21-year-old Ewan Burgess loves old bikes – and his classic mechanic job
The destiny of the classic world is in the hands of youthful enthusiasts like Ewan Burgess – a young man whose zeal for old machines led to a dream job working on British bikes
Ewan Burgess looks like he might have been born in the wrong decade. Standing there tinkering with an old Triumph, the 21 year-old mechanic is dressed in an old, fraying waxed jacket with sewn-on BSA patches. There’s the ubiquitous flat cap, jeans with turn-ups and desert boots that were de riguer in the 1950s and ’60s...
But this is not some kind of ‘hipster’ fashion, donned for a photo shoot. This is Ewan’s everyday style, something that developed from his early teenage years. “I’ve always been into working on old vehicles,” he says. “At college I studied agricultural engineering, so I was working on farm machinery. My step dad had a BSA 441 Victor GP ’crosser which he built. He also had a Greeves scrambler. I was seven when my step dad came into my life, so he’s had quite an influence on me. He’s also into old cars and had a Sunbeam Alpine. My first car was an Austin A35. I just love old stuff.”
For his one-day-a-week placement while at college, Ewan secured work at CCK Historic in Uckfield, East Sussex, a highly respected company that specialises in complete restoration of classic cars and preparation of historic racing cars. “As they deal in classic racing cars, they’ll go to the an even like the Goodwood Revival with five cars,” explains Ewan. “I was doing prep work there and my first job was to take the engine out of a Nash Metropolitan. I worked on A40s, Minis, etc. Their workshop is unbelievable and I learned so much.” Despite that, Ewan reckons his plan was always to work in the agricultural industry. “That was my aim, but through CCK I went to Goodwood and, just by chance, I met Cliff and Kev [Cliff Rushworth and his son Kevin, who own London-based pre-unit Triumph bike specialists Ace Classics]. I saw their sign-written Chevy pick-up, which was used as the official vehicle for the Revival motorcycle races – and I realised their shop was literally just around the corner from where I lived. So I walked up to them and asked them if they had a job!”
Initially, they said they didn’t have anything. They already had a guy called Alan who did all their engine builds and servicing – and would probably struggle to find the time to nurture a youngster. But after giving it some thought, Cliff contacted him to offer some part time work.
Cliff says: “You could tell the lad had a passion for working on classics cars and bikes. He was just 18 when he first came here – and turned up in an Austin A35, which he’d bought at the age of 14. He’d done an engine job and dropped the suspension. Anyway, although we didn’t have anything going at the time, I did have a few one-off jobs that needed sorting. I offered him one-day-a-week for a while, just to see how things worked out. His first job was assembling 200 sets of forks, and he fitted right in.”
From there, one-off jobs followed one-off jobs... to the point where Cliff and Kev realised that Ewan had the ability to learn fast and could become a real asset to the firm. “After I’d done the forks, Cliff found me something else to do,” says Ewan. “When that was done, there was something else, to the point where it escalated into a full-time job – my first job after leaving college. It’s what I want to do. I still get to work on agricultural stuff; my dad works on a golf course and gets me there to fix their grass-cutting machines!”
Ewan rides a decidedly non-standard 1950 plunger-framed BSA A7. “It came up for sale, owned by a bloke called Martin Roberts who let me have it cheap. I was inspired by the desert sled Triumphs we do here at Ace – I wanted to build the BSA into something like one of the bikes they would have raced in American desert races in the 1950s and ’60s.
“It’s got a small export tank, original Bates seat and high-level pipes which I had made by Campbell Exhausts. I geared it for more acceleration, and it’s got twin carbs – one with the float bowl chopped off. Then I made the double airbox that runs around both carbs and fitted twin air filters. It’s also got a fork brace and high bars.
“The engine has been totally rebuilt with a new crank and pistons. Newmans made me a cam for it. It’s an early long-stroke A7, which
‘I’ve always been into working on old vehicles. My first car was an Austin A35’
has different crankcases to the later models, so they made a new cam with an A10, short-stroke profile which makes it breathe a little better. It’s only a 500 and quite heavy, so the performance gains are minimal, but I love riding it.”
Ewan has decided he wants to race, but building a desert sled Triumph is probably out of the question on two counts: first he needs riding experience, and second, he couldn’t afford one right now.
“So I’ve just bought a 1972 Husqvarna ’crosser,” he says. “I plan to race it next year in the Pre-74 class at the Mortimer club events and at the Canada Heights Hare and Hounds – I’m really looking forward to that one. The track is one-third scrambles course, onethird woods and one-third meadow. That should get me honing my off-road skills. I originally learned to ride a bike off road – my step dad bought me a little 50cc thing and I rode that on dirt tracks. But there’s a lot to learn from racing the Husky.”
