NEW FALCON 'KESTREL' VIDEO

It looks like an ad for a bike you can't buy, sexy but a little frustrating!  Great work by Falcon, some of the footage is by Amaryllis Knight herself.  The location is the California desert, and the music by Ian Barry's 'other' project, his band Black Math Horseman.  Oh, you didn't know Ian is a musician too?  How he finds time to tour while making motorcycles under deadline is beyond my reckoning...

NEW FALCON 'KESTREL' VIDEO

It looks like an ad for a bike you can't buy, sexy but a little frustrating!  Great work by Falcon, some of the footage is by Amaryllis Knight herself.  The location is the California desert, and the music by Ian Barry's 'other' project, his band Black Math Horseman.  Oh, you didn't know Ian is a musician too?  How he finds time to tour while making motorcycles under deadline is beyond my reckoning...

WORLD EXCLUSIVE - FIRST RIDE ON THE KESTREL

Sometimes a scoop is a whispered favor, and sometimes you just grab it with both hands and go.
I had the great luxury of spending last weekend in the company of the whole Falcon Motorcycles ouevre; the Bullet, the Kestrel, Ian and Amaryllis, the talented trio of fabricators from Falcon, and Leif who built up the engine, at the Quail Lodge for the Motorcycle Gathering.
I've had the rare opportunity not only of having (well, hijacking) the first real ride on the Kestrel, but of watching the entire process of its development from a sketch through 'wouldn't these parts look cool if I mated them this way' to firing up the bike and easing the clutch home.

And what a thing Ian Barry has created.
It has broken the bounds of 'Custom' into some new category.  Ian Barry is no longer a Custom builder, he's graduated to a motorcycle designer, and the Kestrel is his masterpiece.

When I first saw the Bullet while judging at the 2008 Legends, I thought it was a well-executed Custom, worthy of praise, and thus tolerable to a Vintagent who had little interest in the genre per se, but certainly an appreciation of good workmanship and passion.

The Kestrel is different.

Ian Barry has shown there is Vintage blood running in his veins, plus something else, but I'll let history name that.  Mark my words, it will.  I'll stake a claim here and now that the Kestrel has broken out of the Custom shell, and has become something completely new.  This man and his team made a Motorcycle the world will have to reckon with.

I was interviewed last week for Wired magazine about the new Brough Superior project, the technical issues to overcome when building a contemporary motorcycle from an old design.  We spoke at length about modern materials and old skills required to make an air-cooled engine with limited lubrication run well and durably.  I mentioned the ethos of George Brough, which was to build a 'money is no object' motorcycle to his exacting standards, and how the new Brough Superior is built to such a standard.  The reporter asked if any other manufacturers used this credo today.  I had to think hard, as of course, no production motorcycle can be built to such standards with any hope of financial survival.

The only people with the dedication to build completely over-the-top motorcycles in terms of labor cost are making Customs these days.  Not the bolt-up or raked-out variety, but the true artisans who spend countless hours pursuing their unique vision of what a motorcycle can be.  Kimura, Nogata, Barry, and a handful of others.  The outer form may be similar to other machines; the great qualitative difference is Time.  No shortcut in machining or bolting on a stock part can replace hundreds or thousands of hours of skilled handwork.  It's a difficult path to walk, and there's no guarantee that even those established in this rarified air can remain there indefinitely, as economic realities, like the weather, are not subject to our will or wishes.

Having had the great luxury of observing the Kestrel's full spectrum of development from idea to metal, I  'knew what to expect' when the machine was finally unveiled.  And when I saw the post-painting photos, I thought it very well done indeed, but was hoping for a little more flash.  After all, it was supposed to be a Custom.

That statement may come as a bit of a shock to my friends at Falcon, but I hope they understand.  I've made a point in the last 25 years to own the motorcycles which I thought were the most beautiful in the world, and my standards have been high; four Broughs, and a lot of racing bikes -  Nortons (Manx, Inters, flat-tankers, twins), Velocettes (KTTs from '29-'49, Thruxtons et al), Sunbeams (TT90, Longstroke), Scotts (ex-Works '29 TT), BMW (R63, R68, R69, R51racer), Rudge ('29 Ulster).  A supercharged Zenith for cryin' out loud...something like 300 bikes passed through my garage in that period.  What I couldn't find or afford, I borrowed rides on, some of which I've been privileged to share via The Vintagent's 'road test' series.

