Electrical fire at historic race bike business in Dudley causes more than £200k in damage
A historic race bike business in Dudley has been left devastated by an electrical fire, which destroyed a number of personal and customer machines, workshop tools, and priceless racing memorabilia.
Trident MCS, based in Woodsetton, manufacture Rob North Trident and Rocket Three race bikes. The business is run by husband-and-wife duo Les and Denise Whiston, with the fire causing more than £200,000 worth of damage.
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“The fire started early on the morning of Friday at about 5.30-6.30am and it was due to electrical faults in the roof,” Les Whiston, 74, told MCN. “Basically, I know there’s at least £200,000 worth of bikes gone and it’s a great loss to be honest.
“The tube bender, the CNC machines, it’s all destroyed – the electrics are all gone,” he continued. “The manual lathes, all the grinders, everything that we used to make the frames is just gone. It’s going to be hard to replace it.”
Les became a motorcycle mechanic after leaving school at 15 and actually built the building his business was based in. He would like to continue if possible, however unfortunately has no insurance policy in place to cover the incident after the policy lapsed whilst recovering from a serious motorcycle accident last August.
“When the medics got to me at the circuit, I’d actually stopped breathing, and I was in intensive care for a fortnight,” Les explained. “During that six months there was only me and Denise, and the policy had expired and been overlooked. I haven’t got any insurance, it’s as simple as that.”
He continued: “Things were starting to look up for the last few weeks, and I’ve been getting back on the workshop trying to finish jobs off to customers.
“It’s destroyed a lot of memories to be honest with you. In my little engine room where I do all the engine work, I’ve got various classic racing photographs back to the 1950s and it’s all gone. There’s a lot of memories gone, a lot of memories.”
Bikes worked on in the Trident MCS workshop include a Rob North-framed one-off ridden by Guy Martin to a wall of death world record in March 2016.
“I’d work on the building myself, but the frustrating thing now is I can’t do it because A) I can’t see properly and B) I can’t walk safely, and I’ve got no strength in my hands due to breaking both my wrists,” Les continued. “I’ve had a lot of support from customers, which has emotionally shocked me to be honest.”
