Calling a bike a Bobber nowadays has become as ubiquitous a term as Café Racer or Street Tracker, as successive manufacturers rush to jump on a potentially profitable commercial bandwagon. But Fred Walmsley, 76, is old enough to remember the genuine Bobbers first time round, after they were invented in the USA post-WWII (see DNA sidebar), and after toying with the idea of building one for the past 50 years, he finally went and did so in the well-equipped workshop attached to his farmhouse outside Preston, on the edge of the Lancashire fells. Except, it’s not a Bobber, but The Fredder – as in, built by Fred, not Bob, using an array of Norton parts to create a cut-‘n’-shut streetlegal vintage racer with heaps of attitude.
This Anglo-American concoction sits well with the 1952 straight-six ¾-ton Chevy pickup it shares the Walmsley farmyard with, or the 1931 Model A Ford hotrod nestling in a nearby stable that’s been channelled and chopped to produce a totally authentic 350ci (5.7-litre) flathead V8 speedster.
Walmsley is best known for the succession of Manx Norton and Matchless G50 classic racers he’s furnished over the past 30+ years for the likes of Barry Sheene, Wayne Gardner, John McGuinness and other stars of the past and present to ride. Together, they’ve won dozens of historic races around the world from the UK to Australia with Walmsleyprepped bikes, all of which were prepared in that same farmhouse workshop. So, what’s with the Fredder, er – Fred?
“I’ve always liked building stuff like this,” admits Walmsley, “ever since in the early ’60s when at 14 years old I built what you’d now call a mountain bike out of my pushbike. My mum has a picture of me with this creation, complete with wide handlebar, moped wheels, big tyres and stuff like that. I had it in my mind for a long time to build a Bobbertype hotrod to ride around on, but it wasn’t till I came across an ideal donor bike that I finally got going properly on it.”
That bike was a
