[Dave] Hi Steve, I see we've got your bike here, the Hollis. Now I've been looking at this and so
has Alex earlier, and it is a blend of old and new, and to me that stands out because this ain't
different to look at. We all tend to sort of want our classic bikes or modern bikes, but this is
something different. This gives you the opportunity to ride something with a twist. So I want you to
tell me why you built this, and what components you've used. And in your own words how
this dream came about really. [Steve] All right, okay then. Well a long story. [Dave] We could keep it short if you
like. [Steve] Yeah okay, well Hollis was basically designed as an introduction of something
different on the classic vintage side. And so what I wanted was basically style,
and I was looking for sort of like modern components. So hence the disc brakes, okay, and
the modern shocks as well for suspension. A lot of the old classic bikes, you know,
they were hard tails, and what have you. And so what we wanted was something that was
geometrical riding, and so we had the balance, and that's basically
that really. So modern components, that was the key. [Dave] Girder forks,
I love, and you'd probably say the same, because the ride you get from girders,
with telescopic forks you get a bit of fork dive, they give you such a lovely ride because the frame
will move, won't it, but not that dive on the front. [Steve] Basically girder forks work differently to telescopics.
So when a girder fork, when it rises to a certain point, it will actually go into
what they call a negative trail. Okay, and so I always find that with a telescopic you're
coming up with that angle. With a girder fork, you tend to come up more on a sort of like a
straighter angle, okay. Before then it will come back and rotate back on itself giving you that negative
rake. However, I think they just sort of like, you know, as I say with the modern
girders, because we use a spring in there that's got 12
different settings for rebound. [Dave] Oh this is adjustable, this spring here. [Steve] Yes, that spring in there is
adjustable so you have, what you have is an adjustable rebound. Okay so your
spring tension here, okay, and then you have the rebound button here. So you have 12 settings,
okay, on soft, medium and hard setting, on the rebound. [Dave] That's clever, that's really,
really nice. [Steve] We design our springs as well for the weight of the bike as well,
okay, and so each spring, okay, will be compatible to the weight of the bike itself.
[Dave] So it can be set to the weight of the rider as well.
[Steve] Yeah that's right, yeah. So they're quite sort of like, they're adjustable all the way around
you can have them hard, you can have them soft, you can have medium. You know, it depends on the
riding style, smooth roads or roads that have got bloody potholes, you know, stuff like that. You know,
you've got to set it up differently. [Dave] Well we've spoken about the front end. Going to talk about,
you've done a monoshock on here, like using two shocks, but it's like a monoshock isn't it.
This is another twist here. So tell us about this. [Steve] Okay, so normally
you have your hardtails, and so what I wanted was the hardtail look, however with a bit of suspension.
Okay, and so I thought well I've come up with this design, okay, whereas basically geometry wise,
okay, works really well, and basically we've just fitted up some modern springs again, some
modern shocks, okay. They're fully adjustable again, with the rebound.
There's adjustment on the rear as well, yeah. This is number eight, okay, this is one of the later
builds, okay. If we go to number three, Hollis number three, okay.
You'll see the same design here but these are actually Öhlins, these are Öhlin designs, okay.
So they come with a 19-page instruction manual, if you can figure out how... [Dave] That's too complicated.
[Steve] If you can sort that out, I'll fill your boots. [Dave] But that gives it a lovely ride. Can we just come back to your bike,
and really, now we've spoken about the front end and the rear suspension, now it runs a disc
on the front and back? [Steve] Yeah, that's right. [Dave] So what braking have you got on there?
Can you say what manufacturer you used on there? [Steve] Okay so basically I use the Hollis run
Talon wheel sets, okay. Talon kindly made me up some hubs and they've actually got cush
drives in them. They're very, very good hubs. And we went for the disc brakes because
obviously we wanted modern braking, good braking. Okay, original package was the
Brembos, okay. After we couldn't get any more Brembos, the Brembos had supplied and
designed the package for us as such, then they went obsolete with the callipers, so we went
over to the Pretech. They are four piston ones. In an actual fact there's a lot more braking efficiency on them
[Dave] They actually do brakes for trials bikes don't they. They're well known for it. So I'm sorry,
I'm going to move you on to now the engine side of it now. Now this is a Bullet 350. [Steve] Yeah the engine,
okay, the engine package I wanted to keep it with a little bit of British history, okay, and so this is
the Royal Enfield. So basically the original design from the old Redditch days, you know,
and of course now obviously moved over to to Royal India, and basically so these are engines
that basically that are refurbished with all good internal parts. [Dave] This is bulletproof, like the name.
