For a relatively small and sparsely populated country Scotland has produced an inordinate number of ingenious inventions. Perhaps, in a country blessed with the highest rainfall in Europe, it’s unsurprising that people spend a lot of time in the workshop at the bottom of the garden; that combination of Caledonian climate and garden shed has produced the Thermos flask, the vacuum cleaner (rather disappointingly invented by a Herbert Booth and not Herbert Vacuum), the decimal point, the steam engine, gas lighting and penicillin. After all, you have to admire the imagination of a race that can take sheep offal, stuff it back into a sheep’s stomach with some oatmeal and turn it into a national dish. Now that really is making your own entertainment.
One of the most lauded and innovative custom motorcycles of 2002 (or any other year for that matter) hails from north of Hadrian’s Wall and demonstrates that country’s talent for originality. Charlie’s Twin Cam chop would not have been possible without Scottish inventions like the telephone and the tarmac road, and bikers this island over should be grateful to Charles Macintosh for waterproofs. But this direct heritage goes further. Sir William Fairbairn, born and bred in Kelso, developed the idea of using tubular steel as a construction material rather than traditional solid steel. Admittedly, back in the mid-nineteenth century, Sir William envisaged his idea being used – as it was – in building bridges, but I like to think that he would thoroughly approve of his idea having evolved into manic motorcycle frames.
You may well have come across Charlie Beaton at custom shows, and one of the first things people learn about Charlie is that he rides his bikes. Everywhere. I remember him turning up at the first Bulldog Bash Custom Show on a radical hardtail chop, picking up a trophy and then heading straight off to Freewheels in France with nary more than a toothbrush and a change of socks.
Charlie started off with Japanese bikes, all with two things in common – they were all chops and they were all rigid chops. Then, at the age of 27, he acquired his first Harley, an 883 hardtail chop that he bought from his brother-in-law, and was instantly hooked. Although he loved the bike Charlie refused to keep it for the principled reason that he didn’t build it himself. Before the question of ‘strip it or sell it’ arose, his pal, Taz, came up with the right money to enable him to ride off on it and for Charlie to take a trip down to the Midlands to buy an unfinished project. The project was a rigid chop although Charlie ended up junking everything except the frame and the 1340 Evo engine. Six months later the project was finished and on the road. In his own words, ‘Basically every year I’ve tried to better the previous yin’.
Over the next few years Charlie produced a number of proper choppers, inspired by a combination of Dave Mann and Swedish styling; Harley-powered, apehanger bars, 120-spoke wheels and in-yer-face paint jobs. His Prodigy chopper, in the hands of Iain, is still attracting attention and prizes – including Best Chop at this year’s Bulldog Bash.
Having found a style that worked for him, one which was road-proven and which also found favour with show judges (although that’s incidental and not the reason for being), Charlie might have continued producing radical Swedish-style machines had it not been for a chance meeting with a certain Mr Victor Jefford of Destiny Cycles in the parish of Kirkbymoorside in North Yorkshire. Despite both living in the northern reaches of this island, Messrs Beaton and Jefford ran across each other in the sunnier climes of Spain at the Sestao Bike Show last year.
Vic’s low white GSX-R, with its impossibly chunky frame, was very different in styling to Charlie’s bikes, but he says ‘As soon as I saw his bike I knew Vic was winning Best Of Show, and then after looking over it I knew I needed to build something totally different... Vic turned out to be on exactly the same wavelength as me – either with or without the drink!’
Much impressed with both Vic’s skills and originality, Charlie had barely set foot back in Scotland before he turned round and ended up on Vic and Lin’s doorstep with a head full of ideas and a bag full of cheese. Anyone who spends any time with Vic is eventually initiated into the Destiny Cycles World Of Cheese. Like all decent people, Vic is a cheesehound and a devoted disciple of the splendid dairy product. Although eating cheese late at night is supposed to give a body nightmares, at Destiny Mansions Vic has discovered that a bedtime snack of finest Cheddar results in dreams of bizarre motorcycle designs. A development technique which has, up until now, been a closely guarded secret in the Masonic world of custom bike builders, this explains the regular deliveries of Monterey Jack to Arlen Ness’s house.
