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Words and Pictures Reproduced with the kind permission of Blue & Simon Everett..Back Street Heroes |
In the great and mystifying scheme of things, the acquisition of a custom bike normally goes something like this: select a style you like – chopper, streetfighter, lowrider, hardtail, softail, dog-with-two-tails – and then build it or have it built, or buy something someone else has built, and Bob's your uncle. Your choice is usually based on a number of things such as your personal taste, height, bank balance, life expectancy, etc, and quite often people will come to identify you with your chosen style. Having known Lin Scarth for several years, I've grown to associate her with the sort of rowdy, quick motorcycle that’ll frighten small children and make hat-wearing drivers write indignant letters to their local newspapers. Admittedly this impression was based mainly upon Lin's last bike, a low, green chop with a GSX1100EFE engine boasting a |
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1260 Cosworth conversion which was indeed quick. Very quick. Having tried to keep up with her I can confirm that Lin took no prisoners on it (which is just as well as they would have had nowhere to sit). So, when I saw the 'Miss Liberty' bike in its half-built stage I refused to believe it was for Lin. It had high bars. And a raked front end. And forward controls. And, most disconcertingly of all, it had a Harley engine. It was bewildering and disturbing, a disruption of the laws of nature. It was like being told that Father Christmas doesn't exist and that Bob down the road isn't exactly your uncle but a very close friend of your mum's. What was even more baffling was that it wasn't the sort of bike that Lin had really wanted, either. Like Lin, I had assumed that the next new bike I would see her on would be the culmination of an ongoing and covert operation in the shed involving a Suzuki RD, a motorcycle that should be classified under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act. Then, a couple of years ago, Lin's significantly sillier other, Vic Jefford, decided to go into business as Destiny Cycles and there wasn't a spare moment in the day or penny in the piggybank to build Lin a new bike. But with the GSX still running sweetly and annoying all of those cap-wearing car drivers in North Yorkshire, this didn't present a huge problem at the time. |
However, being a lady endowed with a good amount of business sense, Lin realised that, as Destiny Cycles became established, people would associate the bikes she and Vic rode with the company name, and that they would judge Vic's craftsmanship accordingly. It also became increasingly obvious that, whether we like it or not, many of Destiny Cycles' potential customers would choose Harley-Davidson for their means of locomotion. With whatever they were riding acting as rolling advertisements for Vic's work, Vic and Lin both decided that their next projects would have to be Harleys. This was a bit of a double whammy for me as I'd never imagined Vic with a Harley either – when I first met him he had a beautiful GSX trike with a goosenecked frame and tall sissy bar, followed by the Rock & Blues 2000-winning Triumph with a rear tyre so wide it did away with the need for a sidestand, and then the chunky-framed Gixer that featured on the cover of a past BSH. Despite the diversity of those three machines I'd just never considered that the vee bug would get them in the end… |
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Lin blames Logie. While Vic was building Predator (BSH 235) Logie made frequent trips from Scotland to Vic's workshop on the North Yorkshire moors to see how work was progressing, make suggestions for the design, and generally lead Vic and Lin into bad ways. As seems to happens with most Destiny Cycles' clients, Logie became a friend as well as a customer, which gave him even more opportunity to persuade them what they really, really wanted were Harleys. 'He brainwashed me!" says Lin, although I suspect any attempt to brainwash Lin would take more Persil than the Lever Brothers have ever produced. Vic and Lin decided that, if they were both to succumb to the lure of Milwaukee iron, then the two bikes should be very different in styling. Whether they drew straws or tossed a coin, I don't know (and was too discreet to ask), but while Vic's bike, 'Saracen', is a natural successor to the white GSX-R lowrider, Miss Liberty is unlike anything else Lin has owned. In fact, before Miss Liberty, Lin had only ridden Harleys on a couple of occasions, one of which was a Fat Boy which she found, much to her surprise and despite the forwards, that she rather liked. So, following the purchase of one brand-new Harley-Davidson Twin Cam 88B engine, Vic set to work. You might think that a new engine would be an extravagance, but in this case it was a sensible option for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Vic would know that everything worked (and if it didn't it could go straight back to Willie G under warranty). Had he bought a secondhand engine he would have had to rebuild it to check all of the components and, even if he didn't have to replace a single part, it would still be an expensive exercise. As anyone who works for themselves knows, time is money. Secondly, Vic and Lin like to do at least one foreign show a year, especially after Vic's GSX-R won one of the top prizes at the Sestao Fantasy Bike Show in Spain two years, so they wanted an engine that would be reliable. Vic made the rigid frame in 43mm stainless tubing which is the same diameter tube that formed the chassis of the white GSX-R, although the polished finish gives Miss Liberty's frame a less heavily-set appearance. Heritage Softail forks with 10" overs stretch out the front end, but the first thing most people notice are the beautifully shaped yokes that, separated from the bike, could be mistaken for pieces of art deco sculpture. Lin and Vic designed the shape between them, and then had it machined from billet aluminium by AZ-Tech