Inside
Bloke off the telly, director, record holder and proper dyed-in-the-wool biker. Henry Cole invites us round for a cuppa and to gawp at his collection
By Mike Armitage Photography Jason Critchell
You know him from The Motorbike Show and Shed and Buried on the telly. Away from the camera, Henry Cole is found among the gloriously eclectic mix of sportsbikes, classics, customs, outfits, retros filling his sheds… We pop in for a natter.
Lifelong biker
‘Uncle Dick “Red Beard” Gladstone had a big house up in Liverpool. When I was eight he said: “Do you want to see in my shed?” We go in and there’s all these old British bikes. The smell, the look. I’m in – and I hadn’t even heard one run. From that moment I bought MCN, then started buying Bike from the village shop. I wore cashmere jerseys, but the people in Bike had long hair and beards – and I wanted to be them. I’m 61 now and must have owned 200 bikes. Maybe more, as some I’ve owned for 20 minutes before selling on. Actual proper long-term ownership, I’ve probably had 70 or 80.’
French fancy
‘For me, the ’70s and ’80s are my biking era. We used to go to Mocheck on Clapham High Street, put our noses against the window and stare at the Moto Martins. I’ve got this red one, which is my “rider” and has a Honda CB1100R engine, and I’ve got a blue and white one with a Suzuki 1100 engine. But I’m still in search of the ultimate Moto Martin – I just have to have one with a six-cylinder Honda CBX1000 engine. I keep looking but haven’t found the right one. I will find it, and just when I do, I’ll be skint.
‘I think Georges Martin [the French chap who founded the Moto Martin engineering company in the early 1970s] got some of his bike’s styling cues slightly wrong – some of the rear ends have a sort of fin thing – but when you see this bike’s monocoque styling it’s quintessential late ’70s/early ’80s. And it rides beautifully. I’ve had this one for three or four years; it’s great on a summer evening, although unfortunately I don’t get to ride it as often as I should.’
Quarter Master
‘This was for Shed and Buried. It was built by a guy who was in the army in the Sixties – and so it’s the “quarter master” in every sense. It’s a twin-cylinder Triumph 500 engine with “gorilla clamps” to stop the cylinder head flying off because it’s supercharged and runs on methanol. When we found it there was a very large hole in the engine’s bottom end – it’d had a very large lunch at some point. We got new crankcases and rebuilt it.
‘Back in the day it did 10.2sec quarter miles on the drag strip, and I’ve got an eighth mile record on it at Elvington. It’s loud, mean, but lovely to ride. Really. It’s terrifying to anyone watching, and at a standstill as you look down the strip, but as soon as you’re off and away it’s so stable. Something flew off on my last ride and hit my leg, but it’s due a good run out.
‘But also a big part of motorcycle ownership is having a cup of tea and sitting looking at it, isn’t it?’
Hacked Harley
‘One of my great loves are Harley-Davidson sportsters – the older air-cooled ones, not the latest liquid-cooled bikes. Sportsters are rather like a motorcycle, just smaller. They’re eminently flickable, extremely comfy, and the power delivery is smooth.
‘I bought this one off a good mate of mine, Chopper Roy, for six grand. I love the way that the filler caps are like old two-gallon cans. It’s really reliable, doesn’t leak oil – it’s my hack and it looks like shit, but it’s fantastic.
‘Whoever built it – and I have no idea who it was – really had attention to detail. It has an Electra Glide Ultra Classic front fender used for the rear mudguard, which is the sort of idea you have in the bath but that you never proceed with – but it’s worked out really nicely.’
Street machine
‘For The Motorbike Show, we wanted to take a bike and change the look to the vibe that we love. The challenge was not messing with Euro compliance, which meant we couldn’t cut the frame at all. We looked at the Norton 961 and thought we could give it a different look – the Kawasaki Z1 is iconic to me, so we wanted that vibe and had a vision for a new tank, seat and pipe to make the 961 Street. Stuart Garner saw it and asked if he could put it into production. I said alright, but I want a grand per bike for the intellectual property. He rang me two weeks before the launch to say there was no launch as they’d sold them all. I invoiced him but that was it… The whole Garner Norton saga leaves a bitter taste. It was deeply upsetting. Luckily, I think the majority of these reached customers.’
Room for all
‘Everyone thinks sidecars are humorous – and they are, in a brilliant way. I’ve had a lot of Urals and Dneprs. They used to be great value – this one was four grand. Stalin saw BMWs in theatre during the war, got his spies to nick some, and sent them to the Ural so they were out of bombing range – hence the name. They’re exact copies of the BMWs. Everything’s interchangeable – this one has a BMW speedo in it. The Russians then sold the blueprints to a company in China. New Urals are expensive now, though.’
