National Chopper Club
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Nige NCC Honorary Life Member - Ribble Valley
'Spirit of 73'
The following photos and transcript are from an article which was written by Odgie and first published in 100% Biker in 2013.
We’ve featured a few of Nige Bamber’s bikes before, but I’ve never told you much about the man. That’s partly because his bikes are always interesting enough in themselves, and also because he invariably ticks the box marked ‘No Publicity’ (I had to wait till he was riding the bike away from the shoot to even catch a photograph of him). But in this case, man and machine can’t really be separated, their stories intertwine and weave together, a story and timeline that wends its way back fully forty years…
Those of us who’ve been around long enough, or indeed those who pay attention to such things, will have already realised that 2013 is the 40th anniversary of the National Chopper Club. The NCC came into being with its inaugural run on August Bank Holiday 1973, and has remained a driving force and core organisation within custom biking ever since. Of course, not many of the original members are still in the Club, 40 years is a helluva long time to belong to anything. In fact, there’s only one member who was a member then, and has continuously been a member ever since. And that’s my mate Nige Bamber. I put it to you, custom bikers of the country, that this fact represents no small claim to fame, even if I have to make it on Nige’s modest behalf for him. As someone who has been around custom biking as long as Nige, but has never had the motivation or dedication to be a good club player, I stand in awe of his commitment to a lifestyle he still believes in and holds dear. So it might come as no great surprise that, as the anniversary approached, Nige felt a deepening urge to do something to commemorate it in style. And what better way than to build a bike?
Nige started putting his first chop together in 1972, so it was on the road for that 1973 run. It was a Triumph then too, Nige never runs anything else, and being the 70s, it was also radical. ‘It was running long springers,’ Nige tells me, ‘And it was all rake, it had a genuine Triumph rigid frame, and like you did in those days, we took it down the tractor shed one night, cut an inch and three-quarters out of the top tube, pulled it back and welded it together. The springers weren’t quite as long, but it had narrow Z-bars, so it must have been harder to ride. But I was chucking bags of animal feed and hay bales around all day, I guess I had more upper body strength.’ Aye, and it was forty years ago too mate... But with that bike in mind, it seemed like a good plan to build something similar to celebrate it. Having been a bike builder and Triumph man for over forty years, Nige already had a fair bit of swag around him. The Cycle Haven frame had been in his possession for years, and since as he says, ‘I was into T140s when they were just cheap old motorbikes, so I collected plenty of old engines. One of them just happened to be engraved.’ In fact, Nige and I both know engraving didn’t really come in until a few years later, when John Reed (Uncle Bunt) brought Don Blocksidge’s skills to bear, but it seemed a shame to waste them when they’re so skilfully done and damn near period anyway – most people won’t know the difference. Nige also had a set of long springer forks, with round legs, but it was trading parts to get the super-long barley-twist ones that finally sealed the deal. They’re Kustom Korner ones from the mid 1970s, and they’d been on various Preston bikes for many years. None of us have actually measured how much over stock they are, but you don’t need me to tell you they’re l-o-n-g. To accommodate them, Nige put 2 inches in the frame top tube, another 2 inches in the down tubes, and added ‘lots and lots of rake’. And so the game was afoot.
Nige has built more than enough Unit Triumph customs to know what he’s doing, but in this case the real snag was time. With the deadline of August totally sacrosanct (well, not much point in building a bike for a 40th anniversary if you miss it – what you gonna do then, stick it in a cupboard for another ten years?), everything had to be done in short order. When I first saw the bike sat in Nige’s workshop, it was pretty much just a mocked-up bare frame and forks with a dummy engine, and that would be in late June. Oh, and the crank was sat on the bench with stripped flywheel threads. Yikes. Some things came together, some things didn’t. I won’t bore you with the comedy of errors that was the chroming, suffice to say successive promised deadlines came and went and no chromed parts appeared. When you think that the parts at the chromer’s included the entire disassembled forks, along with all the brackets and bits and pieces that hold everything together, and they still weren’t forthcoming with less than three weeks to go, you can see the scale of the problem. In desperation the wheel rims were powder coated at the same time as the frame and tank, as Nige puts it, ‘I just had to compromise somewhere, or it wasn’t going to get done at all.’ As it turned out, there’s so much more other chrome on the bike the polychromatic blue works quite well anyway – a deep lustrous colour that I wrongly assumed had to be paint to get such a vibrant candy effect.
