hesketh 24
THE RISE OF THE BOUTIQUE BIKE BUILDER CONTINUES UNABATED, AND THE UNVEILING OF THE NEW HESKETH 24 PROVES THAT THE BRITISH CAN GET IN ON THE ACT TOO.
Remember Hesketh? If you’ve seen the James Hunt film Rush then the name will be familiar, but there are also those of us of a certain age that will remember the next act of the racing car company – it went on to produce bikes, in the form of the V1000 and Vampire. They never sold well, but one caught the imagination of a bike nut called Paul Sleeman as it was parked up at a pub one day.
Paul liked the bike, made enquiries and ended up buying the company – as you do. The idea was to resurrection the brand, produce a new bike and sate the world’s appetite for bespoke bikes with a British twist – and the result is this, the Hesketh 24.
This was no small undertaking. Designed from the ground up, anything was on the table. Sleeman talked to the likes of Cosworth and Ilmor to develop a new engine, but settled on an air cooled 1,950cc S&S X-wedge engine (as used in the likes of Confederates and Morgans) to power the new bike, and married it to a Baker gearbox (that uses a Cadillac’s ‘King Kong’ clutch). The motor was then given to drag racing specialists Harris Performance Engines (nothing to do with Harris Performance) to extract the lump’s full 125bhp potential. But this engine is all about arm wrenching torque – at 3,000rpm it gives you 196Nm to play with. Hesketh will also offer stage tuning options for buyers that will see capacity ultimately engorged to 2,300cc.
The motor dictated how much of the rest of the bike looked. The frame is also built in the US, by Racing Innovations. Clever design sees things like the main oil tank located in the swingarm, with the bike’s 19 litres of fuel fitted all over the shop – half under the tank cover and the rest below.
Ancillaries are sourced from the usual suspects. Öhlins provide the suspension in the form of Road and Track forks and shock – all fully adjustable. French firm Beringer donate the chunky Aerotech radial mount brakes and a pair of carbon fibre BST wheels adorn either end, creating a bike with a 1,550mm wheelbase. A Stack dash and keyless ignition are trick additions to the spec list, and bring the final price of the Hesketh 24 to £35,000.
Sleeman and his group of backers has ploughed around £800,000 into the project, so efforts to recoup this money start with the first batch of bikes – the 24 will be limited to just 24 bikes. After this a two-seater will be developed. “Who wants to buy a cheap Hesketh anyway,” says Sleeman, and he’s got a point. The world’s flush want exclusive objects, and this is exactly what’s being created here. Sleeman is friends with Tommy Hill, and not only has he worked on the Hesketh graphic (Hill runs his own design company post racing), but he’ll also going to ride it and offer a testing critique.
I’m not sure how Sleeman will take any criticism because the 24 is, “A thug of a bike, built for me, so sod the rest of you.” He’s joking, of course, but his pride in this project is immense – and rightly so. Sleeman has resurrected a dying marque, built a bike from scratch in exactly the way he wanted, and he is employing five staff full time to fulfil his dream. Bikes should soon be leaving the Redhill unit at the rate of one a week.
We get a shot on it next month, and can’t wait to experience this British brute...