Hesketh 24

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST PRODUCTION V-twin is ticking over and sound waves crash over houses, shops and passers-by. The din is extraordinary. Old ladies and children are washed down the street by the noise, car alarms squawk, police helicopters are scrambled.

OK, the last bit only happened in my head, but this Hesketh prototype is still bloody loud. Each cylinder of the S&S motor sucks in 1150cc of fuel and air, and the resulting explosion is like a mortar going off, the twin underseat pipes doing nothing to calm matters because the baffles have been removed. From the handstitched leather saddle it sounds fantastic, with the menacing off-beat cacophony of a top-fuel dragster.

And then there’s the physical sensation of sitting on top of two 4.5in diameter pistons thudding up and down, turning a crank that weighs as much as a small safe. The whole bike shakes, with the poor old clock binnacle bouncing about madly. If you rev the bike on the side-stand it moves backwards with the power of vibration alone. In fact, vibration is too small a word for what’s happening you might mistakenly think I was referring to an annoying tingle that makes your fingers go numb at 5000rpm. It’s more of an earthquake. Only later does photographer Jason work out why none of the shots are sharp the entire bike is moving up and down so much it blurs the image.

Given all this drama, what happens next is a surprise. When I let out the admittedly very heavy clutch, the Hesketh 24 the number referring to James Hunt’s 1975 Hesketh F1 car  heads off smoothly, obediently trickling through traffic without a splutter. Despite being almost twice the capacity of my old Monster 1100S, and being built in a Surrey lock-up by five blokes with no manufacturing experience, the Hesketh’s motor is much easier to ride slowly than my Ducati’s. The fuelling is well-nigh spot on and the drive feels smooth relative to the jackhammer antics at idle. And obviously it never stalls I suspect you would have to crash into quite a large building for this to occur.

The low speed civility is all the more impressive considering the Hesketh prototype I’m riding was nothing but a drawing this time last year. By then the owner of Hesketh, Paul Sleeman finally found a motor after years of searching and sketched how the bike should look.

‘The engine was always our problem,’ says Paul. ‘I wanted to buy British, but I couldn’t find one. Then we came close to a deal with a French company who made the Voxan engines, but they wanted £500,000 up front so it was a waste of time. Then we stumbled across the S&S. What sealed the decision was Morgan (the car maker) using it. They’re a very British company and no one has really questioned them. It’s been the same with us most people are just glad to see Hesketh back in business.’

With the engine sorted, Paul set about solving the two main problems using such a massive V-twin creates. Firstly, the engine is so big there’s barely any room on top for a fuel tank. ‘That’s why the Triumph Rocket’s tank looks so vast,’ says Paul. ‘We didn’t want that, but we still needed a 19 litre tank, so we tried to be smart. We ended up with three parts to the tank which goes all the way down behind the engine, and the oil tank’s in the swingarm.’

Then there’s the engine’s earthquakegenerating abilities. ‘I took a lot of advice on these big twins and everyone said the same thing: the vibration breaks things. I didn’t want frames breaking so I got one made in the States by Racing Innovations who specialize in drag frames for S&S-engined bikes. They’ll make the production frames too.’

You can understand Paul’s paranoia about things breaking; the original Heskeths built in the early 1980s had a well-earned reputation for leaking oil and conking out. Their fondness for leaving owners by roadsides was one of the key factors in the company’s demise, which is a shame, because the bikes were not without merit they were the first Brit bikes with four valves per cylinder and double overhead cams, for example. But that wasn’t enough. ‘The original Hesketh was a mechanical failure,’ says Paul. ‘The product just wasn’t very good so we wanted something that wasn't going to break and that owners could have faith in. All our bikes come with a two year warranty.’

Back on the road, I’m becoming aware they also come with no small amount of attitude. The Öhlins suspension front and rear is set racetrack firm, the reach to the bars puts plenty of weight on your wrists and pegs are positioned six-inches further back than you might expect. It's a curiously aggressive riding position for any naked bike, never mind one powered by an air-cooled, pushrod cruiser engine.

At low speeds the riding position forces you to keep your arms straight to support your torso, and with straight arms it’s not easy to overcome the steering damper’s grip on the bars when you want to go round a corner. It means that although the engine is a low speed darling, the steering is clumsy and tiring until you’ve got enough speed to take the weight off your wrists. Still, I don’t suppose many will be bought to tackle the daily urban commute.

Out of town, things improve dramatically. The bike’s geometry was copied from the Suzuki Hayabusa, and with the addition of carbon wheels to reduce the unsprung weight, it steers sweetly enough considering its considerable length and mass. Obviously it’s no supersport 600 what with the engine weighing 75kg and with the prototype’s hefty steel swingarm but it feels lively enough to be a laugh down a country lane once you’ve wound off some compression damping, or perhaps even specified some softer springs.

The torque is of course boundless. With a big bore kit and fettling from Harris, the American S&S X-Wedge is claimed to make around 145 lb.ft of the stuff, along with a none too shabby 125hp. On the road this translates into effortless overtakes and, once you’re in top, there’s no need to change down until you’re stopped by a policeman with a decibel meter.

As you’d imagine, acceleration is hilariously strong and because of the canted-forward riding position it’s easy to thunder up to motorway speeds without noticing, at which point the 24 will burble away at about 3000 rpm that’s a guess, because despite there being a Stack speedo, clock, voltmeter and oil pressure gauge on the carbon fibre dash, there’s no rev counter. The gargantuan spread of torque means you don’t actually need one, but I missed it I wanted to feel smug about cruising at 80mph barely above tickover.

Other gripes are that the gear lever operating the separate Baker gearbox is hidden by the engine cases, so until you get used to its position you have to lean off the bike to see it. Or, as I do, try and change gear with the side stand lug. Also, finding neutral is occasionally difficult, and at one point I have to stand on the pegs to escape the intense heat from the exhausts close the rider’s thighs. Everything else the vibration, riding position and noise I’d chalk up as character.

After pulling back into the Hesketh workshop, I mention my niggles to Paul. ‘Yes, we’re going to make some changes to the production bikes,’ he says. ‘The exhausts will have heat shields, the gear selection will be tuned in a bit better, and we’ll move the bars back and the pegs forward to sit the rider up a bit. We’ll also save about 30kg by making the swingarm from aluminium rather than steel, and fabricating the panels from carbon fibre not glass fibre. The sidestand will be moved forward too so it’s further away from the gear lever.’

If all that happens and I have no reason to doubt it will the Hesketh will be an entertaining bike to ride, whether you’re cruising through town or taking the twisty route down to Goodwood. As to whether it’s worth £35,000, well, that depends on how much value you attach to its individuality (only 24 will be made), its James Hunt-inspired styling and the Hesketh name itself. Paul is quietly confident about sales. ‘We’ve already taken seven deposits, and the first ten bikes will be finished in January,’ he says, before letting slip what’s coming next. ‘We’re going to do a two-seater version. With a turbo. Why not? You can never have enough grunt, and with the turbo it will make 250 lb.ft of torque and just under 200bhp. I think Lord Hesketh would approve.’