So I spent more time with the Kestrel, and each time I looked I found something new.  A funny little gearbox adjuster, with positive stops and a brace to prevent any axial play. An internal throttle which exits through the end of the clip-on handlebar, with a knurled cable adjuster fixed unobtrusively in place. The little locking levers on top of the TT carbs, which adjust the idle speed.  The brackets which hold the two pannier tanks together, which are...turnbuckles... and adjustable to be sure the tanks will fit together just so. An articulated shifter mechanism which mimics the fine bones of the inner ear.

And gradually, I was awe-struck.

The Kestrel isn't a first-look or a ten-foot motorcycle, it's a third look machine, or a fifth.  Like a work of fine art, it needs to be lived with to soak it in.  It rewards time with time, those thousands of hours spent on its creation slowly leak back out, if you let them.  It's a monumental achievement, and among the most beautiful two-wheelers ever made.

Stick it on a shelf with a 1926 SS100, the blown AJS ohc twin, the NSU Rennmax, the icons, the great ones. If I were a wealthy man, I would buy the next Falcon.  As it is, we'll just have to wait and see how the Vincent 'Black' Falcon turns out.  Ian may make better machines in the future, or lesser, but we have the Kestrel, and it is the new standard.

OK, enough love poem, clearly I'm smitten.  I was also the first person to RIDE the Kestrel for any distance, as it was finished a day before the Quail with many, many sleepless nights spent fabricating the pieces in the previous months.  The 'World Exclusive' etc wasn't my intention, I simply found myself having been granted permission to try the Kestrel, with a running engine between my legs, and an open lawn.  'First gear is really tall' is all Ian said, but I knew the clutch was built for triple the horsepower, so a little slippage wouldn't harm things.  As I blatted the throttle and a glorious rasp barked from the two-into-one open megaphone (hand shaped by Ian into a fish mouth), it occurred to me that a ride around the golf course, fun as that sounds, wouldn't tell me what I needed to Know.

Does it work?  Or like Mona Lisa, is it a lovely work of Art?  I had reconnoitered the field access a bit earlier by riding my late-entry (ie, no entry, and at noon) '28 Sunbeam TT90 from the street onto the lawn, and thank you Courtney Porras for telling Quail security that I could 'do whatever I want'.  Give a man an inch!  Thus I knew it was perfectly possible to ride the bike straight from the grass to the road, and nobody would stop me.  Up the grassy slope - road clear - and off I went, first right, to all smiles from the hundreds of motorcyclists parked up along the street, and back again to the left, where the highway beckoned.

The private drive of the Quail is a couple of miles long, and has a mix of bends and straights, before connecting with legendary Carmel Valley Road.  The TT carbs weren't 100% sorted (I had been warned of this earlier), so the engine stumbled just off idle, then cleared up as the revs rose.  It was easier just to twist the throttle and have at it, let the machine have its head, while risking my own.  No, I wasn't wearing a helmet (one doesn't, typically, when emcee of an event) or gloves, but this was the Moment, and I was taking it all the way.

Full throttle through the gears, but the engine had less than a mile on it, so no need to find top speed.  That will happen at Bonneville this year, anyway; not my job.  Around the bends, with a few bumps and undulations and a rising throttle, the Kestrel behaved flawlessly, and I watched the forks Ian built move up and down smoothly.  While cranked over, the bike felt rock solid, yet light, nimble, and flickable.  The brakes were really good, better than any of my drum braked machines anyway; the clutch was light, the gear selection with that delicate shifter mechanism was easy and positive.

