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Ken Campbell loves an engineering challenge, but his latest venture would probably be daunting, even for the late, great Burt Munro.
After restoring classic and vintage motorcycles for over 34 years, the Matakana resident decided to build the world’s first V8 Indian motorcycle. What is particularly challenging and unique about Ken’s project is that he designed and built the V8 motor from scratch.
“It was an engineering challenge,” says Ken. “When I was at school I wanted to build my own engine. There are not many people that stuffed in the head that they want to build a V8 engine that fits in a bike!”
Ken built the 2.6 litre engine in the exact style as the traditional four-cylinder version and squeezed it into a 1936 bike.
“I was riding it as a four cylinder in the morning and a V8 in the afternoon.”
If Indian had built a V8 motor in the 1920s and 30s, Ken is confident it would look very similar to his creation.
“I don’t like the word custom. The most important word is authentic. I don’t butcher genuine parts or alter them.”
And that is why after three years, untold hours, and a dollar figure that Ken won’t reveal, he is now dismantling the 1936 V8 bike and putting it back to its original four-cylinder state, and building a new bike to house the V8.
He has already started work on a new Indian frame and will ultimately create a completely new bike.
“I guess I’ve got a cheek calling it an Indian, but it will look like an Indian-four from the side. I will make it in the style I like most, which is around 1928, then I can fit the carburettors in and it will be perfectly styled to that era.”
He plans to build two of his bespoke Indian V8s – one of which might have to be sold to help recover some of the costs.
Ken says that most people think of him as an Indian ‘nutter,’ but his love of old bikes is not restricted to the American brand. He has professionally restored more classic and vintage
British makes than any other, including AJS, Triumph and Velocette, and has been rebuilding and personalising bikes for customers all over the world.
Despite limiting his work to pre-WWII models, he has had a three-year backlog of customer work for the last 20 years.
“I feel very lucky to spend my days playing with something that I’m passionate about.”
Those days started when he was a young child in his father’s garage in Matakana, now the Rusty Pelican Pizzeria. Ken is a fourth generation Matakana Campbell and was a competent gas welder by the age of seven.
“It’s in the blood,” he says. “I was basically brought up in the garage. Dad taught me how to weld and now I’m working with my grandson, Storm. He has his own work bench in here and helped me put the V8 motor together.”
In 1924, Ken’s dad brought a Henderson motorcycle from the local bank manager when the bike was just one year old. The bike ended up going to Ken’s older brother and he still has it today. That was the beginning of Ken’s fascination with motorcycles.
He doesn’t just build the bikes – a few years ago he made a wicker basket sidecar for his wife on a 1910 Indian. The pair then travelled 4200 kilometres from Perth to Sydney. They rode through a cyclone, torrential rain and stifling heat, but far from breaking their marriage, Ken says it was a fantastic adventure and the best thing they’ve ever done.
“When we were in the middle of the cyclone, my wife was telling me to slow down. I thought, ‘here we go’, and she said, ‘I’m enjoying it so much I want it to last!’”
