Hi, I'm Guy Willison also known as Skid to my mates. It's great to have you guys down here for
the day and I'm just going to give you a little bit of a run through of what I do in my working
life which is 5Four Motorcycles. It's my company, but that's my daytime job. And also I'm going to
give you a rundown of my personal biking which is obviously very important to me, but outside
of the work. The work side, look I've stood by these so we'll do these first. This is the CB1100RS
You can't get that from Honda any more. I built 40 odd of them. I didn't build 54 because
they ran out of bikes. But I'm still allowed because I'm not up to 54, to do bespoke builds.
So this is a customer's bespoke build. It came in a week ago, and basically it's been stripped and
whatever's been done to that. And I'll get back and build that later down the line. It's off
being painted. So 5Four consists of this, that one there is the current model with Honda, the 2021/22
CB1000R. That's a lot nearer finish than it looks. You look at that and think, my god there's a lot
to go on that, but all the work's been done. I'm just waiting for the Race Fit to arrive,
put the body work back and the seat which is over there. So that's the 1000R. Current model,
Honda dealer only. And this one here is also a CB1000R. Obviously that's the 2021-22. It's
got this headlamp. This bike, to all intents and purposes, it is the model before. It is actually
the prototype that I did it from. So this is available. You can't go to Honda for this one.
It's either a bespoke build if you want me to do it, or you can order the bits off the 5FOUR
website. So that's that one, that's the 2018-20 model. And if someone's got one of them and they
want me to build it like that, I will. Or if they just want a fairing they can do it that way. And
that's a new move for me. It's not up until this 1000R that I've really been able to do that.
So that's those. So that's my current working life which kind of takes me to this one.
Now this orange one is my personal bike. I built 40 of them in the enamel red of that one there.
That's 04. That's a very early one. And that's the flat enamel red. There's nothing wrong with
that, I love it, that's why I painted it that colour for Honda. However, because I built 40,
I like to think I'm a little bit rebellious and be a bit individual, so mine had to be candy
orange. I don't know if it looks any better. I mean I do love it. So I couldn't have the same
as everyone else. So there's a few other detail changes on that. But that's my bespoke 1100.
And if you like that kind of thing and you've got one of these bikes because you can't get them new,
get in touch and I can build you a bespoke one. This one
is my Harley. I've had it a few years. It's a Night Train. It's a 2001. I absolutely love it.
It keeps changing. Not radically. I'll put the panniers on this winter. I'll put the original
single seat back on. I put a gun fighter on. I'll put the footrest on. This is my go to
everyday bike. That's why I love it. Something's gone disastrously wrong financially if that
ends up on eBay or something like that. So that's my pride and joy and my workhorse bike.
I've recently, well not recently actually, it's a little while now, it feels recently because it's
probably one of my newest additions. I've got this Ironhead Sportster. I've always wanted one.
I've had a few Evo Sportsters but I wanted to go old-school. I love the look of this engine.
I think that's a beaut. To me that's, you know, art and a working engine all in one. I love this
little bike. So this is a work in progress. I just drop on this at the weekends and evenings,
if I can find time from building those. So this has actually changed quite a bit from when I got
it. This bike was hanging when I got it. It didn't run. You couldn't even turn it over.
And I took an absolute punt buying it. Probably paid too much for it, although I don't care.
So I've changed the seat, I've chopped the mud guard ,done the rear light. It had ape hanger
bars, I put these on. A lot of people probably think that's the wrong move, but it's comfy for me
like that. And I've made stainless steel carb mounts and choke mounts and ignition mounts and
sorted out the breathing. So, on and on. But that's my lovely little Ironhead Sportster.
And also the great thing with this, and I've got into this recently, if a bike's over 40 years old
there's no tax and MOT. I mean you've still got to have it safe. So it will be when it's on the road,
it'll be MOT-able anyway. But you don't have to bother. It's cheap motoring. You just put petrol
in that, oil and brake pads, and it's kind of like free motoring. It's fantastic. This is the same,
it's over 40 years old. This is a little Learner 125. Back in the day that was just about the
fastest 125 you could buy. It's redlined at 12 grand. It's a little screamer and I've just
got back into little bikes because I've had, I don't know, 35 year or more break from them.
I've been riding big things like these Harleys and you know Z1s back in the day and GS1000s.
I got back on this. It's such fun, it's so light, it's so easy. If you're nipping a mile up the road
get this out, don't get all your kevlar gear or that on. I know people say you shouldn't.
I have body armour on but I'll put my kevlar jeans on and just a jacket and off you go.
