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JACK OF HEARTS“You don’t believe me, do you?” We were looking at a half-built motorcycle. Vic Jefford had spoken because I was saying nothing, except for an eloquent and bemused shaking of my head. For months, Vic had been saying that he was going to build ‘a useable, rideable chop’ – his very words – on which he could blat around, but what I saw in front of me wasn’t quite what I was expecting. Vic has never built anything that wasn’t rideable (although he’ll admit that his Swedish-style Triumph of 2000 was a bit of a handful), even if he was the only The idea for ‘Jack of Hearts’ arose when Vic decided that he wanted a chop for himself. The last couple of years had been spent either building bikes for other people, or machines that were essentially showcases to demonstrate and advertise Destiny Cycles’ capabilities. Vic and Lin had taken ‘War Horse’ and ‘Manhattan’, their two previous builds, to various events, but he decided that he now wanted something fun to ride and that was, well, a little less showy. What some people may find surprising is that, aside from the aforementioned and barking mad car-tyred Triumph that won the Rock & Blues Custom Show in 2000, Vic has never had a chop of his own. Lowriders, trikes, classics – yes, but not an out-and-out chopper. Then, as he was flicking through a French custom magazine one day, he spotted a picture of a tall, high-necked chop and immediately decided that that was the style he wanted. There was a general hot rod theme to the new project, which started with the wheels, or rather, with one wheel. Jim Ord had donated one of his monster 15” x 9” Jim’s Rims wheels to Vic, and it was with this rim that the build started. Along with a 21-inch Harley-Davidson front hub and rim, it was first dispatched for powder coating, then sent to Percy at Bad Brush Dezigns to be painted, after which Melissa Gee did the ace pinstriping work (on top of the lacquer in the ‘proper’ manner) and, finally, everything was packed off to Wildes to be laced together with stainless spokes. This process took three months, by which time Vic was busy working on other things and so the wheels had to be put to one side. It was October 2006 when work finally began on building a frame. A one-off rigid, it was fabricated out of heavy duty tubing in different diameters – 1.75-inch for the backbone and bottom loop, and 1.5-inch for everything else – which was then dovetailed and welded together. But Vic decided that a unique frame wasn’t quite unique enough, s The choice of engine was one that’s become a bit of a Jefford trademark over the last couple of years. Vic particularly likes the Indian PowerPlus engine, not just for its classic looks, but because it stands out from the usual run of the mill Harley V-twin clones without the accompanying price tag of, say, a big Enginuity or S&S motor. He was also keen to find out what the PowerPlus 100 was capable of when used in a more practical chop, feeling that it really hadn’t been pushed to its limits in either War Horse or Manhattan. The very first Indian engine that Vic bought was in kit form, and from that experience, he learned that it was easier, more economical and less time-consuming to buy a fully-built engine from the USA that also comes supplied with a year’s warranty. The engine arrived in gloss black, which proved to be a bonus given the hot rod idea that Vic had in mind, and he had the outer cases of a RevTech 6-speed gearbox powder coated to match. Now, even Destiny Cycles doesn’t have a RevTech transmission just casually lying around … well, okay, yes, they did. In taking the Best of Show accolade at the Bulldog Bash Custom Show in 2005 Along with the gearbox cases, Vic also had the engine mounting plate powder coated in black. This latter item was a one-off by Woody, the young man who is increasingly contributing some beautiful and trick touches to Destiny Cycles’ builds (and, who, as you’ll see by the spec sheet, had quite a hand in Jack of Hearts). I should, however, point out that, although those wonderful details are all produced using a mill and a lathe, Woody is also an adept CNC operator – it’s just that he hasn’t got a CNC machine. Nestling on the spine of the frame is a much modified Sportster tank. It’s often easy (and, perhaps, sometimes lazy) to use the term ‘much modified’, but when I saw this tank in its construction stage, I didn’t even recognise it as a Sporty tank, and I’ve seen more of them than I’ve had lukewarm dinners. At that stage it looked like nothing so much as a patchwork of metal. ‘Hmm, that’s an interesting effect,’ I thought, it not having entered my little bear brain that there was still a considerable amount of grinding, filing and The front of the tank was sculptured to encompass a billet aluminium oil tank, made by Woody. Vic had wanted a cylindrical tank similar to those used on hot rods, but its siting gave him a few moments of thought. In the end, after trying it out in various positions, and after much measured and technical discussion, the collected heads of the Destiny Cycles Research and Development Department decided to house it under the fuel tank (actually, to be accurate, Vic said, “Bollocks, we’ll stick it up there!”). The forks are a combination of twelve-inch overstock Harley-Davidson fork tubes with Roland Stocker lowers, while the yokes (with an integral five degrees of rake) are also RST parts, a past autojumble buy which Vic had kept tucked away for a couple of years. Wiring is kept tidily in place by Soncy Kleen Clips from Paul Yaffe, trick little guides that push onto the fork legs so neatly, yet which are ridiculously simple. The handlebars were made in-house, inspiration for their unusual drop-back stance coming from the style of old board-track racers’ bars. Mounted to the bars is switchgear from BDL, while the foot controls are cannibalised Harley parts. Part of the modus operandi for this build was that it was being done to a relatively tight budget, using whatever happened to be in the spares pile. However, there were times when the project