Surprise, the Kestrel is easy to ride, no excuses necessary, it works beautifully as a motorcycle, and felt for all the world like the big brother of my favorite bike of all time, 'The Mule', my '33 Velocette KTT - a truly magic machine which will leave my hands when they've gone cold.  I would have liked a longer ride, but I was aware that the Kestrel isn't mine by a factor of 200,000, and would be missed if I didn't get back soon.  Plus, we had strayed onto the public highway, and were illegal in ways foreign even to my lax standards.  So a victory lap around the grass was in order, and the smile hasn't left me yet.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE - FIRST RIDE ON THE KESTREL

Sometimes a scoop is a whispered favor, and sometimes you just grab it with both hands and go.
I had the great luxury of spending last weekend in the company of the whole Falcon Motorcycles ouevre; the Bullet, the Kestrel, Ian and Amaryllis, the talented trio of fabricators from Falcon, and Leif who built up the engine, at the Quail Lodge for the Motorcycle Gathering.
I've had the rare opportunity not only of having (well, hijacking) the first real ride on the Kestrel, but of watching the entire process of its development from a sketch through 'wouldn't these parts look cool if I mated them this way' to firing up the bike and easing the clutch home.

And what a thing Ian Barry has created.
It has broken the bounds of 'Custom' into some new category.  Ian Barry is no longer a Custom builder, he's graduated to a motorcycle designer, and the Kestrel is his masterpiece.

When I first saw the Bullet while judging at the 2008 Legends, I thought it was a well-executed Custom, worthy of praise, and thus tolerable to a Vintagent who had little interest in the genre per se, but certainly an appreciation of good workmanship and passion.

The Kestrel is different.

Ian Barry has shown there is Vintage blood running in his veins, plus something else, but I'll let history name that.  Mark my words, it will.  I'll stake a claim here and now that the Kestrel has broken out of the Custom shell, and has become something completely new.  This man and his team made a Motorcycle the world will have to reckon with.

I was interviewed last week for Wired magazine about the new Brough Superior project, the technical issues to overcome when building a contemporary motorcycle from an old design.  We spoke at length about modern materials and old skills required to make an air-cooled engine with limited lubrication run well and durably.  I mentioned the ethos of George Brough, which was to build a 'money is no object' motorcycle to his exacting standards, and how the new Brough Superior is built to such a standard.  The reporter asked if any other manufacturers used this credo today.  I had to think hard, as of course, no production motorcycle can be built to such standards with any hope of financial survival.

The only people with the dedication to build completely over-the-top motorcycles in terms of labor cost are making Customs these days.  Not the bolt-up or raked-out variety, but the true artisans who spend countless hours pursuing their unique vision of what a motorcycle can be.  Kimura, Nogata, Barry, and a handful of others.  The outer form may be similar to other machines; the great qualitative difference is Time.  No shortcut in machining or bolting on a stock part can replace hundreds or thousands of hours of skilled handwork.  It's a difficult path to walk, and there's no guarantee that even those established in this rarified air can remain there indefinitely, as economic realities, like the weather, are not subject to our will or wishes.

Having had the great luxury of observing the Kestrel's full spectrum of development from idea to metal, I  'knew what to expect' when the machine was finally unveiled.  And when I saw the post-painting photos, I thought it very well done indeed, but was hoping for a little more flash.  After all, it was supposed to be a Custom.

That statement may come as a bit of a shock to my friends at Falcon, but I hope they understand.  I've made a point in the last 25 years to own the motorcycles which I thought were the most beautiful in the world, and my standards have been high; four Broughs, and a lot of racing bikes -  Nortons (Manx, Inters, flat-tankers, twins), Velocettes (KTTs from '29-'49, Thruxtons et al), Sunbeams (TT90, Longstroke), Scotts (ex-Works '29 TT), BMW (R63, R68, R69, R51racer), Rudge ('29 Ulster).  A supercharged Zenith for cryin' out loud...something like 300 bikes passed through my garage in that period.  What I couldn't find or afford, I borrowed rides on, some of which I've been privileged to share via The Vintagent's 'road test' series.

So I spent more time with the Kestrel, and each time I looked I found something new.  A funny little gearbox adjuster, with positive stops and a brace to prevent any axial play. An internal throttle which exits through the end of the clip-on handlebar, with a knurled cable adjuster fixed unobtrusively in place. The little locking levers on top of the TT carbs, which adjust the idle speed.  The brackets which hold the two pannier tanks together, which are...turnbuckles... and adjustable to be sure the tanks will fit together just so. An articulated shifter mechanism which mimics the fine bones of the inner ear.

