A fabulous little cast of strange creatures, big-cube monsters and bit-part oddities from across the decades. I have only ever seen one of these on the road, but the myths, histories and anecdotes, combined with images and museum sightings make them all familiar. The only one I saw being ridden (and only once) was a Hesketh. I had no idea at the time I'd never see another. It was not a bad idea, but was too much of a vanity project to succeed. It had to be perfect at that price to succeed - and it wasn't. It wasn't even close. The market was oddly dormant during the Hesketh gestation - and then exploded shortly afterwards into a funky plethora of niche and sub-niche ..... A solid, stolid, clunky, chain-drive v-twin alone could never sustain a marque. It was no longer 1925. We were on the cusp of Japan bringing us faux Harleys and BMW making a desert express. More choice from a single brand than anyone could imagine... and Hesketh had one model.... a partly-developed prototype whose USP was the snobbery value inherent in a name nobody knew. Later, Buell and (up to a point) Bimota catered much better to the "rare, interesting, weird, expensive" market. One might include Arturo Magni and others across the decades. Hesketh was looking to add a sort of green-wellies social snobbery to motorcycling. Somehow the fantasy of a two-wheeler Bristol had seemed realistic. It wasn't. Another interesting video...
Good comments there Hesketh had the same problem as Triumph during the period No one was interested in investing in motorcycle production. Securing financial investment to develop motorcycles was always difficult even at the height of the industry and by the 80s pretty well impossible. The bike had a great many of niggles it’s true but with sufficient financial investment it would have been fixed easily. Potty the Government didn’t throw some weight behind a Triumph tie up
Ll it wouldn’t be that unusual to be honest BMWs 4V boxers use a single chain and aren’t especially noisy Tests of the v1000 do mention engine clatter but this is usually attributed to the valve gear itself rather then the chain and I don’t believe it gave any problems, unlike so many other components on the bike
A relative modern V twin with surprising features is the Yamaha Road Star Warrior. Is it a cruiser or a road rocket? Would love to see a review of that bike which ran here in Oz from 2003 to 2007.
I love your 5 More Bikes series. So many cool bikes I have never seen before 👍
Thank you
Much appreciated
1st for once another cool vid👍loves these mostly underrated Brit 1000s.hi from New Zealand 🇳🇿
Glad you enjoyed it
Love this! 🆒😎🤘!
Cool thanks 🙏
The Hesketh, was a beautiful looking bike by any standards................
It was
Jested needed proper development
Absolutely...............@@bikerdood1100
Nice to see the AJS. My mate had one. Used to ride it like he stole it, and smashed it up on more than one occasion!
Tut tut 😂
The Hesketh was a turd in tinsel.
Thank you for your expert opinion 😂😂😂😂
I remember the launch of the Hesketh, out of my league 😢
Out of most people’s
That was the problem
That model X would make a good chop 👹
Hold you tongue
Some people 😂
Great history and presentation. Thanks a lot for the video.
Glad you enjoyed it
As usual brilliantly presented and researched. Best biker videos on youtube. Well done Biker Dude keep them coming. Many thanks.
Thanks
Much appreciated
A fabulous little cast of strange creatures, big-cube monsters and bit-part oddities from across the decades.
I have only ever seen one of these on the road, but the myths, histories and anecdotes, combined with images and museum sightings make them all familiar.
The only one I saw being ridden (and only once) was a Hesketh. I had no idea at the time I'd never see another.
It was not a bad idea, but was too much of a vanity project to succeed. It had to be perfect at that price to succeed - and it wasn't. It wasn't even close.
The market was oddly dormant during the Hesketh gestation - and then exploded shortly afterwards into a funky plethora of niche and sub-niche ..... A solid, stolid, clunky, chain-drive v-twin alone could never sustain a marque. It was no longer 1925.
We were on the cusp of Japan bringing us faux Harleys and BMW making a desert express.
More choice from a single brand than anyone could imagine... and Hesketh had one model.... a partly-developed prototype whose USP was the snobbery value inherent in a name nobody knew.
Later, Buell and (up to a point) Bimota catered much better to the "rare, interesting, weird, expensive" market. One might include Arturo Magni and others across the decades.
Hesketh was looking to add a sort of green-wellies social snobbery to motorcycling. Somehow the fantasy of a two-wheeler Bristol had seemed realistic. It wasn't.
Another interesting video...
Good comments there
Hesketh had the same problem as Triumph during the period
No one was interested in investing in motorcycle production. Securing financial investment to develop motorcycles was always difficult even at the height of the industry and by the 80s pretty well impossible.
The bike had a great many of niggles it’s true but with sufficient financial investment it would have been fixed easily.
Potty the Government didn’t throw some weight behind a Triumph tie up
It's a great looking machine, though!
Is it true that the Hesketh V twin DOHC engine used one single cam chain. Must have been a hell of a length and noisy as blazes !
Ll it wouldn’t be that unusual to be honest BMWs 4V boxers use a single chain and aren’t especially noisy
Tests of the v1000 do mention engine clatter but this is usually attributed to the valve gear itself rather then the chain and I don’t believe it gave any problems, unlike so many other components on the bike
A relative modern V twin with surprising features is the Yamaha Road Star Warrior. Is it a cruiser or a road rocket? Would love to see a review of that bike which ran here in Oz from 2003 to 2007.
Love the name very mad max
I was hoping that you would include the 1000cc Royal Enfield K model from the 1930s.😢
Maybe next time
A lot of 1000cc. v twins of that type back then
How about oddballs, velo LE, Douglas Dragonfly et al.
It’s definitely an interesting idea 💡