ground to a halt for other reasons. My phone rang one morning, and the following conversation ensued: VIC: “I’ve found an English wheel for sale, and it’s just down the road!” VIC: “Oh, I don’t know…”BLUE: “What would Lin say?” Vic rang again that afternoon. There was now an English wheel in his workshop. Fortunately, the new purchase didn’t hold proceedings up too much, which was just as well because, by now, Vic had set himself a deadline of mid-April, intending to take Jack of Hearts to the Paris Kustom Show. The name ‘Jack of Hearts’ emerged as the bike was taking shape. I’d originally assumed that it was a gambling reference, a legacy of Vic and Lin’s trip to Las Vegas two years ago (and one which has definitely influenced his next project, to be unveiled next year). But no. Like Manhattan, the name is taken from a Bob Dylan song. One morning, Dylan’s epic track, ‘Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts’ happened to be playing on the radio, and ‘Jack of Hearts’ just struck Vic as an ideal moniker for the bike. It was that idea that Vic conveyed to Percy Badbrush, along with the instruction that he wanted something simple and understated. This was a calculated risk, as ‘simple’ and ‘understated’ are not words with which Percy has much truck. But he pulled the cat out of the bag – or, rather, the brush out of the paint pot – with a trompe d’oeil playing card and chequers design which, with the pinstriping, fits perfectly with the overall theme. Although handsome even when standing still, Jack of Hearts is one of those bikes that completely changes with a rider aboard. Sat deep into the frame, it looks as if it was made around Vic – which, indeed, it was. Incidentally, it’s one of the most comfortable With Paris approaching, the pressure was on to get Jack finished. A two-into-one exhaust system incorporating a collector was made up using pre-formed bends that were cut and shut and then sleeved together, but the night before the ferry sailed, Vic was still working on fitting the fuel taps (brass Sunbeam taps that he’d found in his toolbox). It was, apparently, an arduous task, although that’s not exactly how Vic described it at the time… Vic hadn’t expected Jack of Hearts to win anything at the Paris Kustom Show. It was always, as he says, going to be a bike for him to use, not a show bike. Paris was simply a useful deadline and, to be honest, an excuse for a bloody good weekend away. In fact, when the show’s compere announced the winner of Runner-Up place in the Modern Chop class, he had to repeat Vic’s name twice before realisation sank in at the Destiny Cycles camp. Since then, Jack of Hearts has proved itself to be just what it’d said on the plans, and, having been out on the road with Vic riding it, I can testify that, in action, it looks and sounds gorgeous. The only concession to road use was the fitting of a fork brace, something that Vic hadn’t originally wanted to do, but which he had to admit was definitely needed. Woody’s skills were called upon again, and now nobody would look at the bike and say, “Great chop. Shame about that fork brace, though…” While there have been times when I’ve quibbled with the results of foreign shows – particularly in regard to British bikes, which so often appear to be invisible to overseas judges – I figure that the guys at Paris Kustom got it spot on with their classification of this bike as a ‘modern chopper’. His Sunbeam aside, Jack of Hearts is probably the most traditional bike that Vic’s built in a long time. At a first, fleeting glance, it may look like a fairly conventional rigid chop, but there are so many deft little touches that make this bike every bit as intricate and detailed as any of its more striking predecessors, and it’s a fresh twist on the increasingly familiar recipe of black paint, red wheels and whitewall tyres. It’s also exactly what Vic set out to build – a useable, rideable chop – and that’s something which makes Jack of Hearts the real ace in the deck. words: BLUE www.destinycycles.co.uk
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person capable of or willing to pilot the machine, but, standing there in the Destiny Cycles’ workshop, I have to say that ‘rideable’ and ‘useable’ were not the first words that sprang to my mind. I really should have known better.
o – to echo the hot rod theme – he appliquéd Maltese Cross details onto the frame tubes, cutting each cross out in metal and welding it on, which would later be picked out with pinstriping at the paint stage.
with War Horse, Lin had won just such a gearbox, which had been donated by Custom Chrome Europe, but she hadn’t yet found a use for it. But, if you think that this would then have been a case of Vic just commandeering the gearbox because it was going spare, you’d be very much mistaken. Vic and Lin might be husband and wife, business partners and as close a team as you’ll ever find, often finishing each other’s sentences, but when it comes to whose custom parts are whose, then all that goes by the board and it’s every hard-nosed man – and woman – for themselves! I have no idea how much negotiation went into the trade of that RevTech gearbox, and it seemed wisest not to ask.
moulding to be done and that Vic didn’t intend the tank to look like a stegosaurus’s hide. It was an interesting effect, though…
motorcycles that he’s built due to its ingenious seat suspension system. I’ve always felt that Vic regards seats as a necessary evil, and one with which he will do away completely once he discovers the secret of levitation. Here, he’s done the next best thing. The seat base sits on the neatest cantilever system I’ve ever seen. Using the fork springs from Manhattan’s springer front end, Vic created two tiny shock absorbers which work so well that he reckons he’s never had such luxury on a chop. The base was covered by Gordon at Buckskin Leathers, his first job for Destiny Cycles. He’s since done four or five more for subsequent builds, which is an indication of how pleased Vic and Lin were with his work, and, looking at the playing card-embossed saddle, you can see why.