Chopper. Not like that…
‘It’s the 80th anniversary of the Bell 47 – it first flew in December 1945. In spring ’46 it was the first helicopter to get a civilian ticket to go into production. It was also the first helicopter to fly over the Alps and is in all the old Bond films. It changed the world.
‘I sold my soul – well, quite a few bikes – to buy a Bell 47. There are only 12 flying in the UK, of which this is one – but there’ll be 13 as we’re restoring another that I found in north Wales and bought for £18,000. It’s dark blue under the camo – there was an army Blue Eagles display team and it’s one of them, so will be restored like that.
‘They’re so expensive: I’ve had the six-cylinder engine refurbished for £55k and rotor blades are £20k each. But if I can afford it, why don’t I preserve two? It’s about heritage, history, iconic design. I’ll make them available – I want people at schools, fetes and events to see them. When you fly one, as I’m learning to do, it’s like 3D motorcycling.’
Still the one
‘When the GSX-R slabbies came out they changed the world. The 750 won everything – it was a revelation and, in my view, the first modern superbike. I had five GSX-R1100s back in the 1980s. They all got nicked. The last one I decided to run into the ground – I never washed it, and it was filthy. You could hardly see the blue. Guy Willison borrowed it one weekend and brought it back looking mint – he’d spent all Sunday washing it, polishing it. That night it got nicked. If only he’d left it…
‘On this 1100 you sit in it – the tank comes out past you, and when you’ve got your arms wrapped around it, bum up against the single seat, looking through the screen, Vance and Hines four-into-one… come on.’
The other chopper...
‘To me, Uncle Bunt was a legend. John Reid was the man behind the British chopper [as seen frequently in Bike back in the day], and when I found this one in a shed I couldn’t believe it. I got hold of John in California and he confirmed it was one of his Uncle Bunt ‘mass production’ frames.
‘I spent £20,000 on the bike. It was awful when I got it – it’s had a new front end, seat, wheels, conical rear hub, re-prepped frame, everything. It’s the original engine, which we’ve refurbed. Any bike with rabbit-ear ’bars is an acquired taste, and your first corner is interesting… Some old rocker in town told me the trick is to pin it – just go into the corner and power on. So, I did… and it flies round corners. It’s fantastic to ride once you work it out and get with the programme.’
If only I’d kept it...
‘There’s a bit of space at the minute, as I sold my rat Kawasaki Z400 outfit, with a Steib body on a Watsonian frame. I also sold a BMW R90 with a kneeler sidecar. The one that got away? My Brough 11.50 – I had to sell it for stamp duty on the farm, but if I get the opportunity to buy an 11.50 or SS80 at the right price, I’m there. There’s a couple of Triumph bobbers and choppers that I’d like back too, though I’ve just reignited my passion for slab-sided GSX-Rs…’
Best of British
‘Though we used to look at Moto Martins, we also used to read about bikes using Harris frames – and to me a Harris the most iconic of British superbikes.
‘British engineering, with brilliant frame geometry and styling, and a Japanese lump – what’s not to like? You get heritage and culture with handling, reliability and performance. The four-cylinder Kawasaki GPz1100 engine is a perfect marriage with the Harris frame, and it flies.
‘I found this Harris Magnum in a florist in London, and bought it from a very nice guy selling daffodils. It had been there a while but I think he used to ride it. I’ve done nothing but fit a bar-end mirror – just the one, but I need to see what’s behind. I paid £12,000, and it’s the best twelve grand I’ve ever spent… apart from all the other bikes.’
Found in a hedge
‘This is a Triumph 350, and I hold a record for a Triumph 3HW engine at Elvington – 88mph or 98mph, I think. The bike has more to go. I found this dustbin fairing in a hedge doing Find It, Fix It, Flog it. The guy had sold a Vincent Black Shadow to a bloke who didn’t want the dustbin fairing – so before he put the bike in a van he threw the fairing in a hedge. Forty years later, I find it and pay £100. I haven’t run the bike with the dustbin fairing – Allen Millyard and I reckon it’ll go slower. I want to take it to Bonneville and try for a record. Bonneville is the “big white dyno” as the altitude robs speed. The atmosphere changes all day too, so you’re constantly rejetting the carburettors. I think dustbin fairings are banned at Bonneville, though – something to do with fuel vapour getting trapped, or crosswinds...’
See Henry…
This year Henry Cole has a theatre tour with Steve Parrish, with 16 dates already confirmed across the UK between March and November. Check the dates and locations and book your tickets by clicking your way to henrycole.tv