“I FOUND THAT WITH FASTER BIKES I WAS
GETTING BORED BECAUSE YOU CAN’T RIDE THEM
TO THEIR FULL POTENTIAL ON THE ROAD”
D
ave has always loved
motorcycles since before
he was even old enough to
ride and that love has never
faded. With the exception
of a couple of years when life—in
the shape of getting a mortgage
together—got in the way, he has
never been without a bike, and
often more than one. Those bikes
have spanned the range of two-
wheeled machinery, from classics
to sports bikes, although he says:
“I found that with the faster bikes I
was getting bored because you can’t
ride them to their full potential on
the road without killing yourself or
losing your licence.”
So, instead Dave turned his
attention to a Honda XBR500, the
sports single launched in 1985 and
which never really found favour
with the buying public—less than
2000 were ever sold in the UK. But
the big single appealed to a manwho had had classic bikes and
Dave soon found, as he says, “I was
having bags more fun wringing the
life out of it while not really getting
into trouble.” Unsurprisingly, that
led him towards the custom world
(and, for that matter, the rest of the
world’s) favourite single, the Royal
Enfield Bullet.
The Bullet that Dave bought
was in café racer trim and it was,
he says, lots of fun. But then
he happened to come across a
motorcycle by a gentleman who
is quietly building some of the
nicest bobbers around, Mr Craig
Jones. Craig is no stranger to these
pages and you may remember
his stunning Triumph 3TA from
the cover of 100% Biker #224, not
to mention his own Bullet three
issues ago. While all of Craig’s
builds are rather lovely, it’s for his
Enfields that he is best known and
when Dave stumbled upon one ofBIKE FEATURE ROYAL ENFIELD BULLET SIXTY-5
32 | 100% Biker | issue 250 | http://www.100-biker.co.uk