And gradually, I was awe-struck.

The Kestrel isn't a first-look or a ten-foot motorcycle, it's a third look machine, or a fifth.  Like a work of fine art, it needs to be lived with to soak it in.  It rewards time with time, those thousands of hours spent on its creation slowly leak back out, if you let them.  It's a monumental achievement, and among the most beautiful two-wheelers ever made.

Stick it on a shelf with a 1926 SS100, the blown AJS ohc twin, the NSU Rennmax, the icons, the great ones. If I were a wealthy man, I would buy the next Falcon.  As it is, we'll just have to wait and see how the Vincent 'Black' Falcon turns out.  Ian may make better machines in the future, or lesser, but we have the Kestrel, and it is the new standard.

OK, enough love poem, clearly I'm smitten.  I was also the first person to RIDE the Kestrel for any distance, as it was finished a day before the Quail with many, many sleepless nights spent fabricating the pieces in the previous months.  The 'World Exclusive' etc wasn't my intention, I simply found myself having been granted permission to try the Kestrel, with a running engine between my legs, and an open lawn.  'First gear is really tall' is all Ian said, but I knew the clutch was built for triple the horsepower, so a little slippage wouldn't harm things.  As I blatted the throttle and a glorious rasp barked from the two-into-one open megaphone (hand shaped by Ian into a fish mouth), it occurred to me that a ride around the golf course, fun as that sounds, wouldn't tell me what I needed to Know.

Does it work?  Or like Mona Lisa, is it a lovely work of Art?  I had reconnoitered the field access a bit earlier by riding my late-entry (ie, no entry, and at noon) '28 Sunbeam TT90 from the street onto the lawn, and thank you Courtney Porras for telling Quail security that I could 'do whatever I want'.  Give a man an inch!  Thus I knew it was perfectly possible to ride the bike straight from the grass to the road, and nobody would stop me.  Up the grassy slope - road clear - and off I went, first right, to all smiles from the hundreds of motorcyclists parked up along the street, and back again to the left, where the highway beckoned.

The private drive of the Quail is a couple of miles long, and has a mix of bends and straights, before connecting with legendary Carmel Valley Road.  The TT carbs weren't 100% sorted (I had been warned of this earlier), so the engine stumbled just off idle, then cleared up as the revs rose.  It was easier just to twist the throttle and have at it, let the machine have its head, while risking my own.  No, I wasn't wearing a helmet (one doesn't, typically, when emcee of an event) or gloves, but this was the Moment, and I was taking it all the way.

Full throttle through the gears, but the engine had less than a mile on it, so no need to find top speed.  That will happen at Bonneville this year, anyway; not my job.  Around the bends, with a few bumps and undulations and a rising throttle, the Kestrel behaved flawlessly, and I watched the forks Ian built move up and down smoothly.  While cranked over, the bike felt rock solid, yet light, nimble, and flickable.  The brakes were really good, better than any of my drum braked machines anyway; the clutch was light, the gear selection with that delicate shifter mechanism was easy and positive.

Surprise, the Kestrel is easy to ride, no excuses necessary, it works beautifully as a motorcycle, and felt for all the world like the big brother of my favorite bike of all time, 'The Mule', my '33 Velocette KTT - a truly magic machine which will leave my hands when they've gone cold.  I would have liked a longer ride, but I was aware that the Kestrel isn't mine by a factor of 200,000, and would be missed if I didn't get back soon.  Plus, we had strayed onto the public highway, and were illegal in ways foreign even to my lax standards.  So a victory lap around the grass was in order, and the smile hasn't left me yet.

'KESTREL' IN THE LA TIMES

By Susan Carpenter, from the Los Angeles Times online:


It's been two years since Falcon Motorcycles in Los Angeles sped onto the custom scene with a high-end concept bike fashioned from old British iron. Commissioned by actor Jason Lee and unveiled at the much-loved but now-defunct Legend of the Motorcycle vintage bike show in 2008, the Bullet scavenged the engine and frame of a 1950 Triumph Thunderbird and fused it with the profile of a '20s board tracker and obscure bits and bobs to create a could-have-been bike that never actually existed.

