for a ride with Fred

Porsche Design 'AMK': A two-wheeled alternative

No, it’s not something from ‘Back to the Future’. In 1980, this WAS the future of motorcycling, as envisaged by the Porsche Design Studio.

Named ‘AMK’, for Alternatives Motorrad Konzept, the concept bike was Porsche Design’s 1980s vision for a motorcycle that was fun - yet practical and safe, and with an appeal that would cross the barriers between two- and four-wheeled enthusiasts. 

The designers in Zell am See based their concept on a Yamaha SR 500 single-cylinder motorbike. Form and function were effortlessly combined, hence the totally covered wheels were both aerodynamically efficient and useful in reducing the amount of dirt thrown up over the rider from the road. The ergonomic, height-adjustable seat not only looks good, it provides a comfortable riding position, too.



Today, the AMK bike looks as futuristic as ever. And for those interested in seeing it in the metal, it will be on display at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart until 17 March 2013. 

Related Links The Porsche Museum in Stuttgart's celebration of 40 Years of Porsche Design

Text: J. Philip Rathgen(ClassicDriver)
Photos: Porsche Design

BMW R65 Air Head (the bike)

While spending time in Germany, Tony couldnt help but head to the Mecca of BMW. The BMW Welt Museum. While there he realised the potential to create a project air head cafe racer that could turn heads. While overseas he thought about colours, styles and had some self proclaimed radical ideas. 

As soon at touching down in Sydney he was on the hunt for a R65 mono - shock. He found & went to town (Eminem aint got shit on me) on it; chopping the frame and modifying the seat. He painted the tank satin red and blacked out the rest of the bike. Harley from RB Racing took care of the clips ons, digital dash and tuned it to 34 RWHP. 





It was a tiered budget build using more time then parts. Now it has reached the next tier. Have a look at whats planned. 
Photo edit of the next stage for this machine!
Photos by: Andreas Photography
Riding shot by: Natalie Ilievska
Modelled by: Jordan Kightly 

from  australiancaferacers.

Legend Boucles de Spa...c'est ce weekend !

Malgré la crise et les multiples difficultés rencontrées par tous les organisateurs, les Legend Boucles de Spa, véritable machine à remonter le temps, continuent à rencontrer un succès historique. Ce samedi, ils devraient être un peu plus de 250 équipages au départ de Spa pour 16 RT.

Malgré un début de saison difficile en WRC, le N°2 mondial Mikko Hirvonen, l’homme qui doit succéder à Loeb en tant que leader chez Citroën, est tout heureux de découvrir notre pays, l’ambiance très chaleureuse des Boucles, l’Historic et bien sûr sa Visa 1000 Pistes. Même si un léger dégel est annoncé (mais il reste encore pas mal de neige sur le parcours) pour samedi et s’il découvre le tracé aujourd’hui en reconnaissances, Mikko est certainement à pointer parmi les favoris dans la catégorie des Legend où il faudra, rappelons-le, tenter de respecter une moyenne de 80 km /h. Ce qui, vu les conditions, ne s’annonce pas facile du tout. A défaut de flocons, les pénalités risquent donc de tomber…

Quatre autres tractions intégrales ont la cote : les deux autres Visa 1000 Pistes du patron de Citroën Racing Yves Matton et du quintuple lauréat des 24 H de Spa Eric Van de Poele, mais surtout les deux Audi Quattro Gr.4 du double vainqueur des 24H du Mans et Champion du Monde d’endurance André Lotterer, et de Bruno Thiry (pour autant que les nombreux soucis aient été résolus, la transmission posant maintenant des problèmes), déjà lauréat en 2010 des Legend sur une monture de ce type.

 

Patrick Snijers forfait !

Du côté des deux roues motrices, la Lancia 037 Rally de Christian Kelders constitue assurément l’attraction. Cela fait vingt-sept ans qu’on n’avait plus vu cette mythique Groupe B rouler sur nos terres. Un deuxième exemplaire du Milano Racing est présent à Spa mais a priori, il restera au parc d’assistance. Alors qu’il n’avait pas encore pu réunir plus que la moitié du budget hier soir (après avoir testé l'auto durant l'après-midi), Patrick Snijers a appelé l’organisation ce matin pour raconter qu’il s’était cassé la clavicule en partant pour Spa… La légendaire Stratos du Britannique Steve Perez et la « petite » Beta Monte-Carlo du tenant du titre et régional de l’étape Jean-Pierre Van de Wauwer ont également leur lot d’aficionados.

On suivra aussi de très près la bataille dans la coupe Ford entre les Escort de Thierry Neuville, François Duval, Marc Duez, Kevin Demaerschalk, Fred Bouvy, Stefaan Stouf (un autre ancien vainqueur) ou l’espoir français Mathieu Arzeno, autant de clients pour le podium.

