Centurion Motorcycle Projects can be found in the rolling hills of Northumberland just outside Hexham.
Brian McCall has been messing around on motorbikes since he was about 9 years old, what started out as blasting round fields on a Casal 50 and a BSA C15 has now become a passion, a passion that now extends to his working life, working on all things Motorbike related.
Never one to be idle Brian’s first job on leaving school came from wandering round the garages in nearby Brampton asking for a job, the last one took him on at the weekly wage of £23.50 making the role full time as his Christmas present the same year.
A couple of years later the garage closed and Brian switched roles becoming a heating engineer, initially self employed then with a local firm JP Westhall
The motorcycle bug bit properly aged about 15, a moped arrived and the girlfriend went. Racing mini moto’s followed where he met two other well known locals Ian and Andrew Feeley.
want something clean, vapour blast it, as good as the day of manufacture, ready for coating
Original fasteners, go through the process and end up like this, all shiny
When Brian decided to build himself a head turning CB900 he wanted to do things himself. A cabinet arrived to do his own vapour blasting, this extended to cleaning parts up for others. Zinc plating followed and a business started from just wanting to do things himself, Centurion was born, taking inspiration from the nearby Hadrian wall remains left by the Romans, I mean, what have the Romans ever done for us?
The CB900
From a home set up, to a couple of 40 foot containers welded together, he has now moved to bigger premises on a nearby farm where he has dedicated work areas for each service offered
Fitting out the new work space.
Ably assisted by Pete as and when needed, sometimes you just need that extra pair of hands to get on with the job.
Fed up with off the shelf paints he took some time to research, finding a paint with a part number rather than a given name, Brian now markets this under the banner of Richochet coating, a tough finish and importantly fuel resistant.
Services soon extended, need a custom loom making up, no problem.
Need your carburetors fettling, he can do that, cleaning, repairs, full strip and re furb, yes, all done in house. He has also sourced / has manufactured and markets some of the no longer available carb parts, seals, rubbers, drain screws, fuel screws, air screws.
Carb re builds go on here, all the parts needed close to hand in the storage bins
Twin shock mounts ready to be welded on to a modern monoshock arm to retro fit to some oldskoolcool.
Starter clutch mods
Dedicated engine area, for stripping and building.
Bikes waiting to be fettled.
No one likes a sloppy clutch, get your big Z clutch refreshed here
There’s a couple of Spencer reps alongside Brian’s own 900.
Three of Brian’s own builds.
Track bike
Race bike, two seasons in formula prostocks with a class lap record at Anglesey
The road bike, the Centurion, sporting one of the in house produced end cans.
Find Brian on facebook, Centurion Motorcycle Projects.
He can ride too…….
