In the early 1900's my great grandfather owned a bike shop and sold some of the first motorcycles in the country, just down the road from where we are now based. Over 100 years later, things have moved on a bit but motorcycles are in our blood and we aim to put that passion and enthusiasm into every bike we build and provide motorcycles that we would love to own and ride ourselves.
I have always been involved with motorcycles, as my Father was a keen motorcyclist, engineer and racer I guess it was inevitable. My first bike was a Yamaha PW50 at 5 years old in 1979.(as it was for many, including my son!) One bike lead to another and at 16 I was racing a 250 BSA in historic racing and a couple of years later started racing my Dads Vincent once he had retired from racing himself. 30+ years on and I have built and raced various bikes, mostly classic including an Egli Vincent, Triton, Yamaha R1, Honda SP1 and a KX500 Supermoto. Currently I still race the BMW K100 and Vincent in classic/historic racing meetings. (The Vincent is ‘almost’ the same bike, but like a broom that's had 17 new handles and 14 new heads!) When we started racing the BMW K100 there was a lot of interest in the bike, it was fairly unusual to see an old K100 touring bike in racing trim and and even more unusual to see one wining races. People started to ask questions, what work had been done to it? where could they get the parts? and, as there were no bolt on performance parts available anywhere else for these bikes, could I supply similar parts or build a bike for them. So in 2012 I decided to take the leap and turn my hobby into a business and BSK SpeedWorks Ltd was formed. Along the way we also found there was a demand for work on Vincent’s and since we were involved with racing them it made sense to offer our services, especially since the skills needed to work on these 70 year old bikes are dying out. Since then we have produced several one off bikes, including a few show winners, a few race winners and fabricated and supplied 1000’s of our custom parts for delighted customers. The business continues to go from strength to strength, and we are always looking to improve our products and expand our range.
Ben Kingham
Our Philosophy:
At BSK SpeedWorks we create performance inspired, handmade, bespoke motorcycles for the road or race track. Some people regard custom motorcycle building as an art form, apart from the necessary constraints of what is legal for the road, many think anything goes. Our bikes come from a different mould, their design is driven by the white heat of competition, our Vincent and our BMW racers were forged to compete, they need to meet racing regulations, every part has a purpose and works to its optimum. We build them, and we race them. We think a well engineered machine, built to perform well, should be the basis for a custom built bike. You then tend to find that form follows function.
Bike Building:
We build and sell pre-built bikes as well as ‘bespoke’ machines, but we can also complete unfinished projects. Imagine the scenario:
You know it really is time for a reality check. It’s been what, two, no, three years, since you bought that bike? Ok you stripped it, the frames been painted, you bought some shiny bits, but life just keeps getting in the way. Work, Family even the lawn conspire to prevent the project getting finished. Then there is finding that part, and you need some welding done, and a bit of lathe work and you have no room, and the kids have put their bikes in your shed again… Be honest, you could earn enough to get someone to finish your dream in a fraction of the time it will take you to do it. Speak to BSK SpeedWorks, we have the expertise, the contacts and the equipment. Soon you will be riding your project before breakfast.
BMW K Series Engine Management:
The K series of BMW were one of the first production bikes to fit fuel injection but at that time programmable controls ("mapping") was in the realm of the development labs, also one should remember that the electrics are now 30 years old. The effect of fitting a state of the art programmable ECU so that ignition, injection and other features can be programmed and mapped into a K series BMW has to be seen to be appreciated. Of course, an upgrade like that is not cheap, apart from the basic cost of the components, we at BSK SpeedWorks have invested a lot of time on the test bed and track to develop maps that fit our own K100s, but that development has resulted in a kit that is ready to fit to your K series and is supplied with our own original maps ready for you to use or modify on your laptop as you require (software and full instructions supplied) alternatively, we are happy to install and set the system to meet your requirements.
For more about our life-long association with classic racing motorcycles, take a look at our sister site: OldRacer
Bespoke custom motorcycle building