Got it!

Now I know what I want to build next. A Porsche 909 Bergspyder. The pic is from Porsches' own museum and doesn't it look great? It was built in 1968 "specifically for competing in hill climbing competitions" and it weighed an incredible 385 kg! That's a 100 kg less than the weight of a modern Formula 1 (sans driver and fuel)! The 909 encompasses everything I like; light weight, no nonsense styling and of course: black rims. Now I just need to work out how it would look as a motorcycle. And what engine it should have. Back to the drawing board!

Help please.

Can anyone tell me where the wheels on this KTM comes from? They're obviously 19-inchers (which we like), but I can't place them. Any help appreciated.

Quo vado?*

Now that the Husky tracker is finished [I've unofficially christened it the "Sidetracker" since it proved such a distraction from my other obligations like work and my other projects], I find myself in the most enviable position there is: with a blank slate in front of me. This means I can go in any direction I want, and I find that feeling quite exhilarating.

I have a mental short list of bike projects I want to try and one of them is building a really nice café racer. A month or so ago I found a Buell engine on the web that was for sale at reasonable money and I did what I usually do in these circumstances: I fired up Photoshop and tried a couple of ideas. Now, there is nothing at all wrong with a CB750 special or a nice Bonneville, and in fact I may come back to those bikes later on, but I felt I needed a bigger challenge. The Husqvarna tracker was challenging since most street trackers are either Harley/Buell, Triumph or Rotax engined. There isn't very many Husky street trackers around. With that in mind I sketched a new frame and borrowed bits and pieces from other bikes to see how it could look. You find the sketches above [with and without bullet type fairing].

The scale and measurements aren't a hundred percent correct, but I still think it could have turned out pretty nice. But... the Buell engine turned out to be less good than advertised and I lost interest in the project. Now I'm thinking of doing 4 cylinder tracker along the lines of the R1 street tracker that Gregg's Customs made last year. Mine would be less "blingy" and perhaps use a smaller engine (like from an R6). What do you think?

*First person version of "Quo vadis" - meaning "where are you going".

One liquid cooled framer - done!

Without further ado, here it is...

(low res pics taken with my compact. Proper studio shots to be taken later).

Victory!

I'm very happy to report that I'm now the proud owner of a fully legit, road legal, street tracker. My framer passed the final inpection about an hour ago. Now I'm going to mount the proper tires and the ISR brake stuff and take some pictures for you of the finished article. Then it's time for a professional photo shoot (if everything goes according to plan you might see the bike in one of our favorite mags in the not too distant future).

BTW: It wasn't the carb that was acting up, it was a faulty ground wire.

Buggeration!

Believe it or not, but I missed my M.O.T-appointment this morning since the bike absolutely refused to start. This is the first time ever that I've failed to get it running. I kicked the damn thing for 40 minutes and got it running for one (1) second only for it to die again. I've now bought a new plug and have another carb lined up if it turns out it's the carb that's acting up. I've managed to get a new M.O.T-appointment already on Monday morning. Fingers crossed.

I'm now on the look out for a flat slide 39 or 41 mm carb. My friend changed his Dell'Orto for a Keihin flat slide and it runs like a dream now and start first kick every time. So if you've got a spare one, drop me a line.

Damn it! (part 2)

Well, look what I got in the mail today... Yes, I went for the radial one. And yes, it is a little bit on the large side. But as "Road Warriors" pointed out: the rest of the running gear is really modern, so I decided continue my theme of juxtapositioning old school elements like the tank and seat with bang up to date engine and brake components. I think it's this mix of 1975 and 2010 that makes my bike stand out somewhat among other trackers.

I won't mount them until this weekend after the final MOT on friday. Will post some pictures of the finished bike then, including some other minor touches I've been busy with. Then it's on to the next one. I'm working on a Photoshop composite of a café racer at the moment. I hope you'll like it!