Best of British: Paul Beamish
The man behind Krazy Horse who’s helped bring custom cool to the mainstream
‘Suddenly our bikes were on the same bill as Arlen Ness’
From chopper enthusiast to award-winning custom builder, Paul Beamish’s journey with Krazy Horse has been a story of exponential success. Born in South London, he attributes much of his early interest in engineering to his grandmother, a schoolteacher from Suffolk who rode a Triumph back in the day. “I used to stay with her in the summer holidays, so it’s sort of in the blood,” he says.
Paul’s first bike was a bright green Honda CB50, but it wasn’t long before he traded up to a 1982 Electra Glide. “I bought this old Harley and I remember riding it home thinking: what the f*** have I bought? It doesn’t go, it doesn’t handle and it’s cost me four times the price of any bike I’ve owned!” Despite those first impressions it still graces his garage, albeit heavily modified with a supercharger and air suspension. “You either get into them or you don’t, but once you look into that world and see all the things you can do with them - well, it takes you that way.”
Spares were hard to come by though. “There were just four or five dealers across the country, so together with my friend Paul
Timpson, we started a part-time business out of a shed in his back garden. The idea was to keep people going with gaskets, cables, spark plugs and so on, and our first order as Krazy Horse went off in 1995. That was the core business and we still do all of that now.”
By the early 2000s Krazy Horse had outgrown the shed and moved into a shop in Bury St Edmunds, right about the time the US custom scene was exploding thanks to the Discovery Channel’s American Chopper and Biker Build Off. “People would bring us brand new Harleys and there was a massive opportunity to customise them, as well as building complete bikes.” Paul was very much into the old school and became influenced by the cut down, stripped out ‘Zero Style’ of Japanese customiser Shinya Kimura. “I had an old ironhead Sportster and decided to build a Zero Style bike. We put it on our stand at the Doncaster Custom Show and despite it not being entered, it actually won best in show. Part of the prize was to go to the European championships, where it ended up in the top five and from there won a place in the world championships at Sturgis.”
It was there that legendary engine manufacturer S&S saw the ‘Zero’ bike, knew that Krazy Horse were an approved dealer and asked them to build a bike for their 50th anniversary in 2008. “It was a
‘We hadn’t entered but our bike won best in show’
brilliant time and doing things like the S&S 50th bike was just amazing. Our bikes were on the same bill as Arlen Ness, Jesse James and all of the big builders of the time.” Also present at S&S’s 50th were Zero Engineering and their typeapproved production bikes. “They had a bike which very much suited the Krazy Horse style at a price that I couldn’t build them for, so we became their European importer and that changed the business again. We were still doing our other stuff, but were now selling up to 100 bikes a year to countries where they couldn’t build customs anymore (due to the introduction of type approval).” Other brands, such as
Paton, Zaeta and Hogtech, followed and Krazy Horse evolved into a niche multi-franchise dealer.
In 2012 Indian came on board and Paul moved the business to its new location at Deco House. The relationship with Indian led to building the bike for Guy Martin’s Wall of Death record and developing Scouts as flattrack racers for the DTRA’s Hooligan series.
Krazy Horse aim to offer something for everyone. “We can start from a Fantic 125 at £4k and run up to an MV F4 Claudio at £75k. We’ve got stores in Bury, South London and Chipping Norton, plus we’re working on a new site too. Watch this space.”