File:Hesketh V1000 black.jpg

Hesketh Motorcycles is a British motorcycle manufacturer, based in Daventry and Easton Neston.

The company was formed by Alexander, 3rd Lord Hesketh, in 1980, then after his two ventures went bust from 1984 onwards, the marque has been maintained and improved by Broom Engineering, now based at Turweston Aerodrome near Silverstone Circuit.

Background

The project was inspired by Lord Hesketh, who planned to revive the failing British motorcycle industry and at the time had a background of F1 racing being the last private team to win a Formula One Grand Prix, with James Hunt at the wheel. Lord Hesketh wanted to use the skills and facilities built up in that pursuit to greater effect and production of a quality motorcycle was born.

The Hesketh motorcycle was developed on the Easton Neston estate, with the prototype running in the spring of 1980 using a special Weslake engine. The V-twin V1000 (based loosely on the marketing panache of the Vincent Motorcycle), offered all sorts of advances; for example, it was the first British bike with four valves per cylinder and twin overhead camshafts (although commonplace in Japanese machines). [edit] Hesketh Motorcycles One of the few Hesketh Vampire Super Tourers built

After two years of development, the project was announced to the press and partners were sought for the manufacturing. However, none were forthcoming and so Lord Hesketh formed Hesketh Motorcycles plc. In 1982 a modern purpose built factory was set up to manufacture the Hesketh V1000 motorcycles in Daventry.

However, there were numerous problems. The bikes were heavy, made worse by a high riding style; and unreliable, with numerous manufacturing problems adding to an overheating rear cylinder due to lack of air flow. The resultant bad press combined on top of an underdeveloped bike, lack of cash and a collapsing market meant that after the production of 139 bikes, the company went into receivership.

The Triumph Motorcycles co-operative looked at buying the rights to the machine, as they lacked a new model beyond the aged Triumph Bonneville. A V1000 machine even appeared with a Triumph badge on its tank, but Triumph also lacked funding to buy and develop the machine.