It's a Bullet, it's built like a Bullet.
[Steve] And they're sort of like this very simple agricultural engines, you know,
they're just sort of like, you know, we've got the Amal carbs on them,
and everything else. So they're just the basic 350cc engine. However we run a five speed on this
one. There are options, we've got a five speed on this one and then on
that one over there we've got the original four speed. So if you're okay with the false neutrals...
[Dave] Before I forget to mention, we have a single cylinder engine here which we know,
but we do a split. We do a single down pipe
to a splitter, so we have two silencers one here. [Steve] So what we have, okay so what we have, we have this
lovely pipe, you know, that comes out, okay, and then it dives down the back of the engine.
It goes into what we call the horseshoe, which is the splitter. And so what I wanted to do was
keep the balance of the back end of the bike nicely with the two little flutes,
and so I designed it so that we could just dive down a little horseshoe
underneath here, okay, a little clamp there, okay. The little fixing points here, okay.
And the little flutes, is what we call them,
okay. And so these pipes here, okay, they're stainless steel, and we have them ceramic
coated, inside and out. Both inside and out. The whole thing of the bike is
the quality of what we put into it, okay. That's for the materials the finishings,
it's like the steel work, it's T45 that, you know, the best... [Dave] You don't skimp on materials. [Steve] No
not at all. [Dave] You don't skimp on detail because we look at your exhaust system, you've got Hollis on here,
and that's lovely, it's the detail. When I look at this I almost think of like the CCM. I look
at like the Spitfire, and they build a bike with quality, but you're building this bike on your
own and the quality you built into this is amazing. With the adjustable suspension you've got,
and having discs on front and on the back, the bike is a real tribute to you. You've done a really good job on it.
[Steve] It's a pretty little bike. It's been, the design aspect, you know, was a couple of
years trying to get all the geometry sorted out. Certainly on the front forks and the rear
suspension as well, because it's very critical between, you know, various the three points here,
okay. The shock's on full compression actually only oscillate about
I think it's 2.75 degrees, yeah. So then they don't heat up. So you know when a shock is
working really hard it gets hot and that's through the oscillation, and so if you keep
the oscillation down, okay, then obviously they don't get hot. But then obviously it's
not a race bike, you know. [Dave] just going to ask you one thing
before I forget. How long did it take you to think about building this bike in this
way because it's a totally different frame from the original. The way you've incorporated the
hardtail, but it's got this rear damping, it's like a monoshock. So the design time,
it must have taken you a long time to think about it. Or was it like a work in progress and you
built it as you went along. [Steve] No, I didn't know. I completely designed this as I wanted it, and so
basically it was on the drawing board, it was working out all the aspects of the rake,
the trail, with the wheelbase. It's engine package in actual fact came a little bit
later on. And so first of all it was to get the geometry right, okay, that was
the first the first port of call. [Dave] This sort of thing can take years can't it. [Steve] Yeah, as I say
there was two years of development time in the Hollis. [Dave] You tend to stick to the 350
rather than 500 engine because of the vibration in the bigger engine. This is a sweeter engine really isn't
it, and it does what it's supposed to do in this setup because it's a light frame. You don't lose
anything out on power here at all being a 350, it's ample. [Steve] No, power to weight ratio as I say, they come
out at 146 kilos. Okay the 500, I think it's only about three horsepower. A heavier engine I think
there's more vibration there as well. And so, you know, I'd say to people, I'd say well
the 350 is the better package as far as an engine packet goes. And of course with a with an RE
engine, you know, if you know what you're doing, you know, they're simple
to maintain. You get the parts cheap enough, you know, so
the bike as it is, in actual fact when you look at the engine package, it's not going to cost
you horrendous amounts really for a service. [Alex] What's the cost on it Steve?
[Steve] One of these will cost you £16,000 now, okay. Before they were cheaper
I'm afraid, because we're poor and you don't make any money out of motorcycles. I'll tell you that.
It's a labour of love. The Hollis story, I just wanted to introduce, you know, a British-made
motorcycle, you know, into this country and and, you know, just nothing fast, just a nice bike. A bit of style.
As I say, it's something different and that's it, as I say, that's
it. [Dave] I think that's really great. I think we've chatted it out, this, and
I think we've covered it really well and it's a credit to you. Thanks again Steve.
[Steve] Thank you very much.