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LOWLIFE Without a doubt the most famous bike engined trike ever built. I was involved in a 100mph crash on her, which left the original telescopic forks sitting in the middle of the radiator. The front of the frame was pretty badly bent, but not a single weld cracked. A pretty good test for my frames and welding. I made these girders to replace the bent "Tele's". On her first run out, I rode her to Scotland and back. Poor old Lynne had to sit on a piece of foam bungeed to the rack. Lowlife was powered by a Supercharged Goldwing motor, and the handling was phenominal. The exhaust was loud, but the carburettor induction roar was louder. LowLife is still on the road, and is owned by my good mate Jesus.
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I caught up with Chris Ireland at a tattoo convention in Dunstable (of all places). He was lounging around in the foyer, where Desperate Dan's had set up shop, and was chatting to almost anyone who expressed interest in the impressive array of exotic machinery the shop had brought, and was supping the odd beer or three.
I was very wet and cold from the ride, so it took us all of thirty seconds to decide that the next day was going to have much better weather for photography, and so I might as well settle down and partake of a few beers myself. As it turned out, I par-took of rather too many beers that evening and I'm grateful to Chris, Bootsie, Flavel and the others at Desperate Dan's for looking after me. |
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The next day, unfortunately, was much the same as the previous one; overcast, cold and wet, a typical 1987 summer's day in fact. But undeterred we drove back to the convention and picked up Chris' trike Low Life. Low Life had become one of the stars of the event, perhaps you can under-stand why when you look at the photos. Basically, it's totally outrageous. When Chris started it up people came running from every direction, tattoo freaks, oldsters, |
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squadies and squeakers stood and gawped as Low Life churned up the neat grass lawns around the building and roared up the road.
The motor is a Honda GL1 000 (Gold Wing) with the minor addition of a Shorrocks supercharger, the vane type, which runs at 8psi. Chris has also fitted a 13/4 inch SU carb from an Austin 1800, which sports a Rover 3.5 V8 jet. These mods mean that Low Life can easily cruise at 125mph — and indeed Chris is still not sure what the top end is. The engine sits in a one-off frame, which was built up on Challenger jigs and was Tig welded. Keeping up the front end is a set of Challenger two inch over girders clutching an original Gold Wing front wheel, machined smooth, and laced out to 500X16. Chris is not too sure about the origin of the rear wheels, which he has re-drilled to Ford stud pattern. Holding the rear wheels apart is an Escort axle which has had two feet lopped off it before being dipped in a chrome bath. Those hefty handlebars were crafted by Chris himself, and a neater job of internal cabling and electrics 1 have yet to see. Something that confused the hell out of me (although that in itself is not a particularly difficult thing to do, who takes a black box attitude to almost anything mechanical) was noticing the twin discs on the front end, but no master cylinder on the bars. Chris pointed out that all the braking, the discs at the front and Escort drums at the back, were worked from the foot pedal. He went about the balancing with the help of a BF Goodridge balance valve, and good old Goodridge hosing runs to both ends.
In true Gold Wing style, the real petrol tank sits under the seat while the dummy hides the electrics. The exhaust system is another one-off by Chris, as is the back rack which he reckons doubles as a seat, though rather you than me, by the look of it. The front seat is a cut-down King and Queen and is the work of J Tearce at DesperateDan's.
Low Life's paintwork is a joy; the mural-ling is based on a selection of 'popular' diseases, including the Shits, Crabs, Aids, Ringworm and acne. These little fellers were executed by a chap called Ian King who is a very talented artist and sprayer, and believe me that is a very rare combination. Ian placed his murals over a base of gold micro-flake, cherry candy apple and lacquer.
The trike really lives up to its name. Low Life is low, and 1 mean Low. Chris reckons he never sees so many gobsmacked people as when he blats through his home town at 100mph below kerb height. I'm not bleedin' surprised. 1 am really pleased by Chris' trike, it may be fast and handle well but I reckon ' the real reason for its existence is to make everybody stop in their tracks and mouth obscenities. At a time when custom bikes are becoming more business like, more chunky, mean and clean, Low Life shows us that the art of custom building can still be a hell of a lot of fun too.
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