So, after ensuring the Destiny Cycles’ fridge was fully stocked, Charlie explained the frame he wanted. It would be - unsurprisingly – a rigid frame with lots of rake (48° to be precise) and a Walz Hardcore Cycles inspired seating position, the seat rails swooping downwards to run along the top of the gearbox. Finally, instead of worrying about a mudguard, Charlie wanted the rear end kicked up, streetfighter-style. It would be something new, a departure from all traditional forms of chop styling. Being so radically different, it took the most time to design, and Vic, Lin and Charlie spent four hours going round and round in circles trying to get it right. Charlie credits Lin with an excellent design eye, and says that she was first to grasp the idea of the rear end.
By the time Charlie next saw the frame it looked just as he wanted; so he then explained how he wanted the exhaust system and the carb bellmouth to look, having come prepared with a large block of cheese. Obviously it was a large block of haggis-flavoured extra mature Scottish cheese because both items were spot on. Charlie adds ‘If God rides a Harley, then he’s Vic Jefford in disguise!’ But probably with less cheese and a longer beard.
While Vic was getting on with the frame Charlie turned his attention to the engine. A motorcycle with this sort of radical frame had to have something worth framing, and he chose a Harley 1450 Twin Cam to fill the gap, mated to a 6-speed gearbox by a Kenny Boyce 4” open belt drive kit. Then there were the wheels. Despite the
painstaking detailing on a blatantly radical bike, the wheels are what attract attention and what people remember. It’s easy, at a casual glance, to think that they are simply solid mirror-polished centres, but a second look will have most people rooted to the spot. These wheels are glass. Bulletproof glass. For those of you lucky enough not to have to worry about bulletproof materials, this glass is actually a laminate rather than just glass. Polycarbonate material is sandwiched with pieces of ordinary glass using the same principle as a laminated windscreen but with many more layers. My major concern was that bullet-resistant glass is designed to absorb the sharp concentrated impact of a round rather than the low-grade but constant stress of road use, but over three thousand miles later the wheels have proved to be perfect. Not only that, but they give the bike the ethereal, uncanny impression of being suspended in mid-air. Charlie is cagey over exactly how the wheels were made, although he will say that one of the biggest problems was getting hold of a piece of glass at a reasonable price. Eventually a local firm sold him an offcut of bulletproof glass, which was machined up into wheels to fit a rear Avon 250 tyre and a 160 front, (incidentally, the pneumatic tyre was invented by John Boyd Dunlop and patented by Robert Thomson – both of them Scots).
The wide curvaceous tank was designed to echo the lines of Vic’s frame, and you may not be surprised to learn that it’s the work of John Williams of The Tank Shop in Dumfries who seamlessly integrated the oil tank and the Dakota Digital speedo into the tank. At thirty-two inches long, it holds four gallons of fuel and Charlie’s verdict? ‘All I can say is that every custom bike I build from now on will have a tank made by John Williams’. That’s about as good a recommendation as you can get!
Much of the one-off engineering, such as the wideglides and the sidemounted numberplate, was done by precision engineer, Neill in Selkirk, who has worked on Charlie’s previous projects. Neill was also responsible for the trick little parts, like the handlebar and engine mount dice. Those wideglide yokes mate perfectly with the 12” over Harley forks. with John McKean shrouds, while the ludicrously wide bars are courtesy of Swona, another Scottish company; for all you Sassenachs, Swona is an uninhabited Orkney island south of Scapa Flow where much of the German High Seas fleet was scuttled in 1919. Following the Bikini Atoll H-bomb explosions in 1954, the Scapa Flow wrecks are one of the very few sources of radiation-free steel in the world. Consequently metal from the German wrecks has been salvaged to use in precision scientific instruments and was even used in the moon landing in 1969, another example of Scotland making her mark on the world - and beyond.