I'm not going to go fast on that. So that's really refreshing. Lovely little bike. So
that's in my collection as it were. This is the standard limited edition that was,
you know, that was ordered through Honda. That's not a bespoke. That is ground zero,
that's the very first batch of 5Fours that I made. This, well, this here is a bit of a rogue.
My son, you know what kids are like, he passed his test on that. I found it for him. He passed
his test, then he had to have it restricted when he first got his test. Then he could de-restrict
it after two years, and he's rather attached to it. He's actually got a Repsol Honda now,
but he won't sell this. But he's frightened of smashing his Repsol up on a track day,
so the race bike isn't on the track. That's on the road, and this one which is a great road bike,
is his track day bike. So he's kind of got it the wrong way. But he loves riding this on the track
so he won't sell it. He said he'll keep it for a while. And then finally,
lurking over here, and it's over here because I'm about to do a test ride on it,
this is my little Benley. Now you see this is what I mean, I'm used to doing things like this.
I started on this. When I was dispatching I had a Honda 550 and if it broke down, which it didn't
really, but if I had to have work done on it, they wanted to keep me on the road, I'd borrow one of
these. They had a fleet of 30 of these. And I used to ride these around London. And you know what,
I didn't earn any less money on this than my Z1 or GT550 or whatever else I was using, or BMW800.
I used to earn the same on this. The weather protection of these fairings for a little bike is
great, and this was nippy in the London traffic. So I didn't earn any less on this than my big
bike, because I didn't really do long distance. So with rose tinted spectacles, this was naked,
I hunted round for the fairing, this is my rolling restoration at the moment. And you can catch me
doing this on my YouTube channel, Guy Willison. So this is a work in progress. And I love this
little thing, it's so refreshing to ride. So yeah, that's basically a quick rundown of what I'm up
to in my world. Right, the bit I've been looking forward to. I'm going to start this up. This is...
This is a CB1100. It's actually 1139 I think it is, or 1135.
It's the last of the air cooled inline Jap fours. It's big, it's got mid-range grunt,
it's beautifully smooth, and I think these race fits just sound fantastic. It's not too loud,
but when you're riding this and you chuck it down a couple of gears coming into a corner, because
on this you want to go slow in fast out, you go in hot on this you're going to be in a world of
trouble, it's heavy. And I'm not a particularly big lad. So yeah, this is a beautiful bike.
So I think that's glorious. And riding it cross country. What happy days, what more do you want?
And also these engines are so simple. It is fuel injected with all that modern stuff, but it's not
traction control, it's not water cooled. So for a modern bike, this is about as basic as it gets,
but this is a lovely mild mannered, cross country, ride-it-all-day. I love it. Right next. This is
sort of like, a more modern than that really. It's got, you know, usual 5Four job on it. But again,
all the transmission engine and everything is bog standard. Obviously it's got the race fit
Growler-X. I love the look of that. It shows all the single sided swing arm. So, these haven't been
run for a little while. There we go. Completely different sound to that. That's a lot deeper and
lazier sounding because that's how the engine is. This is a lovely thing. I love the look of it.
Still got the cat on so it's not too loud. It's not like an F1 car. But when you're
cracking along, when you wind this up, it's lovely. It is more frenzied than that. But,
you know, these bikes are, they're not chalk and cheese, but they are distinctively different.
You can tell at higher revs, that sort of comes on song. But it's not too loud at tick over.
It's not annoying. So that's that one. Now the Harley. Obviously this is my go to bike.
I love this thing. I'll put the choke on. It's got this thing. Now hang on a minute,
I'm going to stop here from running engines. It has this plipper thing. You've got to press
it twice to disarm it and arm it, you know to ride. This aggravates me. I like those,
they're just a key. This thing you've got to do this, there's codes and all sorts, and I live in
fear of the battery going when I'm out. There is a code you can put in but please, give me a key.
Those are great because that's how they work. But anyway, here we go, let's see if we can do it.
There we go, two clicks, it's flashed its lights. Choke on. Oh, now why is that not going? Have I
hit the....no there we go. There we go. This is a lot louder, which I quite like. This is a 1450
twin cam, which when it says twin cam, don't get excited, it's not fast. But I love riding this.
This is my go anywhere bike. I've got my panniers for all my junk, and yeah, this is a lovely thing.
And we'll just get it ticking over.
See when that's ticking over that's not too anti-social. It's got character. And this puts
the grin on my face as well as all of them do. So it just shows you a bit of variation.
Inline air cooled four, a mild state of tune. Now that one, a bit higher, a bit sportier.
And this what, old school carburetors. So happy days. So yeah, I love them all.
Right, that's that. I hope you enjoyed coming to the workshop today.
It's been a pleasure having you here. See you next time.