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Bike is Born
At full throttle this autumn a star of the silver screen, a wartime hero and a modern day monster, are born again on Discovery Home & Leisure.
HARLEY DAVIDSON WLC (1942)
In tribute to its’ 100 years of production, programmes 1-5 see the
full restoration of a 1942 Harley Davidson WLC, which was originally built
for the Commonwealth’s war effort. The classic model WLA was the most
reliable motorcycle of the war years and manufactured between 1942 and 1945.
More than 90,000 were built and shipped, many finding peacetime work as Police bikes after the war. In the series, we have civilianised it by changing its colour and cleaned up and restored its parts. We have kept the original frame and engine, which luckily for us had matching numbers. During the strip, Mark discovers that our Harley Davidson has had a flirtation with fame.
TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE T120R (1970)
This was the last model before the oil in the frame Triumph came into production.
Despite being a British marque, it was built for the American market, being
despatched to the Triumph Corporation in Baltimore. Now, it’s the focus
of Mark Evans’ second self-build challenge, which reveals aspects of
its history; revealing that whatever the Americans got, they always wanted
to make it bigger and better, by adding their own parts!
Affectionately labelled the ‘Bonnie’, it remained in production for 25 years. Mark’s ‘Bonnie’ was found in a condition best described as “Tired.” Before Mark can get to grips with the construction process, he has to track down some missing parts.
THE ‘LOW RIDER’ TRIKE (2003)
As if a Harley and a Triumph wasn’t enough, Mark takes it one step
further by embarking on a German Boom Trike kit. Boom Trikes has manufactured
more than 4,000 trikes since it was established in 1990. The Low Rider has
an extremely low sitting (reclining) position which even Harley riders can’t
match! Mark carves a VW Beetle to bits, in order to salvage the back axle
of the trike.
It has a 1600 VW engine with Weber Carbs, capable of a cruising speed of 77mph, and does between 24 and 32 miles per gallon. It is dressed in stainless steel and the red fibreglass body has been treated to a trendy airbrush job.
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