The final touch was the paintjob which was completed in just three weeks by Mick in Durham and echoes Neill’s hot-rod styling details while on the flipped-up rear end is a little heart framing the name ‘Millie’ with a kiss. When I first saw this I (quite logically I felt) assumed that Charlie had dedicated his bike to Vic and Lin’s cat. I have previously expounded my theory – admittedly to a sceptical audience – that their cat, Millie, is actually the powerhouse behind Destiny Cycles and does all the hands-on (or rather paws-on) work while Vic is simply the glamorous eye candy of the firm. So, the dedication on Charlie’s bike made perfect sense to me. Well, it was good, but it’s not right. Millie is the nickname of Charlie’s wife and worse still, Charlie is allergic to cats!
But whether there was feline intervention or not, Charlie is delighted with the end result of that chance meeting in Sestao. The bike was finished shortly before the Rock & Blues where, to no-one’s surprise, it romped home with the Best of Show trophy as well as Best Engineering and Best Hot-Rod. Two weeks later the chop was unanimously voted Best Of Show at the Bulldog Bash Custom Show, the first bike to win both of the top shows in the country.
As I mentioned in last month’s issue, there have been those who have doubted that Charlie actually rides the bike but I can assure you that this is a gentleman who takes pride in using his chops. He even refused to bring it to the photoshoot in a van, one occasion when it would have been perfectly acceptable – nay, sensible! – to do so, especially in the middle of a rainy September. Instead Charlie rode 180 miles down to Manchester, and spent an hour jetwashing off the grime! Then he rode it home again, and did 100 miles back down to Stormin’ The Castle the next day... I’ll let Charlie explain his feelings in his own inimitable way: ‘ I’ve been going round Europe for the last five years on rigid chops, so f*ck everyone who thinks it’s trailered. I hate f*cking trailered bikes – what’s the f*cking point?’
Finally, I asked Charlie what would be next, what could top this bike? All he’ll say is that a huge lump of cheese is already on its way to Vic...
WORDS: Blue & Charlie
PICTURES: Yoda
SPEC
ENGINE:
Harley-Davidson 1450 Twin Cam. 6-speed gearbox. Kenny Boyce 4” open belt drive kit. Top engine mount and other bits and bobs supplied by Dave and Angie at Cycle Haven. Engine mount dice by Neill in Selkirk. 42mm Mikuni carb with bellmouth by Destiny Cycles (‘The best bellmouth you could get for a carb’ – Chas).
FRAME:
One-off rigid by Vic Jefford at Destiny Cycles (01751 431900). Moulded by Blotter.
FRONT END:
12” over Harley forks, shrouded by John McKean of Dumfries and Jock Hannah. Wideglide yokes by Neill in Selkirk. 1.5” diameter megawide bars by Swona. Brake calipers and headlight from OMP of Italy. Master cylinders by Technoplus of France . Wheel machined from bulletproof glass supplied by Jim at Hawick. Handlebar grips with dice by Neill. .
REAR END:
Bulletproof glass wheel . 250” Avon tyre. Sidemounted number plate and rear axle caps by Neill. Exhaust system by Destiny Cycles. Rear pulley machined by Gary in Kirkbymoorside.
STUFF:
Tank with integral speedo and oil tank by John Williams at The Tank Shop in Dumfries . Speedo by Dakota Digital Tank moulding by Blotter.
PAINT:
By Mick in Durham.
THANKS TO:
Vic and Lin at Destiny Cycles; John Williams; Nick and Angie at Cycle Haven for the speediest service in England; Wull Dodd; Mick; the one and only Jock Hannah; Davie at Swona; Rab at A&D Engineers; Wee Taz for running me about with bits of the bike all over the country in his van even if it was a white knuckle ride! Cheers to everyone who helped.