THERE’S an unspoken personality trait that belongs to Australians from a certain era (which seems to be dying in the age of social media and its trappings of instant fame)—that you shouldn’t let your ego get too big, often described as tall poppy syndrome, or you’ll be treated to another of those great Aussie traditions—getting put in your place!

An even grander attitude that can grow from the knowledge of these ‘traditions’ is to set out on a task and do it with such precision and determination that to fail is not an option, regardless of the challenge you set yourself. Don’t give the bastards the chance to lay the boot in, just quietly go about your business and let the results speak for themselves.

Now, to build a motorcycle is no mean feat, but to build it from scratch is another thing all together. 

Many Aussies have gone on to international success in the motorcycle racing arena, helping to develop some of the fastest riders in history do their thing. Notably Kel Caruthers tuning Kenny ‘The King’ Roberts Yamahas; Jeremy Burgess guiding Hondas for ‘Mighty’ Mick Doohan; and arguably the best racer of the modern era, Valentino Rossi; and yet further back to the iconic Vincent motorcycles, designed by one Phil Irving, an Australian engineer responsible for one of the most iconic motorcycles known to man, the Vincent.

And then there’s a couple of brothers, Ken & Barry Horner, who designed and built the Irving Vincent machines at their engineering shop in Hallam, an outer suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, to showcase their engineering skills. It should be noted that their business, KH Equipment, Precision Engineering, isn’t a motorcycle manufacturer or supplier; this bike exists purely because they wanted to show the world that they do exceptional engineering work.

HRD (Horner Racing Development), another play on the famous brand, was created with the lofty goal of taking on the world at Daytona for the famous Battle Of The Twins championship held at the annual Daytona Bike Week. As a part-time project and a small team from the land ‘Down Under’, I doubt any of the factory teams were trembling in their boots, but they won anyway… goal achieved! It should be noted also that this was achieved on the earlier 1299 cc, two-valve head, air-cooled, push-rod model. In its current guise the big twin is 1600 cc with four-valve heads.

An invitation to the other side of the world to attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed, gave the HRD Irving Vincent a chance to stick it to the Poms, a bit of an Aussie tradition, so they took up the challenge and headed over to try their luck. 

Barry explained to me that in the rider briefing everybody was told to “Stay close together, lads; let the spectators see some close racing.” As it happened, another rider did the bolt up front, and as the pace had been set, Beau Beaton, the HRD pilot, gave chase as any racer would not realising the gap they were making on the rest of the pack. As a result, the lead rider made a mistake and went off leaving Beau to cross the finish line in front…19 seconds ahead of the pack! 

The next outing was much the same, only a margin of 25 seconds was the result this time. Needless to say, the Poms weren’t impressed about being flogged by the convicts and politely applauded but haven’t invited them back.

Although there is no multi-national factory backing or major sponsorship deals involved with HRD, the results of their efforts are outstanding. I’ve had the honour of seeing the bikes in action and have chatted with Ken and Barry on a few occasions and they’re just a couple of average blokes with a passion for motorcycles and racing. They are always happy to answer any questions, and nothing seems to be off limits. They’re just happy to be doing what they do and love sharing their passion. 

And nothing beats the sound this beast emits when fired up. You can feel every engine pulse as it roars into life in the pit garage, not to mention the ground-shaking roar as it thunders down the main straight, with its competition struggling to keep it in sight. With 1600 cc, fuel injection and four-valve heads, the super-bike model is good for about 275 km/h… not too shabby for an air-cooled push-rod donk!

There are a few variations of HRD’s Irving Vincent each specifically built to comply with the differing regulations required for the various classes of racing it competes in, all hand-built apart from suspension, wheels and brakes: a classic version with conventional forks, spoked wheels and appropriate braking for the era; a Super-bike version with top shelf Öhlins suspension, magnesium wheels and large stoppers supplied by AP Racing brakes; and a sidecar which must be a wild ride pushing warp speed with your chin hovering just above the ground!

The whole operation is a hands-on exercise for the Horners with all the spannering done by themselves, transporting to and from meetings from their base in Melbourne, and Barry often pilots the sidecar himself as well!

The moral of the story is that with passion, determination and a fair amount of cleverness, anything can be achieved, not to mention large amounts of the filthy lucre that will also be required! 

And how much would you need to buy one of these mighty machines? It’s not relevant because you can’t buy one. They aren’t for sale and they aren’t being produced for anybody else… but there’s nothing stopping you from having a go at building your own world-beating motorcycle now is there?

Words: JT of Crotch Rocket Motorcycles; photos: iShootPix

Indiana

HI. THIS is my first go at modelling for a magazine so I hope it works… My involvement began with the suggestion of a family friend to try out being a grid girl at the bike races which went really well and I ended up being on TV for the broadcast of the round on SBS. 

I’ve only ever done a couple of other photo shoots, one with some old WW II planes and another for a clothing brand, but I hope to do some more in the future. 

Shooting this after a day at the races was fun and all the people at HRD Vincent were friendly and helped me to get over my nerves. It’s also great to know I’ll be in Ozbike!

Love, Indi, xoxox.