Very interesting, and some clever engineering - especially the way the drive from the right-hand primary drive chain has been transferred across to the left-hand side of the swinging arm. But why on earth fit girder forks ? Surely a decent set of SDD forks would have looked / worked much better ?
Very interesting, and some clever engineering - especially the way the drive from the right-hand primary drive chain has been transferred across to the left-hand side of the swinging arm. But why on earth fit girder forks ? Surely a decent set of USD forks would have looked / worked much better ?
Certainly a neat job,seat looks a bit of an aquired tast. BTW the front end is more BMWesq than girder fork
The jury's still out for me, not sure why. It sort of looks like an odd KTM to me!!! Can't quite figure it out.
@mcr998 - the BMW Para-lever front end used what were efectively normal fork leg sliders without springs inside them, with a spring between the lower fork clamp and the frame, if memory serves me correctly. This looks more like a Hardley-Dangerous to me... Or a 1930's Rudge... I still think it's a clever bit of engineering, and if it saved a good Laverda engine from being junked then I'm all in favour. But if a perfectly good Jota or Montjuic was wrecked to make this then I'm not so happy...
Not very clever engineering in my view. The compromise with the chain drive so that you can fit a single sided swinging arm is heavy, complicated, and makes the wheelbase longer. It would have been better to build a proper single sided arm to accommodate the chain on the right side of the bike. Girder forks... Well, they are OK from a stiction and constant trail/ head angle point of view, but have lots of steering intrtia, when you have to turn the weight of the big linkages and the shock as well. Its a bike for show, not riding.
To clarify - "Clever engineering" in that it looks to be well made, and as in how it has overcome technical problems. Not clever in that it offers perfect solutions to the problems...
That's a double wishbone front end isn't it , not a girder. It looks similar to the Hossack creation from a good few years ago.
It is Hossack's creation. BMW bought the rights to Hossack's suspension system in order to put it into production on their bikes.
Nope its not a Hossack. That uses wishbones which are fixed to the frame and don't turn, nor does the shock. On a Hossack, the upright would be fixed with ball joints. This makes all the difference, because then the steering and braking forces are kept completely separate, and the suspension loads are fed directly into the frame, so you don't need a weighty and strong method of locating the steering head.
Speaking of funny front ends, I wonder if you can spot what might be wrong with this one? Suzuki RGV250 project / special | eBay