Two years and 2,000 man-hours later, Falcon is back with a follow-up to its award-winning Bullet. It's called the Kestrel. Fashioned around the engine of a 1970 Triumph Bonneville and outfitted with hundreds of handcrafted pieces dreamed up by builder Ian Barry, the Kestrel, to be unveiled at this weekend's Quail Motorcycle Gathering in Carmel, is an evolution of the Falcon concept: one-of-a-kind motorcycles built around the engines of pre- and post-World War II British bikes.

Founders Barry and Amaryllis Knight won't disclose the price tag on the Kestrel, the second official Falcon bike. They prefer to use the term "priceless." And for good reason. Two thousand hours is more than double the amount of time it took to build the $45,000 Falcon Bullet.

And that doesn't even begin to get at the sleepless nights Barry said he spent conceptualizing his latest creation, or the cost of the vintage "donor bike" or the extensive machinery and raw materials employed to turn the Kestrel into elegant, two-wheeled art.

The cylinders of this 750 cc twin were machined in-house from a solid block of aluminum. The frame was designed and built from scratch, using silver solder for welds and an era-appropriate sweated fitting technique Barry learned from apprenticing with the man who recently restored the derelict Porsche 550 chassis Serial No. 001.

The oil tank, seat, fender, mounts, brakes and suspension were all made by hand -- formed around wooden molds or hand-carved and shaped. The metal details -- crafted in aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass and nickel, but no chrome -- were all fabricated individually.

In fact, the only pieces sourced from existing bikes were the bottom front half of the Triumph engine and heads, a BSA transmission, the 21-inch wheel rims, the Dunlop tires and a portion of the gas tank.

"There are a lot of purists who want to see everything restored and who see custom building as a form of sacrilege, and I think it depends on how things are being done and who they're being done by," Knight said, citing George Brough of Brough Superior and Bill Lacey of Peerless, legendary builders who crafted bikes around pre-existing engines.

"It's really important to us because of the rarity and history of the engines that we're using incredible care so that in another 50 years people will look back and say, 'That's a Falcon,' " he said.

The Kestrel is the second of "the concept 10" -- 10 bikes of British provenance that will be re-engineered as bike prototypes -- had Barry lived in a previous era. Next up: A custom 1951 Vincent Black Shadow.

Barry, who is American, said his fascination with English bikes began when he was 12 and walking home from school in Northern California.

"I was literally run off the road by a pack of motorcycles," said Barry, now 37. "I heard a loud roar behind me and one after another motorcycle whipped by me.... I remember seeing Triumph, Norton, cuffed jeans, leopard print.... I had no idea who these people were, but it looked like the coolest thing I'd ever seen."

Little did Barry know that 25 years later, his own bikes would be admired as the coolest things many motorcyclists have ever seen. Bikers can see the Kestrel up close at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering this weekend.

-- Susan Carpenter

Video credit: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

'KESTREL' IN THE LA TIMES

By Susan Carpenter, from the Los Angeles Times online:


It's been two years since Falcon Motorcycles in Los Angeles sped onto the custom scene with a high-end concept bike fashioned from old British iron. Commissioned by actor Jason Lee and unveiled at the much-loved but now-defunct Legend of the Motorcycle vintage bike show in 2008, the Bullet scavenged the engine and frame of a 1950 Triumph Thunderbird and fused it with the profile of a '20s board tracker and obscure bits and bobs to create a could-have-been bike that never actually existed.

Two years and 2,000 man-hours later, Falcon is back with a follow-up to its award-winning Bullet. It's called the Kestrel. Fashioned around the engine of a 1970 Triumph Bonneville and outfitted with hundreds of handcrafted pieces dreamed up by builder Ian Barry, the Kestrel, to be unveiled at this weekend's Quail Motorcycle Gathering in Carmel, is an evolution of the Falcon concept: one-of-a-kind motorcycles built around the engines of pre- and post-World War II British bikes.

