 |
||||
|
||||
HEAVENS ABOVE They say that, behind every great man is a woman, usually rolling her eyes. In the custom world, as in most other areas – apart from, possibly the Vatican – it’s the backing of a wife or girlfriend that helps many blokes achieve success. It’s not a sexist comment, that’s just the way it is. However, frequently that help goes unrecognised by a wider audience, although there is the odd notable exception – most people I know always think of Nick and Angie at Cycle Haven as a single entity, for example, while Vic Jefford at Destiny Cycles’ name is rarely mentioned without the appellation of his wife, Lin. So it seemed fitting that, when they both unveiled new bikes, the chops and the couple should feature in the same article. It’s particularly appropriate as, although Vic and Lin have obviously had other bikes simultaneously, this is the first pair of matched motorcycles that they’ve had. That’s ‘matched’ as in complementary, rather than ‘matching’ as in identical. Hours of watching ‘Bargain Hunt’ are educational, you know. However, when both builds commenced, that wasn’t the intention… For a while, Vic and Lin had wanted a couple of bikes for high days, holidays and just generally days out. While they might have bought a couple of standard road bikes, or replaced Vic’s X1 Lightning that had been cannibalised to build the BSH Buell, the problem lies in that stock does not scream Destiny Cycles and, as with most custom builders, whatever they ride inevitably becomes a rolling advertisement for the business. A certain fervent proponent of rigid chops may still remember the mirth with which he was greeted when arriving at a show on a nicely comfy Road King. By me, anyway. While Vic’s taste ran to a high-necked chopper, Lin was less certain as to what she wanted in a new bike, and so the matter was, as far as she was concerned, put on hold. Her husband had other ideas. In order to generate some capital – and, moreover, to be able to plough into a new project Vic decided to build a little bike to sell. The choice of a Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster was relatively obvious; as the baby of the MoCo range, the 883 is frequently maligned with the damning epithet of ‘girl’s bike’, generally by those people who haven’t ridden one or have warranted insecurities in the area of their gentlemen’s private regions. The truth is that the 53.9 cubic-inch V-twin is a cracking engine, responsive, tuneable and, above all, due to that unfair perception of being little more than a Big Twin starter bike, plentiful and cheap. Transplanted into a custom bike, a Sportster engine will also always add more value to that motorcycle than the choice of a Japanese lump. Sad but true, folks, and it’s no good writing to me in green crayon about it. Vic and Lin found an 883 Sportster on eBay; it was only down the road from them in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and had been owned by the seller for just a year. The order of the day was to produce a pretty, minimal bobbery-stylee chop without too much outlay, and which would produce a swift influx of cash to finance another project. So far, so good. So, wondered Lin, why was Vic asking her opinion on every single step of the build? The hardtailing of the stock twin downtube Sportster frame went without saying or discussion. I’m sure that Lin must have had a motorcycle with rear suspension at some point, but I disremember when that might have been. Denuding the barrels of their lower three fins is also an established Destiny trademark so that Vic should chose to modify the engine in this way caused no curiosity. But then he began questioning his wife about each aspect of the build. “To be honest,” says Lin, “I was starting to get a bit pissed off when he constantly asked my opinion. After all, he’s built the odd bike in his time and this was a fairly simple project, so I couldn’t understand why he kept asking what I liked and what bits I wanted to use.” But what Lin didn’t know was that, almost from the point that he first laid a grinder on the frame, Vic intended this to be her bike. The only point on which he was insistent was that both the cast Sportster 9-spoke wheels should be clad in chunky whitewall tyres in keeping with a notional bobber theme. There were also certain constraints due to the budget requiring as many of the original parts to be used as possible – or, rather, what Vic could bring himself to keep! A wideglide front end was fitted, with chromed yokes and two-inch under fork tubes teamed with the stock lower legs. Virtually every Destiny bike has had handlebars fabricated in-house, but in this case the Biltwell ‘Keystone’ handlebars were Lin’s choice, along with a set of risers from the same source. This caused a roll of the eyes, this time from Mr Jefford, as he’d just expended some not inconsiderable time and energy in polishing the original factory parts. By now, it was beginning to dawn on Lin that this bike was intended for her, and not the open market. So, after the frame and wheels had been powder coated in red and Old English white respectively, she was despatched to KLK Kustom Paintwerx with the tank, frame, oil tank and mudguard. She briefed painter, Andy, on her choice of theme and colour scheme. It should be said that Vic hadn’t actually expressed any opinion on the paint… “I’m not sure where the ‘Stardust’ idea came from,” says Lin, “I think I plucked it out of thin air, although it may have been influenced by a nice picture of a nautical star that we’d seen in a tattoo book. Anyway, I told Andy to call the bike Stardust, and to scatter stars over it. Glittery stars. But when I got back to the workshop and told Vic, he looked at me horror-struck and put his head in his hands. ‘Tell me you haven’t,’ he said. But I had, and he agreed that it works – eventually!” To match the wheels, Andy painted white panels on either side of the fuel tank and the mudguard. Then he used the nautical star motif as a starting point, using it on the ends of the Destiny Cycles oil tank, the rear mudguard and the petrol tank, as well as – if you look closely – on the front downtubes. Complementing those designs is a swathe of black, white and gold stars, and the paintwork is lacquered over with red and gold spindrift metalflake. I have no clue as to how many stars adorn this Sportster (I thought of asking Vic and Lin but could imagine all too well the withering ‘Are you simple?’ look I might get if I asked them to count them), but there was one particular pointy item about which Vic was unsure. “He was mortified,” says Lin. “I saw it in the V-Twin Manufacturing catalogue and I had to have it. Vic was horrified!” The object of his dismay? The star-shaped taillight. Admittedly, on most other bikes it might have seemed a little gimmicky, but I have to agree with Lin that, in this particular scenario, it works. It’s also produced by old-time custom parts company, Wyatt Gatling, and – if it’s any consolation to Vic – I’ve seen the taillights section of the V-Twin Manufacturing catalogue and Stardust got off lightly, because there are some truly awful lights in there. Yes, there are some pretty cool ones, too, but the horrid ones are really, really horrid. Anyway, Vic and the third member of the Destiny team, the perpetually youthful Woody, capitulated to the inevitable and threw themselves into the celestial theme; Vic designed the shooting star carb breather and Woody machined it into life. Final touches were to fit the star-embossed seat, add a chrome visor to the headlight, add old school white grips and then take it on its maiden run, which was to the Farmyard Party, where Stardust promptly won Best of Show in the custom show. Well, it might not have been the very first outing, but as close as damn it. She reports that it’s lovely to ride, and calmly does everything required of it with the minimum of fuss. In the meantime, while Mrs J was out gallivanting about and winning things, Vic was still working away on the companion piece, which soon gained the name of ‘Moonshine’. Once Lin had realised that, to her surprise, she had a new bike, she felt it only fair that she help Vic out with his own plans. To this end, she bought him a 1200cc Sportster engine – or, to be strictly precise, she bought a complete bike from Barnaby Wilde in Devon. The motor was removed and the rolling chassis sold to recoup some of the purchase price. Vic then started on the frame. Unusually, this wasn’t a chassis purpose-built for this particular project, as is the case with the vast majority of Destiny builds. It had started life as a stock component owned by his friend, Shov, and which Vic had modified, the result being a high-necked chopper frame. Shov admired it, took it away and used it as a novelty clothes horse in his bedroom for a while. I should point out that this wasn’t the original intention for said frame. At the time, Shov had several projects on the go, and he wanted to focus his time, energy and, equally as importantly, money on his latest bike, ‘No Quarter’ (which is, incidentally, now just about finished). So he swapped some of Vic’s time for the clothes horse; the former was invested in creating a frame for No Quarter, the latter became the carcass of Moonshine. As with Stardust, the V-twin engine was kept in almost stock form; the barrels were polished, the timing/drive chain cover modified, a remote breather filter and a round aftermarket air filter fitted, while the high level two-into-two exhaust system with turned-out ends echoes that of the smaller Sporty, albeit with an added cheeky curve. While there are obvious similarities between the two bikes, Moonshine is the grown-up big brother of Stardust, which is probably just as well, as Vic points out that the red and cream Sportster is much too compact for him (I hesitate to use that phrase, ‘girl’s bike’, but Lin herself describes it as ‘small and feisty’). Things took a more radical direction with a pair of sixteen-inch over forks and a nineteen-inch Harley wheel which, combined with the high-necked frame, means that Moonshine is a considerable bigger motorcycle in all directions. Vic retained the Harley disc, but mated it with an RST brake caliper and braided lines which are attached to the fork legs with V-Twin Manufacturing Kwik-Klip, neat Soncy-style half clamps. The powder coated thirteen-spoke cast wheel was then shoed with Avon Speedmaster rubber. The shape of the frame and the restrained detailing of items like the round air cleaner and the elegant pipes were already lending a certain modernist look to the chopper which was reminiscent of the Art Deco movement. That feel was augmented by a stretched Pro-Image fuel tank with indented sides, although Vic modified it with a kicked up end so that the tank appears to be floating on the top tube, rather than sloping flush to the seat. The seat is a one-off solo base by Destiny Cycles, but covered by Sid at Caer Urfa Leather. Now, I will admit that Caer Urfa was a new name to me, but I suggest that you visit the company’s website and take a look at some of the custom motorcycle seats that Sid has produced. In my opinion, his work ranks with the best custom motorcycle leather workers and carvers that the American scene is currently producing. It’s that good. The seat hovers above a one-off mudguard which curves up at the end to echo the flare on the tank, while the overall motif extends down to the axle end plates with their three-dimensional five-pointed stars. Above the number plate is a neat bullet-shaped taillight. Vic couldn’t be persuaded to use a star rear lamp. In fact, I suspect he would sooner have eaten his own leg with no seasoning or sauce than to have fitted such a thing. Now, there had been something vaguely troubling me when I looked at Moonshine. Why was it that a man who had been so dismayed when his wife had told him of the plans for Stardust’s livery then had his own motorcycle covered in stars. Being an intrepid investigative journalist – and also 200 miles away at the time – I asked that very question. “Because I didn’t have much choice in the matter!” was the reply. Yes, he’d allowed Lin take the bodywork over to Andy… The finished paintwork has the unnerving effect of being subtle and in-your-face at the same time. The abstract astral design is offset by pinstriping and by ‘Mooneyes’, er, moon eyes. After all, there’s usually a little hot rod reference somewhere in a Destiny Cycles build, and this one is no exception. While Moonshine is at first glance a ‘tricker’ motorcycle than Stardust, both bikes share the common factor that neither boast anything that isn’t strictly necessary. They’re also object lessons in how a Sportster engine can be an ideal basis for a project. Big Twins and mega cubic-inched motors are all very well, but – as has been said many times before – how much power do you really need on a rigid chop, particularly on the roads of this fair isle? And the way that the Jeffords threw both bikes around on the day of our photoshoot was certainly a stellar performance. words: BLUE
Thank you to the National Trust for the use of the photo shoot location at Rievaulx Terrace and Temples, North Yorkshire. STARDUST ENGINE: FRAME: FRONT END: REAR END: MISCELLANEOUS: PAINT and FINISH: MOONSHINE ENGINE: FRAME: FRONT END: REAR END: MISCELLANEOUS: PAINT and FINISH: |
||||
|
||||
