Post Listing Update: This Hesketh was pulled off of eBay, final sale price unknown.
By 1981, England was almost irrelevant in the international game of motorcycle production. So Thomas Alexander Fermor-Hesketh (how’s that for a name?), an actual Lord and Baron who had already started a racing team, decided to start his own motorcycle company. You can guess where he got the name from. Enter the Hesketh V1000
The V1000 featured a 992cc V-Twin produced by Weslake – it was claimed to be the first Brit bike with DOHC and 4 valves per cylinder. The engine produced 82 horsepower and 78 pound-feet of torque, but the bike weighed 540 pounds. Teething problems put Hesketh out of business almost immediately after just 139 bikes were built. But the company was brought back to life multiple times, the most recent of which was in 2010 by someone who started selling an updated version of the V1000 (it looks almost the same, but with necessary fixes). For more information on the Hesketh, check out this excellent write-up from OddBike. Note that Hesketh is still alive and kicking, and they’re in the process of releasing a limited edition of a new bike called the 24..
This specific Hesketh V1000 has 8,852 miles and is claimed to be a pre-production bike in a black/red paint scheme. It has new tires and is currently registered in the UK.
Find this Hesketh V1000 for sale in Redhill, United Kingdom for $19,652