Founders Barry and Amaryllis Knight won't disclose the price tag on the Kestrel, the second official Falcon bike. They prefer to use the term "priceless." And for good reason. Two thousand hours is more than double the amount of time it took to build the $45,000 Falcon Bullet.

And that doesn't even begin to get at the sleepless nights Barry said he spent conceptualizing his latest creation, or the cost of the vintage "donor bike" or the extensive machinery and raw materials employed to turn the Kestrel into elegant, two-wheeled art.

The cylinders of this 750 cc twin were machined in-house from a solid block of aluminum. The frame was designed and built from scratch, using silver solder for welds and an era-appropriate sweated fitting technique Barry learned from apprenticing with the man who recently restored the derelict Porsche 550 chassis Serial No. 001.

The oil tank, seat, fender, mounts, brakes and suspension were all made by hand -- formed around wooden molds or hand-carved and shaped. The metal details -- crafted in aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass and nickel, but no chrome -- were all fabricated individually.

In fact, the only pieces sourced from existing bikes were the bottom front half of the Triumph engine and heads, a BSA transmission, the 21-inch wheel rims, the Dunlop tires and a portion of the gas tank.

"There are a lot of purists who want to see everything restored and who see custom building as a form of sacrilege, and I think it depends on how things are being done and who they're being done by," Knight said, citing George Brough of Brough Superior and Bill Lacey of Peerless, legendary builders who crafted bikes around pre-existing engines.

"It's really important to us because of the rarity and history of the engines that we're using incredible care so that in another 50 years people will look back and say, 'That's a Falcon,' " he said.

The Kestrel is the second of "the concept 10" -- 10 bikes of British provenance that will be re-engineered as bike prototypes -- had Barry lived in a previous era. Next up: A custom 1951 Vincent Black Shadow.

Barry, who is American, said his fascination with English bikes began when he was 12 and walking home from school in Northern California.

"I was literally run off the road by a pack of motorcycles," said Barry, now 37. "I heard a loud roar behind me and one after another motorcycle whipped by me.... I remember seeing Triumph, Norton, cuffed jeans, leopard print.... I had no idea who these people were, but it looked like the coolest thing I'd ever seen."

Little did Barry know that 25 years later, his own bikes would be admired as the coolest things many motorcyclists have ever seen. Bikers can see the Kestrel up close at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering this weekend.

-- Susan Carpenter

Video credit: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

QUAIL MOTORCYCLE GATHERING 2010: 'KESTREL' TO DÉBUT

Falcon Motorcycles have just completed their latest impressive creation, the Kestrel, built around a highly modified 1970 Triumph Bonneville engine.  I'll have much more to say about this machine after its début at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering next weekend, when I see it complete and in the metal.

There will be some very impressive machinery and a great lineup of guests at the Quail, and I strongly encourage anyone who's on the fence to get off and hie down to Carmel Valley on May 8th. I'll be a guest speaker at the Friday night banquet, and emcee during the show on Saturday.

Larry Bowman (last years Best of Show with his Big Tank Crocker) is bringing a 1937 Harley El Knucklehead, 1949 Vincent Black Lightning, and 1974 Ducati 750SS. Herb Harris will show his Vincent Black Shadow built around the spare engine used in setting 8 world records at Monthlery, France in 1952, and his Works Series 'C' Black Shadow cutaway engine on a pedestal (the only one known). Danny Sullivan, the 1985 Indy 500 winner will make an appearance, the newly completed Mert Lawwill Street Tracker motorcycle will be on display, John Stein will be riding his 1961 Norton Manx on the Friday tour, as well as displaying it on the field (that's just proper), as will William Weiner on his 1959 Moto Guzzi Falcone Sport. Stewart Ingram will display his little Maserati gems; a '56 Maserati 125 L/2T and '57 Maserati 125 GTS, and Virgil Elings will trump just about everyone with his 1995 Britten V1000. A bike I can never get enough of!

Organizer Gordon McCall writes:
"Looks like we'll have 130 plus bikes on the field, and the additional Bonhams bikes up in the Ballroom, and on the balcony. Safe to say over 200 bikes all together. Looks like the 'customs' are shaping up as well, I just noticed Shinya's [Kimura] '74 Ducati, can't wait to see it!  Kenny Roberts just committed to be there, along with Wayne Rainey....still waiting on Eddie Lawson's final schedule, as well as Kevin Schwantz."

