The BOBS of war

This intriguing BSA-based ‘bobber’ draws on two classic traditions – and its owner’s predilections, as Steve Wilson discovers

Steve interrogating M20 bobber’s builder Nick Hester about his smart creation
pictures Gary Chapman

Nick Hester, the creator of this M20 bobber, is also a master of his trade, which is carpentry. He is the fourth generation of a family that has worked with wood out of the same Oxfordshire village building yard. “I do woodwork and general carpentry, construction and interior,” Nick told me. But a beautiful wooden dovecot further down the village street lets you know he’s a craftsman and something of a perfectionist.

One of Nick’s other hobbies is building up motorcycles, mainly off-road oriented – he’s ridden green lanes and competed in trials, though never motocross. Nevertheless, he’s created a beautifully built BSA B50- based scrambler, and owns several more modern off-roaders as well as an alloy-tank BSA A10 650 twin adapted for trail work. So he did not come to the M20 project lacking experience.

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