And when I shot the bike, it was straight out of Nige’s workshop, without even the few road miles put on it needed before he could give the cylinder head its final torque down. So forgive any oily fingerprints and traces of Coppaslip under the bolt heads, it really was as new as that.
With a long motorway run looming, and with an eye to not being crushed by an inattentive European trucker, or failing to stop himself at short notice, Nige has made a few concessions to modern madcap traffic. A decent front tyre, disc brakes, and indicators were always going to be in the mix, as was a remote oil filter, hydraulic clutch and a belt primary drive conversion for reliability. The rear indicators are neatly hidden inside the marker lights, which have red LEDs inside them, while the headlights are a pair of genuine 1972 Lucas Square 8’s – which Nige bought to fit on that very first chop, but couldn’t get to work with the six-volt system, and had hung onto ever since. Synchronicity at work.
And there it is done. Don’t you just love it? Forty years of experience means it sits just right, that preposterous kicked-out front balanced by that equally unfeasible high rear, the cocktail shaker silencers in perfect alignment with the genuine period sissy bar (a look achieved by Nige buying a huge amount of stainless bends to get ones that were just right, echoing the ones on his first chop in 1972), and the stainless hand-made forward controls and narrow high-rise bars combining with the genuine 1970s K&Q seat to give that typical laid-back-man riding position. Then there’s the neat little touches like the little LED warning lights set into the top headlight, or the head-steady in the shape of the NCC diamond. It’s a remarkable bike, built by a remarkable man (you’ll just have to live with it Nige, I’m not taking that bit out), to celebrate a remarkable occasion. One day all bikes were built this way.
Odgie
SPEC
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Year, Make and Model:1972 Triumph
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Frame:Cycle Haven
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Frame Mods:2 inch stretch both ways, lots and lots of rake
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Engine:Triumph T140
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Engine Mods:Fully rebuilt, hydraulic clutch, Hayward belt primary drive, engraved cases
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Carb(s):Single 930 Amal
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Gearbox:Stock 5-speed
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Front Forks:Kustom Korner twisted springers, from mid-1970s
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Front Wheel:Harley Sportster
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Rear Shocks:Ha-ha!
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Rear Wheel:Triumph
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Tyres:19 Road Rider front, 500x16 Avon SM rear
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Tank:Mustang
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Oil Tank:Paugho
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Exhaust System:Copy of my 1972 bike
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Handlebars:Narrow hi-rise
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Seat:1970s King and Queen
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Front Mudguard:Cut down
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Rear Mudguard:6” flat
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Front Light:Twin 1972 Lucas Square 8
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Rear Light:Cats eye
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Paint:Triple S Powder Coating
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Special Engineering:You’ve got to be kidding me...
Paul NCC Secretary
The original bike arrived in the garage as an fxr hardtail chop but was in need of a complete makeover as the frame tubes were too small and the lines wrong. To get the right lines would mean using a long-case primary. So a complete new primary (plus spacer kit) and gearbox were sourced from Will Burrows motorcycles, along with a set of 8 inch overs to get the forks right. The bigger back wheel also came from Will.
The original bike was completely stripped with all the un-wanted parts suitably re-located.
Steve and I have built a few Jap four chops recently but this was our first attempt at building a Harley chop.
The required bits were then up on the jig ready for the new frame to be laced around them. Graham at Coba Valley Cycles hand-beat the rear mudguard. 34mm tube was used for the hardtail with the top and down tubes being done in 43mm. Axle plates were from an on-line auction site. The frame took a few weeks to get it right. As we are unable to put big-radius bends in tube it was decided to put a shallow ‘s’ bend in the down tube to break up the straight line. Once the frame was finished the mudguard and tank were positioned and fixed. The mounts for the oil tank and seat were incorporated to keep a minimal look. Once all the metalwork was tacked together the bike was stripped and given to a local welder (Dan Wade) to get it all stuck together properly. Once back the full dry build was underway. The top-tube was drilled and sorted so that the wiring would be hidden in it. Battery box was installed along with any other brackets that were needed. It was then stripped and sent for paint.
The first paintwork was gloss black but this didn’t do the bike justice. So after a while the bike was stripped down again and sent out for a new paint scheme. The rear mudguard was also shortened with internal bracing added so that the original struts could be removed.
The painter was given a couple of ideas for the design and the colours to use but the finer details were left up to his imagination. The frame came back from paint first so that the final build could start. The tank and mudguards were slightly delayed in getting back to me due to the fact that Dave dropped a bike engine on his foot and was out of the workshop for a while!