And the teaser for the Kestrel Falcon:

Image 1. The Kestrel Falcon originated with the engine of a 1970 Triumph Bonneville, which had a damaged gearbox.  Ian Barry cut this off!

Image 2. Over 2000 hours of artful machining, stretching, hammering, rolling and hand-carving have been labored into the Kestrel, intended by Barry as his swan song to a decade of building custom Triumph-specific twins. The result is a bespoke, a one-of-a-kind motorcycle; truly functional art.

Image 3. Ian hand-filed the various parts of his fabricated engine timing cover, to make sure they all fit together perfectly.

Image 4. The Kestrel gas tank was designed by Ian and then made from scratch in-house from sheets of steel.  A four-inch round circle was 'saved' front the front of the badly rusted original Triumph tank, and incoporated into the design, in order to allow the soul of the original tank to carry on.

Image 5. Falcon silver soldered every section of the the frame and girder front forks, in order to assure the strongest construction and cleanest joints.

Image 6. Apart from a few original lugs, the girder forks were made from scratch on a custom made cast iron jig table. Seen here with the front brake.

Image 7. The brake is a heavily modified and reshaped Triumph item, mated to a modified BSA brake drum.

Image 8.The oil tank was made entirely out of aluminum, and shaped around a carved wooden mould, to mirror the curve of the back wheel.

Image 9. Half of the final gas tank, shaped on an 'English Wheel' which Barry made from a salvaged piece of industrial equipment.

The Kestrel is the second of Falcon’s Concept Ten, a series of custom motorcycles designed around the engines of iconic pre- and post-War British motorcycles. The third, the Black Falcon, is already under construction with its 1951 Vincent Black Shadow engine with distinguished California racing history. Next in line is a 1967 Velocette Thruxton, one of only seven very special “Squish Head” engines made by Veloce Ltd, which led from start to finish and won the 60th anniversary Diamond Jubilee Isle of Man Production TT race. After that will come Falcon versions of a 1936 Ariel Square Four with Over-Head Cams, a BSA, a Rudge, a Norton Cammy, and a Brough Superior.

For Falcon, the Kestrel is an evolutionary leap from the Bullet, with the level of sophistication and build quality elevated to an entirely new level. Ian Barry has outgrown the customization of existing vintage motorcycles and is now designing and fabricating motorcycles from start to finish, with only a few parts not made from scratch."

QUAIL MOTORCYCLE GATHERING 2010: 'KESTREL' TO DÉBUT

Falcon Motorcycles have just completed their latest impressive creation, the Kestrel, built around a highly modified 1970 Triumph Bonneville engine.  I'll have much more to say about this machine after its début at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering next weekend, when I see it complete and in the metal.

There will be some very impressive machinery and a great lineup of guests at the Quail, and I strongly encourage anyone who's on the fence to get off and hie down to Carmel Valley on May 8th. I'll be a guest speaker at the Friday night banquet, and emcee during the show on Saturday.

Larry Bowman (last years Best of Show with his Big Tank Crocker) is bringing a 1937 Harley El Knucklehead, 1949 Vincent Black Lightning, and 1974 Ducati 750SS. Herb Harris will show his Vincent Black Shadow built around the spare engine used in setting 8 world records at Monthlery, France in 1952, and his Works Series 'C' Black Shadow cutaway engine on a pedestal (the only one known). Danny Sullivan, the 1985 Indy 500 winner will make an appearance, the newly completed Mert Lawwill Street Tracker motorcycle will be on display, John Stein will be riding his 1961 Norton Manx on the Friday tour, as well as displaying it on the field (that's just proper), as will William Weiner on his 1959 Moto Guzzi Falcone Sport. Stewart Ingram will display his little Maserati gems; a '56 Maserati 125 L/2T and '57 Maserati 125 GTS, and Virgil Elings will trump just about everyone with his 1995 Britten V1000. A bike I can never get enough of!

