Having railed against the blandness that is seemingly affecting every area of our society, it should come as no surprise that the current styling of motorcycles falls within this purview. Like modern cars, most modern motorcycles appear very much the same, partly through the Japanese passion for “safeness” and partly through design constraints of aerodynamics and safety.
Fortunately, there remains a sold, hardcore minority of motorcycle special builders who consistently buck the trend. Unsurprisingly, most of them come from the Northern Hemisphere and particularly Britain, for many years the heartland of special-building, of the two, three AND four-wheeled variety.
So, for your entertainment and to prevent you from totally falling asleep as you contemplate the sameness that surrounds us, some specials…
Firstly, this one. A Dutch engineer who spent 2500 hours constructing an 800cc V8 motorcycle.
Tjitze Tjoelker’s 800cc V8 Honda
While the album says very little about the technical detail of this machine, it’s clear from the photos that the standard of execution is very high and that there is a good, solid engineering base for what he has done. In the absence of details, I am guessing that he has joined 2 4-cylinder car engines to a common crankshaft (or are they 400cc motorcycle engines?) I’d love to know. But it bristles with wonderful features like the custom shaft drive system. And I’d love to hear it when it starts up.
From the world of the tuning fork, comes this one. An R1 engine in a custom tubular frame a-la a 500cc grand prix bike.
Painted in the iconic Yamaha USA colour scheme pioneered by Aussie, Kel Carruthers and ridden by the king Kenny Roberts, the bike looks to combine the best of both worlds. What a weapon that would be!
This weekend sees the final round of the WSBK at the hokey French circuit of Magny Cours. Aprilia’s Max Biaggi heads into the meeting ahead on points and odds-on favourite to win his second title in three years. The WSS crown has already been decided with Turkey’s Kenan Sofoglu clinching his 3rd Supersport title at the last round.
And, if you want to get up at 0300 on Sunday morning and you have cable TV, you can watch the final round of the speedway Grand prix from Poland. Australia’s Chris Holder leads the championship by just 2 points over the increasingly unpopular Nicki Pederson. Australia’s three-times world champion, Jason Crump, will race for the last time having announced his retirement a few weeks ago.
And that’s about it for tonight!
M-Donnell says
Nice website. Been having a big look round – your history, bikes you have known. V.interesting. I remember trying to do machine monogramming on the back of the racetrack announcer’s jacketfor the Canberra racetrack. Was that for you or your brother? When asked if I remembered the Hall brothers – my reply: “How could I forget, we share the same birthdate.”
Phil Hall says
Yep, we do indeed. That was Paul who wanted the monogramming on his jacket.