If you want to know what happens when a quintessentially British gentleman with a love of Harley-Davidson motorcycles meets a retired bike builder-turned furniture restorer at a Steampunk Extravaganza, then take a look at the awe-inspiring Sportster Forty-Eight created by Richie Finney and Linzi Mumford, with help from Newmarket Harley-Davidson.
Richie Finney is the man behind the gentleman’s grooming product brand Captain Fawcett Ltd and wanted to create a unique motorcycle that embodied him and his brand. Linzi of I.O.C Design and Fabrication, with her unique mix of bike-building and furniture restoration skills combined with a passion for steampunk culture, was able to deliver a design that did just that. And Newmarket Harley-Davidson brought the ideas to life.
The real showstopper on the Dark Custom Forty-Eight is the bespoke Gladstone bag-style saddlebags, with drop down mechanism to reveal a host of Captain Fawcett products and pull out mirror, turning the Harley-Davidson into a portable grooming station.
“The idea for the bike developed over a couple of days of looking at 1930s racing cars and Victorian expedition equipment,” said Linzi Mumford when asked about her inspiration. “The bags are completely original and something that just popped into my head to combine saddlebags with a drop down display. I suppose that the old Wild West snake oil sellers’ carts were somewhere in my mind at the time.”
Steve Colling, Harley-Davidson UK & Ireland Marketing Manager, said: “Harley-Davidson and customisation have a long, long relationship over the course of the company’s soon to be 115 years. Today’s Harley-Davidsons are all subject to personal customisation but none more so than the Harley-Davidson Dark Custom range, as Richie Finney has discovered with the Sportster Forty-Eight.”