On the car front, he has a Vauxhall Viva. It’s no ordinary Viva, though – it’s one of the Jack Brabham-endorsed models. Off the production line it came with a mildly-tuned version of the original Viva 1159cc engine with twin Stromberg carbs, reworked exhaust manifolds and an uprated camshaft. “It’s a 1968 model,” he says. “You know BMC did a Mini special – a kind of kitted-up version of the standard car – and used John Cooper’s name to sell it. Vauxhall did the same with the Viva and put Jack Brabham’s name on it. I’m in the process of rebuilding it and have just paid £2500 just in engine bits. I don’t do modern cars.”
Ewan’s passion for old stuff goes beyond classic bikes and cars – and he’s not alone in his love for the old stuff. “I was always into rock ’n’ roll,” he says. “Lately I’ve got into the Woodstock stuff, but my friends are into rhythm and blues, rock ’n’ roll... 1950s/60s stuff. There’s a load of us, some into cars, some into scooters, some into bikes, but unlike the mods and rockers era in the ’60s, we’re all one big group. I’d say there’s somewhere between 15-20 of us.
“My cousin is a mod. That’s how he dresses. He’s got a Mini. There’s quite a few young guys among us with old classics like Hillman Minxes, Humbers and Minis. My mate Hamish in Wales has a Vespa. Now he’s got some kind of Russian two-stroke that he rides. Tom’s got a Bantam and an A30 race car. Seven or eight of us went on a road trip last summer to the south coast – and everyone was either on or in an old vehicle. You’re better off having old stuff in London, anyway – no MOT, no tax, cheap insurance.”
Kev chuckles at the thought of him turning up for work in the Viva. “It’s not something you see every day, is it – a young lad driving a classic car? Or riding a classic bike, for that matter. Ewan’s really settled in here. Alan’s worked with him and nurtured him, and Ewan can pretty much turn his hand to anything: top-end rebuilds, timing, fabrication, welding. Alan does our restoration work and Ewan does everything else – and we’re one of the only classic bike shops now offering a full range of services, from buying and selling bikes, stocking a full range of Triumph spares, plus servicing and restoration. Ewan’s an asset to our business. He’s keen. He can do anything and we’d be lost without him. I love his enthusiasm and it’s great to see him treat his bikes like I treat mine.”
Ewan did all the work on the Bud Ekins-replica Triumph that Ace Classics has just finished building. It’s based on the Trophy
that Ekins rode to a gold medal in the 1962 International Six Days Trial (ISDT). The original sold for a record-breaking £97,750 at auction – more than one regular Ace customer was prepared to bid.
Kev says: “Our French customer, Cedric, bid but didn’t win it, so we said we’d build him an exact replica. We took photos of the Ekins original at the auction, then gave Ewan an unrestored 1962 Trophy TR6SS that we had and set Ewan the task of creating the replica. I’m really proud of the work he’s done on it – I don’t know anyone who could have done a better job.”
Ewan, clearly embarrassed by the praise, sheepishly adds: “I loved working on the ISDT bike. I loved all the small details it needed. It was a bit of an out-of-the-ordinary job to get it just right.” Another quirky task he was given was restoring a Watsonian sidecar for a customer. Part of his work was to recreate the entire interior, with wooden panels covered in leatherette. “Yeah it’s made from real wood – or ‘wood wood’ as Kev likes to call it. The sidecar goes on a rigid 1953 that the owner has had in the family from new. The sidecar was fitted a couple of years after the bike was bought and we’re restoring it.”
Bearing in mind that Ewan already has his mildly-modified BSA, we wondered what he’d consider to be his dream bike. “I’d love a duplex-framed Triumph desert racer like the Mcqueen #955 that we built a replica of here... or maybe an Aztec and Ivory desert racer. But either would cost me a fortune to build – and I’ve just paid three grand for my Husqvarna! I’ve always wanted a Spitfire scrambler, too. I love desert sleds...
“But our house is all antiques. Old signs on the walls. I’ve got a box of old bike mags I research stuff from, but I’m also on a Facebook page called ‘Racebook’ that you have to apply to join. It’s full of old desert race bikes and a lot of people connected with 1960s desert racing are on there, like Cliff Coleman and Bud Ekins’ nephew Gene Smith, whose dad Buck was a famous desert racer.”
With all this passion for old race bikes, especially British twins, it’s little wonder that Ewan’s such a good fit at Ace Classics. “It’s brilliant working here,” says. “The stuff I’ve learned from Alan is amazing. I’d learned how to weld, do fabrication and fix bodywork at college, but Alan’s taken me on by miles. I’ve not done any Triumph bottom-end builds yet, but I have done my own BSA and Viva. And, from what I’ve learned, the BSA has a slightly more complex set-up than the Triumph. I do top-end work on the Triumphs all the time, though ‘officially’ I do servicing and repairs – and some fabrication work liking shaping and welding bash plates for the ISDT Triumphs – while Alan focuses on engine building.
“I love the work and there’s so many opportunities to do things connected with the business, too. Kev goes racing in France and Goodwood with the 500 Triumphs, for example. And there’s those replica we create, which are fun to do. I can picture myself doing this forever. Ask anyone in my family and they’ll say the same about me. I really can’t imagine doing anything else.”