As September crept closer, the pressure to finish the restoration grew. The exhaust replacement had been a real issue, as we could only find reproduction exhausts, which are notoriously hard to fit. After much fettling the odd rude word and a day of skinned knuckles, the exhaust finally was in place, and Bernie moved on to replacing the oil lines, and I set about stencilling the army markings on the now restored paintwork. As the paint was drying and I was admiring my work, Holly from Bangers & Cash called to let me know that they had decided not to have the army markings, so could I not put them on? To say Holly had to calm me with kind words would be an understatement. Inside, I was crying. So, back to the paintwork to respray over the stencil I had just finished painting.
I had managed to source a new front tyre, so we removed it, painted the wheel rim, greased all of the grease nipples, and refitted the new tyre. Hank was starting to take shape.
I had been spending time every few days feeding the leather of the gun holster with leather conditioner and was, and it was finally starting to become supple, and its true colour was starting to show through. When I started working on it, I didn’t hold out much hope that it would recover as it was so incredibly dry and cracked that the chances of it restoring were pretty slim. However, with time, care and the right leather restoration products, day by day, its original glory started to show through, and finally, it was ready.
The mechanical side of the bike was also progressing, the engine was now back in the bike and the clutch was rebuilt with a new hand shifter linkage, new drive chain and battery and the restored bodywork being fitted a piece at a time and the dashboard being reassembled with all the missing parts having been sourced it was finally time to start the bike and test ride.
As the WLA is kick start only, we had a little bet between us of how many kicks it would take to start the bike after 30 years of standing and being rebuilt. Let’s just say I lost the bet! I predicted 11 kicks, and it would start, Pete predicted 3 – he won. This is a true testament to the WLA’s engine, that after all that time and being rebuilt, it started within three kicks, this is one of the reasons the flathead engine had such a long life – pure agricultural simplistic perfection. Hank lives to ride again!
Peter was the first one to jump on and have a test ride, Bernie was the second, and I went last. Having never ridden a suicide shift bike before, I was more than nervous and only took it a short distance, but it was the thrill of my life. I had ridden a WLA!
We spent the last few days Hank was with us fettling and tuning, finishing the painted star on the tank, and making sure it was 100% perfect before it went back to Bangers & Cash. I was really sad that Hank would be leaving us and believe me if I had the money, I would have tried to buy him so he stayed with us but this one wasn’t to be. I had to let him go.
The final touch was to fit the new seat and luggage that had been made for us, refit the gun holster and tools and on a boiling hot day in early September we said a fond goodbye to Hank as he was driven away by the Bangers & Cash team.
Not Goodbye Hank; It’s See You Later
I can tell you Hank has gone to an amazing home and his new owner has kept his name and stayed in touch with us, if I win the lottery one day I dream of reuniting with Hank.
This had been an amazing journey, I had managed to fulfil a dream of working on such a wonderful motorcycle that has played such a vast role in motorcycle history and culture and had been given the chance to once again do mechanical processes that modern bikes just do not require. Having to use our skills in engineering and gain the balance between restoration and preservation and researching archives for the correct parts and colours for such an important vehicle is not something I expect I will ever have the chance to do again, but I will never forget Hank.
Many thanks to Peter from Bone Rockin Bikes, Toshi from Bell 45, C&C Car Paints and all of London’s amazing crafts and tradespeople, without who restorations like these would not happen.
Fantastic.
Well done
Steff.
New Tredegar Arms sa92xg
You are welcome to call.
Nice one!
A few parts are missing or missmatched, but that’s just down to personal taste.
Have fun with it, learn to ride it safely..it takes a while to get used to footclutching and hand-shifting properly.
Best advise: take your time when shifting, don’t force things.
Best wishes