Hesketh's New Monster: The Supercharged, 2100cc Valiant V-Twin

In the 35 years since Hesketh started production in 1982 the firm has built fewer bikes than Honda makes in 35 minutes. The chances of seeing one in the wild is slim to negligible. But its latest custodian, Paul Sleeman, is making some waves with the reborn version of the firm that he's building.

When Sleeman bought the rights to the Hesketh name from the firm's founder, eccentric British baron Lord Hesketh, in 2013, his intentions were modest. Carrying over nothing from the previous V1000 models that Hesketh originally made, he instead created a completely new machine. Called the Hesketh 24, only 24 were ever to be made and many expected that would be all we'd see of the project. They all found buyers, though, allowing a second model, the Sonnet, to be developed. Now a third version has been revealed, and it's the most ambitious by some margin.

Called the Valiant, the new bike shares its chrome-moly steel tube chassis and the 2100cc S&S X-Wedge V-twin with the previous Sleeman-developed Heskeths, but adds a Rotrex supercharger to the mix. It certainly promises to spice the bike up, increasing power from 145bhp to 210bhp at 5500rpm on this initial prototype. By the time production starts in summer 2018, that figure is expected to rise to 250bhp. Either figure should be more than enough to push the needle beyond the end of the 150mph Smiths speedo.

The 128cu in, pushrod V-twin has its compression ratio dropped from 9.25:1 to 8.75:1 to help deal with the extra intake charge from the supercharger, but retains its normal S&S engine management system. Thanks to its massive capacity, peak torque is already a hefty 218lb-ft at just 3000rpm, and with further fine tuning could go higher still.

Sleeman has set a target to source as much of the bike as possible from British companies, so while the engine and six-speed Baker transmission hail from America you won’t find the usual exotic options of Brembo and Ohlins kit on this bike. Instead there are Hesketh-branded 6-piston brakes from UK firm Pretech. They sit at the bottom of a set of British-made K-Tech forks, and the same company provides the fully adjustable rear shocks. The three-piece, 17-inch wheels are again Hesketh-branded, made from billet aluminum. The same material is used for the rocker covers, primary drive cover and yokes. Hesketh claims a dry weight of 527lb, which is only 9lb more than the naturally-aspirated Sonnet model.

Of course, all this comes at a price. Hesketh is expecting the bike to cost £50,000 in its homeland. That’s $61,350 at the current exchange rate, with a weak British Pound, but more typically it would be around $80,000.