In the rebuild the charging system was replaced with a 3-phase system as it was evident before that something had failed somewhere in the original system as the battery wasn’t getting a charge. Once the final build was complete the bloody thing still wasn’t charging, turns out the brand new circuit breaker included in the new charging system was faulty - replacing it with an in-line blade fuse cured the issue.
The bike’s first outing with the new paint was to the NCC Easter run 2019 where it won best chop, followed by winning best chop and best of show at the NCC Mayday run. Being very happy would be an understatement as this was our first Harley build and it has turned out to be everything I could have wanted.
SPEC
ENGINE
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Make:Harley Davidson Evo running Andrews Cam and S&S carb
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Exhaust:One-off stainless
FRAME
FRONT END
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Forks:8” overs running DNA wheel and Harley brakes
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Yokes:Powder Coated
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Brake Lines:Goodridge
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Handlebars:18” Apes
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Master Cylinders:Batastini front
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Switchgear:All behind oil tank
REAR END
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Mudguard:Hand-made by Graham, Coba Valley Cycles
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Wheel:DNA with Pretech 4-pot caliper
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Torque Arm:One-off in stainless
BODYWORK
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Front Mudguard:Fibreglass
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Petrol Tank:Stretched custom
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Seat:Single with air units
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Oil Tank:Off the shelf, internals re-worked by owner
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Electrics/Battery Box:Integral with oil tank
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Numberplate/Holder:Off the shelf
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Electrics:One-off by owner and Steve
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Main Loom:One-off by owner and Steve
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Head and Tail Lights:Custom off the shelf
PAINT AND FINISH
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Colour(s):Frame is Jaguar casein blue. Tank and mudguards are Casein blue along with white pearl tricoat and Malibu metallic blue
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Painter:Dave Harriss (Harriss Motorcycles, Cornwall)
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Polishing:By owner
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Engineering:By owner and Steve
Nik NCC Wiltshire
Rick NCC East Lancashire
Hooligan Ol' Skool Fighter
Logic NCC Cumbria
Tinker NCC Sussex
Shovelhead Chop
Paughco rigid frame modified by Phil Piper
Heavily modified Frisco mounted Sportster tank by John Turner Druids MC Sheffield
14” apes
Performance Machine forward and hand controls
S&S Super E carb
Custom metal flake paint
3” BDL open belt primary drive
Custom leather solo seat, tool roll and solo bag
Motor rebuilt courtesy of Boz Engineering
Revtech 4 speed transmission
Sparto tail light and license plate assembly
Accel coil kit
Twin plug head
Andrews J grind “old mans” cam
Solid lifters
8:1 Keith Black pistons
Kibblewhite black diamond valves
S&S electronic ignition module
Jagg oil cooler
Thanks go to Woody and Steve Whitmore (both former NCC members), Beaky NCC Honorary and Nick V-Twin, Rye.
V8 Trike
5000 cc
183 BHP / 259 LB-FT
Ford C4 Automatic Transmission
Holley Carb
Ford 302 HEI Distributor
Land Rover Series 3 Steering Box
Gaz Performance Shocks
Cooper Cobra Radial G/T P255/70R15 Rear Tyres
Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2 195/45Z R1785W Front Tyre
Steel Fuel Tank with Stainless Monza Cap
Mooneyes Rat Fink Shifter Knob and Air Scoop
Rear Rack - Shogun Stainless Steel Bull Bar
Smith’s Digital Speedo
Milsco XB150 Seats
Powder Coat - Sussex Blast Cleaning
Paint - JT Vehicle Body Repair
Stainless - Nick Wright Engineering
Bits and Bobs - CBS (Car Builder Solutions)
Build/Fabrication - Will NCC Sussex and Russ Wheatley
Diamond Dog - Evo Chop
Rigid Paughco frame up 6” and out 45 degrees - Dave Batchelor P&D
14” over Tolle forks
Adjustable Tolle triple trees
Polished aluminium rims with stainless spokes - 16” rear and 21” front
Metzler ME880 tyres
Custom solo seat
King Sportster tank
Side mount license plate and stop/brake light kit
Drag bars and risers
Paughco horseshoe oil tank
Ultima kick start kit
S&S Super E
Stainless steel custom drag pipes
Performance Machine forward and hand controls
NCC custom engraved derby and points covers - Tony the Engraver
Electronic speedometer
Diamond Dog custom paint job - Nobby Leicester
Thanks go to Nick and Woody V-Twin, Rye for finishing things up once I’d fucked it up and gone as far as I could!