Classic: Hesketh V1000

By the late 1970s the once proud British motorcycle industry was in tatters. Norton was dead, and Triumph barely alive, holding on a by a thread. There had been no new large capacity British motorcycle since the Triumph Trident of 1968, but Lord Hesketh decided to change this. Hesketh wanted to create another Brough Superior or Vincent Black Shadow, a truly British high-quality motorcycle. He envisaged a two-wheeled Aston Martin, classy, expensive, and built to last.

Like Ducati, Hesketh decided on a 90 degree V-twin, offering perfect primary balance, excellent cooling, and a low centre of gravity when mounted in a frame with the front cylinder almost horizontal. Displacing 992cc (95 x 70mm), the massive vertically-split sand-cast crankcases contained a one-piece forged crankshaft. The cylinder heads featured four valves per cylinder (set at a Cosworth-like 40 degree included angle), and the double overhead camshafts to each head were driven by chains. The primary drive to the five-speed gearbox was by helical gear, and the lubrication system was by a semi-wet sump type. A pair of Dell'Orto 36mm carburettors fed the cylinders, and each engine was bench tested, with power ranging from 79 to 86 horsepower at 6500rpm.

 Supporting this imposing engine was a frame constructed in Reynolds 531 tubing, long recognised in Britain as the finest frame material, using the engine as a stressed member. Also Ducati-like was the 38mm Marzocchi front fork with Brembo brakes, Marzocchi shock absorbers, but loyalty to Britain saw Honda Comstar-like Astralite wheels, a 19 inch front and 17 inch rear. The rear brake was unusual for the time, with the rear caliper attached to a parallelogram torque arm mounted to the engine. Rolling on a 1511mm wheelbase, and weighing 250kg, the Hesketh was no lithe race-replica, but a luxury grand tourer par excellence. A close look at every component reveals that this was a machine built to last. If you ever managed to wear an engine out eight sizes of piston overbore were available.

Although horrendously expensive, the Hesketh was extremely flawed and early examples troublesome. If there was ever a case of releasing an undeveloped product on an unsuspecting public it was the Hesketh. Fortunately only the Brits suffered because the earliest bikes (like this example here) were for domestic consumption only. Apart from a terrible gearchange, most of the problems stemmed from the lubrication system. When the engine got hot the cylinder would expand more than the camchain case, leading to oil leaks, but more serious was the alarming variation of oil pressure between hot and cold. The high oil pressure when cold blew oil pressure switches to smithereens. Needless to say this did little for the Hesketh's reputation but at least they honoured the warranty, with some early bikes receiving four new engines in an endeavour to overcome recurring problems. But when it was running, the Hesketh was an admirable motorcycle, a traditional large capacity V-twin offering secure and stable handling. It was just that only a few could enjoy it.

By the time all the problems were ironed out, with the EN10 (Easton Neston first) updates, the Hesketh was an anachronism. A general downturn in motorcycle sales in the early 1980s, combined with spiralling costs, saw the market for expensive, hand-built, classic motorcycles disappear. Although it has continued to be produced in limited numbers over the past twenty years, the Hesketh remains a legacy of the British motorcycle industry of the late 1970s. Bright ideas and sound engineering, compromised by mismanagement, a lack of finance, and underdevelopment.

Five lordly things you need to know about the Hesketh