Not a great experience to be honest.

All I can say is don't put a deposit down on a new Hestketh as you won't be seeing anything for your money!

Wow - Hesketh persisted into this year?

Who knew ...

Glad you’re home again Bic, I admire your bravery/optimism in parking the 990 outside your rented gaff in Brizzle, don’t think I’d have dared to....

Are the Heskeths of which you write the same ones as Lordy himself produced in the early 80s? they were pretty agricultural 36 years ago and didn’t sell enough to be a success then... what is it about a mentality amongst certain Britons who get all nostalgic and think “if we produce the same old traditional shit they’ll buy it this time around”?

The Hesketh name was bought by a guy a few years ago called Paul Sleeman who is an ex Cosworth engineer. He started limited production of a bike that is made up from a bespoke frame, loads of kit parts and a huge S&S engine from the States. It had absolutely no relationship to the original late '80 Hesketh bike produced by Lord Hesketh except it's a V twin.

It's a strange concept IMO because he touts it as a sports bike but it's too big and heavy to be this. Best way I find to describe the concept is that it's like one of those Shelby Cobras - it's a British bike but with massive muscle power that is more suited to the US mentality. He was only building 24 of them (based on the fact that Lord Hesketh ran James Hunt's race team in F1 and his racing number was 24) and they were priced at about £30,000 so not cheap.

He then started to build a new model called a Sonnet which was more of a retro feel - but still a massive V Twin engine cafe racer type of thing.

He's run into massive financial difficulty whilst also being sued by the Hesketh family for misuse of the name (I think he's now called the company something else). He stopped paying his rent to me many months ago and is in big arrears. He has taken a lot of deposits for bikes from a lot of people who have seen nothing for their money.

But anyway, he did a lot of renovation work on my outbuildings so he could build bikes and so there is a silver lining to the experience! I now have some great garage spaces to move back to! His next project was to be a tribute bike to world champion Phil Read who was here earlier in the year looking at the prototype. Check out the photos!

by , on Flickr

by , on Flickr

by , on Flickr

by , on Flickr

by , on Flickr by , on Flickr
by , on Flickr
by , on Flickr
by , on Flickr

Nice workshop Bic
Not sure about those Hesketh's though - I don't see the point.
You'd expect something better from someone who worked at Cosworth wouldn't you?

Agree. The new Hesketh does nothing for me. Too big, too heavy, too slow round corners. It's a drag bike really.

But nice to be back in some well kitted out workshops - it's like so great to be home!

Thanks for the insight into this other, different "Hesketh"; definitely not the (original) one I was thinking of.

On this side of the pond, no shortage of people stuffing big, heavy S&S mills into bespoke frames, holding together a catalog of European road race kit items (Brembo, Ohlins, OZ, etc ...). Invariably either "cafe" or "tracker" style. Needless to state, some work better than others, but all are heavy, obnoxiously loud anachronisms. Don't even make good drag bikes.

Ex-Cosworth, whatever ... Effectively an automotive consultancy, mostly powertrain related, regaled for their (historical) involvement in F1, but haven't played in that sandbox competitively for a long time. You all know this, but what I recall is their inability to produce a manageable/reliable - though innovative - engine for MotoGP (Aprilia).

Shop does look tidy - nice to return to. I'm sure you'll enjoy working in the space.

Oil tank integral to the swing arm, nice.. everybody wants a hot swing arm.

Unless it expands and stretches your chain...

The last mock-up / prototype I saw there had (I think) a 1400 cc engine with a supercharger. They were just going for ultimate torque and I would guess the additional weight in the moving suspension parts were immaterial to them really. Handling wasn't top of the agenda.

Blower - That's a LOT of heat from a 1400cc air cooled engine ... Then it makes sense to use the swingarm as a tank: If putting down gobs of torque is what they were after, getting more weight over the rear wheel could only help.

A detail likely to be lost to obscurity, thanks again for the insight on the "Hesketh". Now your home/garage has the provenance of once being the home of a bespoke motorcycle manufacturer.

Thanks for an interesting read and it must be great to have space again
I was in Bristol a couple of years back for work (across the road from Aardman as it turned out, I was stoked as I'm a big Wallace and Gromit fan
It was a bit gloomy to be honest. Grey days end on end.
London was much nicer albeit the weather was sunny so not fair to compare based on a few weeks experience I suppose.

Wow what an adventure... But it's great that your're back home at last!

Dukenukem. I first moved to Bristol in 1998 after leaving my first design company. I had no idea what to do but as a product designer I could always make models and build things. One night I was sat in a pub and overheard a group of guys talking about making silicone moulds and casting parts so I went over and asked them what they did. To cut a long story short it turned out were Aardman crew and I ended up working on the Chicken Run movie for three months. I part designed and built the flying chicken shed that is pedal powered that they use to escape the farm. I ended up working for another animation company called Bolex Brothers and ran their design and set building studio for 2 years and made a load of stop-frame commercials and a few short films. Cool times in Bristol then - Aardman, Massive attack, Portishead, Goldie, drum and bass, dope, ecstasy.

Wallace and Gromit ,now your talking!

House in Surrey eh?

When can you do my valve clearances