An ‘extreme’ Kettle has steamed to victory in Britain’s Got Biking Talent after British bikers voted it the nation’s best bike. The stunning, totally modified Suzuki GT750 was revealed as winner of the prestigious, hard fought competition at the Carole Nash International Motorcycle & Scooter show where it now takes pride of place on a special BGBT stand.
The 39 year-old owner of the ‘Incredible Kettle’, Richard Lindhoe of Worcester, accepted the top title from Rebecca Donohue, head of marketing at BGBT organiser, Carole Nash. Also on the podium were second placed Simon Morton, of Chipping Norton for his Triumph triple, ‘The Black Triton’ and West Drayton’s Mick Sobalak whose ‘Norvin’, a Manx Norton racing frame harnessed to a 1000cc Vincent Black Shadow engine, took third.
Richard managed to impress a judging panel which included MCN editor Marc Potter, controversial Daily Telegraph and MCN columnist, Kevin Ash and top UK customiser Roger Allmond to take the £1,000 prize.
The presentation on the opening day of the NEC-hosted bike fest was the thrilling finale to a five month battle of the biking beauties. The competition attracted hundreds of entries which were whittled down to a shortlist of 50 by an expert judging panel and put to the public vote. Nearly 20,000 votes were cast online by the great British biking public and the Incredible Kettle, with its stunning bespoke tubular frame, carbon fibre wheels and GSX-R forks, emerged victorious.
Those three bikes, together with nine other runners up, now feature in the Carole Nash 2009 calendar having been photographed with their proud owners by top bike photographer Adam Duckworth. Some 120,000 copies of the calendar are being distributed free to NEC show-goers and sold via the Carole Nash website, www.carolenash.com where a digital version is also available as a free download. All twelve bikes are also being displayed on the Britain’s Got Biking Talent stand where they will be admired by around 150,000 bikers before the show closes on December 7th.
Carole Nash’s head of marketing, Rebecca Donohue, said Richard’s Incredible Kettle was a worthy winner: “This is a truly astonishing bike well worthy of its Incredible tag. Richard has retained only the engine and instruments from the original to create an absolutely stunning and extreme Kettle which really is a thing of beauty. I’m with the British biking public – this really is a worthy winner
Commenting on his win a delighted Richard beamed: “It’s absolutely fantastic. It’s been a long project, about two years, £20,000 and 400 litres of Jack Daniels! Now I’m looking forward to riding the bike at track days, like Cadwell Park, with the Kettle Club.”
Asked what he would do with the £1,000 prize money he said: “Build another bike! I’ve got a V6 Kettle engine being built in the States which will be six cylinder and I’ve got three more Kettle projects on the go.”
Launched in July the second annual Britain’s Got Biking Talent competition attracted hundreds of entries from across the country spanning all types of bikes, from classics to customs, roadsters to racers. Aside from the chance to have their bikes displayed to an admiring biking public, riders were enticed by a generous prize package which saw second placed Simon collecting a Shoei helmet worth nearly £400 and third placed Mick £250 worth of Spada biking gear courtesy of Feridax.com. All the top three winners also won up to £250 off a Carole Nash motorcycle insurance policy with the second and third placed runners up also winning free Carole Nash cover for their helmets and leathers.
