This Is Your Bike – Brighton Bobber
John Newman seeks out those quirky motorcycles you'd just love to own
John Newman
In this new series our regular writer, John Newman, seeks out that unconventional, unusual, quirky, desirable, delicious or outrageous motorcycle and tells the story of the bike and its rider.
Baby Driver
Riders who begin their motorcycling experience on a bike or scooter with a positive endorsement from parents are fortunate: such is the disfavour and risk averse attitude most people carry in their heads towards our activity.
Paul De Nagy is one of the fortunates, when he was young his parents bought him a Vespa lookalike scooter that he says did about 15mph. He needed personal transport to attend Martial Arts competitions and training seven days a week and this early two wheel experience was enough to get him hooked and it wasn't long before he was on board a Triumph Bonneville.
He loved the lines of the Bonneville, and the way he tells it he 'fell in love with the shape of the bike'. This isn't surprising as Paul is clearly someone who is attracted to the aesthetics of vehicles he has either owned or admired. He also ran a Triumph Herald car, not because it was in the forefront technologically, but because he liked the shape and build of cars from this era; there was 'soul behind the vehicle'. The mass produced and largely uniform looking products being churned out today just don't interest him.
Once upon a pair of wheels
This will go some way in explaining the bike he now rides. A Royal Enfield 500cc stripped of all unnecessary and weighty clutter, and created in a 'Bobber' style – the Bonneville had to go as he needed a four wheel work vehicle for his business.
When the time came to think about another bike he knew what he was looking to achieve in terms of style. He considered an XS650 Yamaha, a popular choice for 'bobberists'. But he had a friend who was a fan of Enfields, and as Paul admits to having limited mechanical or engineering experience, the relative simplicity of these models appealed. A 500 came up for sale in the north of England and the owner rode it down and delivered it at Xmas.
Bobber job
Now that the bike was his and safely stored, he could begin looking at ideas, and diving around the internet he came across a bike in the USA that inspired him to create an individual unit that wouldn't look like an Enfield, but would be a motorcycle he could both use and have fun with.
Concept and design are important factors in Paul's life. He is a craft leather manufacturer, and creates his own range of products that he sells on line and from his mews shop in Brighton
www.bornandbredengland.com. He's also an active surfer, and makes his own boards, but out of sync with the rest of surfdom he refuses to succumb to mega branding and logoing of his boards.
'I have always loved simple stylish and practical products' is a philosophy he has followed in his leather work, and what he was seeking to create when relieving the Enfield of what he considered to be superfluous motorcycle clutter and weight - Bobber builders love that stripped down serviceable mode, but it has to look good too.
Going solo
Away went the pillion seat with its heavy base, the bike is now fitted with a solo sprung seat, after the original solid one he made proved too uncomfortable. There's also a pillion seat that can be fitted or detached in minutes (a demonstration proved this), and it fits onto a couple of looped stays that he had fabricated to hold the seat and reinforce the rear mudguard.
Handlebars are an important component of how a Bobber bike looks and handles, and lots of different shapes were tried over a year period; ape hangers, drop bars and others, before reverting to the Enfield originals. This is a time consuming business to get right as cables have to be altered and re-routed through each change.
The bike felt skittish and unstable when Paul first rode it, but this was resolved by moving the swinging arm back about six inches. It now feels stable to ride, and this he does, making trips to London connected with his work. He told me of an incident where the ever present single cylinder four stroke vibration had caused one of the rear mudguard supports to snap, which saw him riding one handed through the unyielding London traffic whilst leaning half off the bike to support the swinging mudguard. Lesson...always carry a bungee, cable ties and gaffer tape, they will get you out of no end of trouble.
It's all in the timing
At one period on one of his London trips he experienced the engine stalling and then being hard to restart. He went through the whole gamut of possibilities as to why; carburettor, coil, plug, wiring connections before a mechanic friend of a friend who had some experience of this Enfield engine suggested advancing the timing by 2 millimetres. Yes! Easy starting and smooth running restored. Put the problem out there and there will surely be someone who has the knowledge or experience to resolve it.
Paul compares riding a bike to his other favoured activity; surfing. Both activities involve being solitary with just the wind, the sounds, vibrations and movements of the bike that you have to respond to.
One of a kind
He doesn't want his machines to be adorned with manufacturers identity or other labelling. He devised the paint colours, tank design and overall aesthetic himself, to reflect the look he wanted at the end of the build: a practical 'earthy' but stylish motorcycle that works for him.
NB If you have, or know of an: unconventional, unusual, quirky, desirable, delicious or outrageous motorcycle which you would like to tell us about then email John Newman on:
[email protected]
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