TOM MACKINTOSH
Plenty of fizz in this one
My early biking days were spent reading Performance Bikes religiously every month. That’s where I first saw Nick Daniels’ 7Up LC – the first time around, it was a single photograph in the magazine’s 1988 ‘LC Frenzy’ feature. Five years later, in 1993, it was in the magazine again – this time with Dymag wheels, Harris anti-dive and a smattering of trick Spondon parts. A couple of issues later, it was back – taking part in a ‘grudge match’ test against Kev Drayton’s LCR. Next time I saw it was when a mate handed me a copy of Superbike in 1995, with a writeup about the LC club – and there was the bike again. I couldn’t get away from it.
After that, though, Nick got into drag racing and sold off lots of the trick bits from the 7Up bike to fund his new addiction. But he kept the frame in his attic until three years ago, when someone persuaded him to sell it, with the intention of rebuilding it as it used to be. The lad who bought it had located some of the original parts – including the Dymags, Spondon yokes and discs and a few other parts. But, after a few months, he lost interest and I bought the bits from him. So began a two-year rebuild.
I got a new swingarm fabricated by ex-spondon employees at GIA Engineering. A TZ350 dry clutch, water pump and clutch cover came from Vince at Fondseca and I tracked down the original Swarbrick exhausts in Scunthorpe. Lots of brackets had to be drawn using CAD and machined or lasercut, and I had to source another rear wheel as the original was too corroded. I had the new one machined to accept a cush drive, then got it – and the original front wheel – crack tested before sending them off with the bodywork and fork sliders for painting.
I got the bike ‘finished’ enough to take to the Stafford show last year and it attracted a lot of interest – particularly from one visitor. Late on Sunday, I got the bike down from its plinth so that original owner Nick Daniels could sit on his old bike once more, 22 years since breaking it for spares. I think he appreciated it. I certainly did.