Billet. Those sinuous lines are mirrored in the front mudguard which, remarkably, started life gracing the front end of a Cossack (and it's not often you see the words 'grace' and Both wheels are one-offs, designed by the Destiny duo, although I believe that the CNC work may have been done somewhere else. Knowing the legendary reputation of Yorkshiremen for frugality though, he may have taken a block of billet home and persuaded Millie the Destiny Cycles Wonder Cat that it was a very shiny biscuit which she eventually gnawed it into shape. If she did she made a fine job of it and you can't see any little catty teethmarks anywhere. Although the engine was new, the gearbox came via a complicated form of Northern bartering. Years ago Lin had a Triumph Spitfire which she had left in the care of an ex. When she finally managed to retrieve the car she found that it had been allowed to deteriorate (so, you could say, her ex had been careless while she was carless… Ahem). Anyway, what remained of the Spitfire was swapped for a Boxford lathe which was probably more reliable and certainly a good deal more attractive than a Triumph Spitfire. During the course of the Miss Liberty project Vic and Lin discovered that they needed a gearbox more than they needed a lathe. Fortuitously, at that time, they found that Charlie had a gearbox but not a lathe, a situation that was soon rectified to the satisfaction of everyone. Other parts were obtained through the usual merry-go-round of swaps, borrows and blags that goes on between friends. Miss Liberty's primaries were originally part of Mick and Helen Clarke's Tribal Vision, while the Ness hydraulic clutch was contributed by Logie, although Logie wasn't aware he'd contributed it until he had – if you see what I mean – which serves him right for getting young Lin into this Harley thing in the first place. As with all Destiny Cycles bikes it's easier and quicker to say what Vic didn't make rather than what he did. There are more unique parts here than at a convention for men with amusingly-shaped willies. Even though – like Lin – it's not a style of bike I would necessarily choose for myself, I've spent a couple of hours going round, over and under the bike and I'm still amazed at the thought and work that has gone into even the smallest and most inconspicuous of areas. Struts and braces that would normally be a simple straight line have been made to curve and twist like the tendrils of a bizarre, silvery exotic plant. Details like the cone-shaped rear wheel centre are echoed elsewhere; a smaller spike surmounts the oil header tank. Vic made an oil tank which fits under the gearbox, but this left a gap which the header tank neatly fills. Despite having made it himself, Vic did try to talk his good lady out of using the exhaust system or, at least modifying the turn-outs. If you look at the ends you'll see that the pipes undulate along the side of the bike before curving out and coming to frond-like ends. Vic hadn't realised just how far the turn-outs would extend, nor how painful it could be when he walked into them. Although the pointed ends are rounded off they can still inflict a nasty nip on the unwary, as both Vic and Derek have found. After putting Miss Liberty in the custom show at this year's Rock & Blues, Lin found that one of the exhaust ends had been bent, so there must have been someone limping around with a hole in their shin that weekend. It is one thing that I suspect Vic would like to change, having the peculiar and unreasonable view that it's not nice to injure people. Me, I'm with Lin when she says that if someone walks into the exhaust pipe then they're too close to the bike… Paintwork is one thing that Destiny Cycles doesn't do in-house (although Vic can draw things quite well on the floor in chalk, and I have the photos to prove it). Besides, having discovered an artist of the incredible calibre and ingenuity of Percy at Bad Brush Designs, Vic is more than happy to hand that side of the work over. It was only at this point of the project that Vic and Lin thought about a theme for the paintwork. Being such a close partnership, they not only discuss everything, but will take an idea from the other and run with it, an example of which was the design of the paint job. This being Lin's first American bike, and in the wake of the 9/11 disaster, Vic suggested a tattered American flag draped over the tank. Lin evolved that idea to include the Statue of Liberty, and the bike had suddenly gained a name. To continue the USA theme, Outback Seating made a seat pad in blue with silver stars. With work so far advanced Lin admits that she did have a few doubts. Although she had seen the bike every day and Vic had tailored it around her, she became convinced that she wouldn't be able to ride it. The Harley is almost as far removed from the GSX as it's possible to be while still having two wheels. The handling, performance, power uptake, seating position and bars were all unfamiliar, but the only glitch on Lin's maiden trip on Miss Liberty was when she stalled the engine because she hadn't realised how light the clutch would be. In fact, Lin gets on with the chop far better than she had thought possible, and has thoroughly enjoyed putting as many miles as possible under the tyres over the last few months. One thing she wasn't prepared for – other than how well it handles and how much she enjoys riding it – was the attention that Miss Liberty gets; Lin reckons she's only made one petrol stop without someone wanting to take a photograph of the Harley. One of those photographers included a 78 year-old gentleman by the name of Bart Kent who now intends to use his pictures at his local camera club back home in Essex! Knowing how ideas can or must alter during the course of a project, I asked Lin a question that I ask every owner; is there anything at all she would change? The answer was an unequivocal 'No, not a thing'. Vic wandered past at that point and I saw him looking at those pointy exhaust ends but, wisely, he said nothing… words: BLUE |
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