CunningStunter
08-04-2011, 11:33 AM
Hey everyone,
I saw the post on the LS1 Sand bike which is a wild build and it made me think of a few bikes I know of and thought I'd share.
My suspension sponsor for bike racing is Laurie Smith the 'SuspensionSmith' and I've known of him for around 10 or so years. I first met Laurie at a local riding spot, I was approaching a much smaller bike on front of me and on my GSXR750 thought to my self 'I'll have this bloke' and spent the rest of the day chasing him everywhere scratching my head....this thing was like a 250/400 sized bike and I could NOT get him anywhere!
Turns out his 'FZR400' aka the 'Rat bike' was a FZR400 frame with a worked Fireblade motor on board! From that time forward I was addicted to Lauries work. He's raced in the Formula Extreme series onboard this very bike and now after some bad luck, sports an 1100odd cc Blackbird motor so it's even crazier.....
His next project (on the same bike) was a Girder front end, (no forks) first made one years ago, redsigned it and made a dummy from timber > then once it was a proven concept he made the pieces and now rides it at WP...
I'm always ALWAYS amazed by anyone, LS1 drag bike or otherwise who can sit down, think of something this crazy, machine and build their own components and implement them to a practical working end.
Most recently, Laurie has completed work on his newest project a ZX-10 Motard. Granted it's a bit fugly and needs some work in the fashion dept however this thing is so quick and raw it don't really need it. I know R1/large road bike motards have been done before but not to this extent. The ones I have seen have been retaining the road bikes geometry so even with knobbies they handle like pigs in the dirt. We all know power doesn't equal handling and esp in bikes it can ruin any good handling characteristics the bike might've had. Laurie went the extra step in redesigning some of the geometry and its far removed from the ZX it was.......be scared...very scared!
Its only short but enjoy!
YouTube - ZX10R Dirt Bike 001
p.s my apologies about my recent replies in another thread about this - but I've taken the advice on board and created a thread for the guy he really is a genius, he's the ONLY bike suspension specialist in Canberra and is very well known in the biking community and his projects alone are worth a mention....
I saw the post on the LS1 Sand bike which is a wild build and it made me think of a few bikes I know of and thought I'd share.
My suspension sponsor for bike racing is Laurie Smith the 'SuspensionSmith' and I've known of him for around 10 or so years. I first met Laurie at a local riding spot, I was approaching a much smaller bike on front of me and on my GSXR750 thought to my self 'I'll have this bloke' and spent the rest of the day chasing him everywhere scratching my head....this thing was like a 250/400 sized bike and I could NOT get him anywhere!
Turns out his 'FZR400' aka the 'Rat bike' was a FZR400 frame with a worked Fireblade motor on board! From that time forward I was addicted to Lauries work. He's raced in the Formula Extreme series onboard this very bike and now after some bad luck, sports an 1100odd cc Blackbird motor so it's even crazier.....
His next project (on the same bike) was a Girder front end, (no forks) first made one years ago, redsigned it and made a dummy from timber > then once it was a proven concept he made the pieces and now rides it at WP...
I'm always ALWAYS amazed by anyone, LS1 drag bike or otherwise who can sit down, think of something this crazy, machine and build their own components and implement them to a practical working end.
Most recently, Laurie has completed work on his newest project a ZX-10 Motard. Granted it's a bit fugly and needs some work in the fashion dept however this thing is so quick and raw it don't really need it. I know R1/large road bike motards have been done before but not to this extent. The ones I have seen have been retaining the road bikes geometry so even with knobbies they handle like pigs in the dirt. We all know power doesn't equal handling and esp in bikes it can ruin any good handling characteristics the bike might've had. Laurie went the extra step in redesigning some of the geometry and its far removed from the ZX it was.......be scared...very scared!
Its only short but enjoy!
YouTube - ZX10R Dirt Bike 001
p.s my apologies about my recent replies in another thread about this - but I've taken the advice on board and created a thread for the guy he really is a genius, he's the ONLY bike suspension specialist in Canberra and is very well known in the biking community and his projects alone are worth a mention....