After first catching up on what’s going on with the bikes in our garages, we explore the oddities of the motorcycling world: rotary, six-cylinder and turbo engined bikes, super huge and tiny bikes, and otherwise normal bikes with odd features.
Except where noted in the captions, images are standard press kit/website photos used courtesy of the respective manufacturers.
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As everyone knows, you’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to oddball motorcycles.
Post WW2, the first that spring to mind
Cannondale (everything they made was weird), Britten (everything he did is now normal), Kawasaki H2 (three-cyl 2-stroke no compressor), The Vindian (Vincent engine in an Indian frame) Nimbus (it’s Danish!) Maserati (it’s a Maserati!)
Pre-war it’s just a Cambrian Explosion of weird. The Megola, I think, is the paragon of way-out, though.
Confession: I haven’t listened to the podcast, maybe you covered these already? (I’m just not a podcast kind of guy, sorry.)
The Megola is probably the most obvious omission we made, far weirder than anything we mentioned. To be fair, we stuck with the ’70s–on, except for the Ner-A-Car (which admittedly just popped into my head when we were discussing center-hub steering). Why we subconsciously kept to our own era, I can’t explain.
Oh god, I forgot about the Cannondale! I’m particularly fond of Cannondale bicycles, but their attempt at a motorcycle (not to mention ATV!) was pretty lackluster. Nice addition!
That tank coating discussion leaves me thankful the BMW coated their gas tanks at the factory, before switching to aluminum.
As for oddballs, in addition to the Megola, the Czech Bohmerland 3 seater is another classic example. The Velocette LE is another comparative oddity, a fully enclosed liquid cooled flat twin with handlever starting, made in the mid 50s by an otherwise very traditional company.
A further bit of wackiness is the Dolmette, powered by 24 chainsaw engines, and built as a promo vehicle by Sachs-Dolmar.
http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af145/funktaztic4/10-dolmette-chainsaw-motorcycle.jpg
Reminds me of the Roadkill Monza turbocharged by weed blowers!
Weird question, but fitting the oddball nature, has anyone ever tried mounting headlights to the outer edge of the handlebars on either side? I know it usually comes up that drivers just aren’t trained to see cyclists,which often causes accidents. I’m wondering if two distinctly separate headlights would trick a driver brain into seeing a bike where they wouldn’t otherwise (especially in places where daytime running lights are common).
Interesting proposal. Probably has some merit.
problem there might be, the driver would see two spaced apart lights and judge the distance based on how far away a car would be if he could see those lights spaced that far apart (not overly well explained but you prob get the idea)
I’m not sure motorcycle manufacturers would be willing to attempt to incorporate that into a design, though, it wouldn’t be a bad idea from a safety perspective. I like how some of the touring and adventure bikes have a centered headlight and two (sometimes more) driving lights mounted lower and wider apart. Anything that helps visibility!
That picture of the TX750 is exactly what I want to look like when I ride mine. Time to find a bitchin 70’s riding outfit on eBay… Unless you have one stashed away in your closet Pete?
As a matter of fact, I do…
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