I rarely – virtually never – build bikes for other people these days. I closed down Anthill Customs nigh on 35 years ago now and for the following couple of decades I did occasional work for old customers. These days I have a race programme and my own race bikes to keep in top fettle, and that keeps me quite busy enough in the shed thank you very much. In fact, over the last twenty years the only exceptions I can think of are the Blue Starfire I built for Fiona, my close friend of thirty years standing (as featured in this esteemed organ and seen in all its glory in RC212), and now this bike for Scott Speed.
I've featured Scott's bikes before. He does build a nice bike himself, but I can't recall if I'd ever mentioned that he was and is my brother. And when your brother needs a better race bike, well…
And so with equal rarity, instead of normally talking about the finished bike myself, I can hand the reins over to the new proud owner. Cue feet up and a large glass of ginger wine laced with cherry vodka.
THE OWNER SPEAKS
‘One of the advantages of having an older brother is he's trodden the ground before. If they're a cool older brother and you've the same DNA then you stand a good chance of digging the same things. In 1969, Odgie (aka ‘our kid’) sat the three-year-old me on our old man's Honda step-through – which Pop used for collecting his coal money – and indicated the throttle rudiments. Odgie kicked it up, dropped it in gear and told me to rev it.
‘We set off! My little legs dangled below the seat and him, still a kid really, running behind, ready to grab the rear rack and steady the bike when it stopped. Trying to give me thesmashing me an’ our old man's bike up! (No, he didn't know.) Both were fortunately avoided miraculously and I was initiated into the world of motorcycling.
