Description
Goodman HDS 1200
Only 10-12 Goodman HDS 1200 motorcycles were ever built – apparently 6 went to the USA and one of those is in the Barber Motorcycle museum. Maybe 2-3 to Europe and who knows as to the others?
But, in September 1992, this particular Goodman was first sold as a kit of parts to Mr Mark Wilsmore of London.
Mark is the man who brought the iconic Ace Café back to life in London and, as far as I can tell, this is the only Goodman to have been sold as a kit and not a complete bike.
Bought by me in 2004 from Bill Cosby of Reg Allen motorcycles in Hanwell, London.
And now, 34 years since first being sold, it is a fully built motorcycle. Inspired by the Victory replica from Lance Weil (aka Ricky Racer) with the original sketches for this bike in the history file along with the original sales invoice from Simon Goodman.
The Goodman HDS1200 has a Norton Featherbed style frame built from Reynolds 531 chrome-moly tubing, bronze welded and overseen by ‘the frame man’, Ken Sprayson himself. The HDS1200 (Harley Davidson Special) was reviewed by Cycle World on 1st March 1992 by Roland Brown, a copy of the magazine comes with the bike.
She has a tuned & fully rebuilt 1200 Sportster motor, a Tomaselli quick action throttle, an Australian Staintune 2- 1 stainless steel exhaust system and an Ultima digital ignition system.
The cycle parts include flanged alloy wheel rims with butted stainless steel spokes, Dunlop TT100 tires and Marzocchi forks with upgraded cartridges from Bitubo. A Grimeca double sided front brake with a twin pull brake lever completes the front end. At the rear, a single sided drum with the originally specified KONI shocks are fitted.
The hand-built alloy petrol and oil tanks, seat & tail hump, front and rear mudguards and other ancillary parts were by John Bennett, formerly of Honda Racing here in Australia.
The bike has a custom made wiring loom with a 6-way fuse block and 2 relays, one for general systems and one for starting. A new battery is fitted. Instrumentation is handled by a single multi-function, programmable combined speedo and revcounter from Acewell.
I have owned this bike for 22 years and the Goodman has only now been recently started and run, but never ridden. It is essentially a new 1992 motorcycle. It will need running in and will settle in over time.
She comes with the original set of Goodman fork yokes, a flat track seat unit, the Goodman square tail light, some other small parts and a 2 sets of clip-on handlebars for more of a café racer stance (cut me some slack here - I'm 70yrs old!).
Happy to ship worldwide at buyers expense and can recommend some companies that I've used in the past for that.
A unique Goodman HDS 1200 - you're never going to pull up next to another one...
So, if you’re looking for a 1 of 1 unique motorcycle and a bike that even Jay Leno doesn’t own (yet!) – this might be for you….
