It’s perhaps not the first time a decrepit and doomed 1968 Enfield Interceptor was given a stay of execution from the crusher, but it’s probably the first time it’s been done with so much style.
Builder Charlie Giordano’s day job is running Tailgunner Exhausts, maker of Gatling-gun rotating exhausts like you see fitted here. But he’s also a man obsessed with motorcycles and design. This shows in the finished product, which presents a clean overall profile and shape, plus details that kill, all inspired by England of yesteryear.
Like the wax-sealed “Boston” liniment bottle attached to the fork leg and filled with “a sailor’s daily ration of rum” per old Royal Navy Tradition. Or that battery box crafted from wood cigar boxes and cornered by hand-hammered copper strips. “When I think of old Britain I think of Winston Churchill and his cigar,” Giordano says. Or “Pedestrian slicer” front number plate, fender deleted for current café style. But it wasn’t all old England. A brass Timemachinist clock is made by Giordano’s brother Cal and fitted to top of the right fork leg.
In the bigger picture, the Manx-style tank and custom tailsection were fabricated in-house using old-world techniques relying heavily on hand tools.
While Giordano admits he is no Enfield mechanical expert, he engaged with a greater circle of marque specialists to rehab the tired 750cc twin, celebrating the unique relationship that kickstarting brings between rider and machine.
And what about the customizing of a rare series 1A Interceptor instead of a “correct” restoration? Giordano says he looked at both sides of that coin. “I felt like a politician: No matter which way I vote, I’m going to displease about half the constituency.”
He adds, “For me, motorcycles symbolize all that’s right with the world.”
We’ll vote for that.
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