Organizer Gordon McCall writes:
"Looks like we'll have 130 plus bikes on the field, and the additional Bonhams bikes up in the Ballroom, and on the balcony. Safe to say over 200 bikes all together. Looks like the 'customs' are shaping up as well, I just noticed Shinya's [Kimura] '74 Ducati, can't wait to see it!  Kenny Roberts just committed to be there, along with Wayne Rainey....still waiting on Eddie Lawson's final schedule, as well as Kevin Schwantz."

And the teaser for the Kestrel Falcon:

Image 1. The Kestrel Falcon originated with the engine of a 1970 Triumph Bonneville, which had a damaged gearbox.  Ian Barry cut this off!

Image 2. Over 2000 hours of artful machining, stretching, hammering, rolling and hand-carving have been labored into the Kestrel, intended by Barry as his swan song to a decade of building custom Triumph-specific twins. The result is a bespoke, a one-of-a-kind motorcycle; truly functional art.

Image 3. Ian hand-filed the various parts of his fabricated engine timing cover, to make sure they all fit together perfectly.

Image 4. The Kestrel gas tank was designed by Ian and then made from scratch in-house from sheets of steel.  A four-inch round circle was 'saved' front the front of the badly rusted original Triumph tank, and incoporated into the design, in order to allow the soul of the original tank to carry on.

Image 5. Falcon silver soldered every section of the the frame and girder front forks, in order to assure the strongest construction and cleanest joints.

Image 6. Apart from a few original lugs, the girder forks were made from scratch on a custom made cast iron jig table. Seen here with the front brake.

Image 7. The brake is a heavily modified and reshaped Triumph item, mated to a modified BSA brake drum.

Image 8.The oil tank was made entirely out of aluminum, and shaped around a carved wooden mould, to mirror the curve of the back wheel.

Image 9. Half of the final gas tank, shaped on an 'English Wheel' which Barry made from a salvaged piece of industrial equipment.

The Kestrel is the second of Falcon’s Concept Ten, a series of custom motorcycles designed around the engines of iconic pre- and post-War British motorcycles. The third, the Black Falcon, is already under construction with its 1951 Vincent Black Shadow engine with distinguished California racing history. Next in line is a 1967 Velocette Thruxton, one of only seven very special “Squish Head” engines made by Veloce Ltd, which led from start to finish and won the 60th anniversary Diamond Jubilee Isle of Man Production TT race. After that will come Falcon versions of a 1936 Ariel Square Four with Over-Head Cams, a BSA, a Rudge, a Norton Cammy, and a Brough Superior.

For Falcon, the Kestrel is an evolutionary leap from the Bullet, with the level of sophistication and build quality elevated to an entirely new level. Ian Barry has outgrown the customization of existing vintage motorcycles and is now designing and fabricating motorcycles from start to finish, with only a few parts not made from scratch."

NEW FALCON WEBSITE

Falcon Motorcycles have created a new mega-website, which includes guest blogs, and of course the Vintagent has a spot (focusing on the History of the Custom motorcycle, naturally). I recommend a visit, and a return, as the plan of Ian and Amaryllis is to continually update the site with new content and information.

They've announced a new series of 10 custom British motorcycles, all named after varieties of Falcon, to be based on iconic Marques; Velocette, Vincent, Ariel, BSA, Rudge, Norton, AJS, etc. Given the extraordinarily high quality of their previous efforts (including the 'Bullet' above, which won 'Best Custom' at the Legend of the Motorcycle Concours in '08), I'm excited to see the results of their vision, and lathe!

NEW FALCON WEBSITE

Falcon Motorcycles have created a new mega-website, which includes guest blogs, and of course the Vintagent has a spot (focusing on the History of the Custom motorcycle, naturally). I recommend a visit, and a return, as the plan of Ian and Amaryllis is to continually update the site with new content and information.

They've announced a new series of 10 custom British motorcycles, all named after varieties of Falcon, to be based on iconic Marques; Velocette, Vincent, Ariel, BSA, Rudge, Norton, AJS, etc. Given the extraordinarily high quality of their previous efforts (including the 'Bullet' above, which won 'Best Custom' at the Legend of the Motorcycle Concours in '08), I'm excited to see the results of their vision, and lathe!