Page 60 - Decadence

HANDMADE BRITISH MOTORCYCLES FOR DISCERNING HOOLIGANS
WORDS CRAIG BLAKE-JONES IMAGES JENNIFER SCHAUERTE
We’ve been invited out to the Cotswolds to nd out a bit more about Gladstone Motorcycles after meeting founder Henry Cole at Salon Privé. The machines looked like works of art and any brand that uses the tag line “Handmade British motorcycles for the discerning hooligan” obviously has some characters behind it.
Cotswolds, early November, mild sunny day. We are met by Henry Cole and Guy Willison, both have a cup of tea in hand and both look like they have a story or two to tell... Henry is the presenter, producer and creator of daytime TV shows “Shed and Buried” and “Find It Fix It Flog It”, both of which involve Henry and his side kick routing through peoples sheds (or barns) nding an old bike, car or random object, making a bid, having a bit of a barter before taking said item back to Henry’s shed for a restoration before selling it on for a pro t. I must admit I hadn’t seen the shows. I also hadn’t seen “The Motorcycle Show” or the “The Worlds Greatest Motorcycle Rides” - I just don’t get the chance to watch much TV.
But I do like a good shed so Henry starts by giving me the tour, he opens the rst shed. It’s full of motorbikes and a navy blue over white Austin Healey, but the rst thing that catches my eye isn’t the 70’s style Easy Rider Chopper with the 300mm wide rear tyre and the ame paint job, no it’s the three Raleigh Choppers in the back corner. I had a pale blue Mk1 Chopper when I was 7 years old, they had just been released, mine had the squared off rear hoop on the saddle (on the rst few made it was round) and on this model the ape hanger chopper handle bars could rake
back and you could get your mate on the back of the seat. It was 1971 so nobody really knew the phrase health and safety, but some bright spark soon had the seat shortened (to a single seater) and the handle bars xed with a slight forward rake, this was the MKII and I’m looking at three of them. There was also a Brough Superior Motorcycle and a custom painted street ghter, a Honda 750 and a Norton Commando, but this is a special one, when Norton revived the brand they did a limited run of Commando’s in Black, but Henry had this one done silver with black lines as a cafe racer, so it’s a one off - this was going to be an interesting afternoon.
The pathway down the line of sheds or should I say barns was lined with three Gladstone Motorcycles each one of the nine built is identical except for two features, the number 1-9 and the colour of the saddle and they are all sold. At a price of about £40k it’s at the top end of bike prices, but its a very sexy bit of kit. Before we get into the Gladstone story Henry wants to nish the shed tour, there’s a fully restored Willy’s Jeep, it’s a post war model as Henry points out the subtle differentiators that give its age away. next to it is a very early Harley Davidson with a hand gear shift by the side of the fuel tank, this is a restoration project in waiting, Henry tells me it’ll make a great Bobber. For those of you who are not familiar with the biker jargon, “bobber” was originally short for bob-job, which started in the 1930’s, but really took off after WWII when all the extra weight was removed by stripping the bikes to the bare essentials, sometimes shortening the rear end, hence “bob tail” and giving them a low slung look, this was a “bobber”.
The next shed had a couple of ex military bikes, a BMW combo that was used to patrol the Berlin Wall and an allied military bike, did I mention Henry also collects military vehicles, including a 15 ton US Army truck, there’s Yamaha scramble bikes and an old laundry mangle all in various stages of renovation ranging from prestige to “what is that?”. In fact he collects everything, the next shed is full of quirky furniture made from old petrol pumps or car grilles, a vintage work bench and a coffee table that had been brought back to life covered in motorcycle race track stickers, mostly found and restored on one of the TV shows, then bought by Henry.
We back track to the new looking sheds at the end of the run of barns, the rst is the Gladstone assembly shop, a pristine but in no way clinical work shop, we are not talking McLaren Technical Centre here by any stretch of the imagination, we are talking sheds with soul. There is a customers Gladstone on the bench that’s in for a service, tool chests and shelves stacked with an array of vintage oil cans and fascinating trinkets. Did I mention he collects stuff? The next shed is the TV studio, this is where they actually lm the restoration projects and rebuilds, they shoot in one direction for one show and the opposite for another. Simple and effective, which with the schedule Henry describes is the only way to do it, today is the only day he is not shooting for the next few months. This looks great, perfectly displayed in a way that looks like it’s built over years (because it has been) there are loads of interesting bits and pieces, again, oil cans, pumps, gauges, tools and benches. Guy and I pull up a couple of stools made from old motorcycle seats,
60