the NOT A KATANA bike thread,

[johnr]

heres another custom for you, my mates ducati monster, finalist in the carol nash bike of the year in 2010, and featured in the insurance firms 2011 callender, ducati 900 engine tank and paso fork bottoms, cagiva mito 125 front wheel, and subaru rally car magnesium rear. everything else he made himself, frame exhaust, seat, bodywork, bars, fork extenders, the whole shooting match, even the single sided swingarm, all made in a tiny garage in blackpool.

[johnr]

and another, same bloke, same shed, but this time he fancied a big single, wanted it to be a chop, but liked the repsol paintwork on hondas sportsbikes, so he got an xr650 enduro, and chopped it! again, everything home made. aside from the motor which was built by honda, and rebuilt by me!!!
this will be featured in some of the major custom bike mags in the uk over the next few months.

[johnr]

or as we were talking about unlikely engine and bike combinations, how about this, ross-speed lambretta, these were first built in the 1980's by a guy called alan rosser and essentially were lambretta rolling chassis fitted with 350 powervalve yamaha engines, and then wrapped back up to look as standard as possible. youve never seen anything so lairy as one of these squirreling its way up the road on 1980's spec 70mph limited scooter tyres on 10 inch narrow rims!!!

[chris44]

or as we were talking about unlikely engine and bike combinations, how about this, ross-speed lambretta, these were first built in the 1980's by a guy called alan rosser and essentially were lambretta rolling chassis fitted with 350 powervalve yamaha engines, and then wrapped back up to look as standard as possible. youve never seen anything so lairy as one of these squirreling its way up the road on 1980's spec 70mph limited scooter tyres on 10 inch narrow rims!!!

there was a guy at the manc bike show with one tho it was a work in progress very scary on 10'' wheels

[johnr]

i was there when the first one was built. i used to hang out at a tiny back street bike shop in preston, upstairs was rented by a bunch of nutty scooter boys and one day they came and asked for a hand, to carry a scooter down the stairs. they had built it in the lounge of the flat and now needed to drag it down the stairs. eventually we got it outside and fired up, and it went like a raped ape!!! bonkers bike. the guy, alan rosser, was getting a reputation for making these things, but unfortunately was as dodgy as feck. he seemed to have an inexhaustable supply of powervalve engines and lc engines, no numbers, and no other bits, just motors, his luck was running out faster when he started milking the publicity at the time in the scooter press, and was taking deposits for these things quicker than he could make them. eventually he did a runner with a load of deposits and engines and scooters and wasnt seen in preston again. apparently he was found dead a year or two later somewhere in the north east down a back alley with a single close range gunshot wound to the back of the head. did someone he fleeced catch up with him, or had he made a whole new set of enemies? nobody knows, but the few original ross-speed lambrettas are very much sought after now.

[callyboy]

Nice story. In a macabre kind of way.

Pete

[chris44]

ha ha great story john

[Pedda]

I had to do quite a trawl through the forum to dig out this nice thread again.

I thought this bike which has just been built somewhere in northern Germany is worth it.

Engine specs:

9 Cylinder
11800 ccm
550 hp




Northerners are somehow special in Germany as well...

[jimmy400]

when that gets fired up we're all doomed

[Pedda]

This is a vid about the first start of that bike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA88iIuY ... =endscreen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;