Parmi les nombreuses Porsche (45), citons celles des anciens lauréats Bernard Munster et Renaud Verreydt, ce dernier qui sera assisté par le jeune chanteur belge Jali dont ce seront les débuts en tant que copilote. Pour les Felix-Marie Brasseur, Xavier Bouche, Daniel Reuter, François Chantriaux, Jean-Pierre Mondron, Chavan et autres, un Top 15 constituerait déjà un bon résultat. Autres candidates sérieuses aux accessits, les Opel de Chris Van Woensel (Manta 400), Cédric Cherain et Marc Timmers (Manta A) peuvent créer la surprise, de même que les Ascona du Français Jean-François Mourgues et du Suédois Per-Gunnar Andersson ainsi que la VW Golf II Gr.A ex-usine de l’espoir néerlandais Kevin Abbring.

Enfin, les amateurs de belle mélodie ne résisteront pas aux passages, avec le numéro S1 - soit sept minutes avant les concurrents et hors classement - de la Porsche 911 Grand Raid de Stéphane Henrard dont il est largement question dans le dernier numéro de Turbomagazine.

 

16 RT au programme

Tout ce beau monde en découdra ce samedi sur 16 RT à disputer entre 08h45 (les Classic s'élançant dès 08h25) et 00h26. Côté parcours, rien que du classique avec une traversée de la célèbre Clémentine bien sûr mais aussi deux shows sur le domaine de Bilstain (la première à 12h45 en direct sur Télévesdre, Motors TV et en streaming sur la RTBF) et des passages dans Creppe, La Redoute, Stoumont, Basse Bodeux et Wanne. Pour connaître les numéros des concurrents, les horaires et les plans des RT, un programme complet de 64 pages sera vendu 10 euros en dix-sept points stratégiques. Ceux qui ne peuvent se rendre sur place pourront suivre l’évolution de la course et les classements sur le site www.racspa.be via lequel ils pourront se brancher sur la webradio animée par Christian Lahaye et les élèves de la Haute Ecole de la Province de Liège. (avec COM-photo J. Letihon)

 

 

 

 

with Turbo Magazine

Leon Camier fastest on day 2 in another crash fest at Phillip Island

with TWOWHEELSBLOG



The second and final day of World Superbike private testing at Phillip Island turned out to be as treacherous as yesterday, with riders binning their machines again on the newly resurfaced track - Ayrton Badovini had to be helicoptered out to the hospital for suspected rib and knee injuries - while Leon Camier finished on top of the unofficially timesheets, but also sending his Suzuki over the tire wall barrier and into the trees.
Camier’s best lap was a stunning 1.32.2, half a second under the current record, and on race tires while his Fixi Crescent Suzuki team mate Jules Cluzel sat out the test because his second crash yesterday left him with gaping wound on his elbow that he had to get it stitched up.
Artyon Badovini’s crash left his Alstare Ducati 1199 completely destroyed after catching fire, while team mate Carlos Checa also sat out today following his intestinal problems.
Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes didn’t test today following his yesterday’s crash, that occured just after 10 laps into the test. The Briton was left with a small fracture to his left wrist and decided to rest up for next week. Loris Baz also sat out the test following his crash yesterday.

Jonathan Rea also suffered a massive highside at Lukey Heights, but he posted the third fastest time behind a very convincing Sylvain Guintoli. Marco Melandri took it slow and easy trying to avoid the same pitfalls that his fellow riders had, and ended up fourth just a tenth of second faster than Michel Fabrizio who was fifth at the end of the day.
Davide Giugliano was 6th with his Aprilia RSV4 ahead of BMW’s Leon Haslam and Aprilia factory rider Eugene Laverty who dropped to 8th after leading day 1. Chaz Davies posted the same lap time as Laverty with his BMW S1000RR while Max Neukirchner was 11th and last in the depleted field.
While the riders are licking their wound, and the teams counting the massive damages that the bikes sustained, that included a burned out Panigale and a Kawaski ZX-10R separated in two pieces, they’ll be hoping that the official two-day that takes place on Monday and Tuesday ahead of the season’s opening round later will be much less expensive.

WSBK Phillip Island test unofficial lap times
1. Leon Camier (GBR) Fixi Crescent Suzuki - 1′31.2
2. Guintoli (FRA) Aprilia Racing - 1′31.3
3. Jonathan Rea (GBR) Pata Honda World Superbike Team - 1′31.4
4. Melandri (ITA) BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team - 1′31.6
5. Fabrizio (ITA) Aprilia Red Devils Roma - 1′31.7
6. Davide Giugliano (ITA) Aprilia Althea Racing - 1′31.8
7. Leon Haslam (GBR)Pata Honda World Superbike Team - 1′31.8
8. Eugene Laverty (IRL) Aprilia Racing - 1′32.1
9. Chaz Davies (GBR) BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team- 1′32.1
10. Ayrton Badovini (ITA) Team Ducati Alstare - 1′32.2
11. Max Neukirchner (GER) Ducati MR-Racing - 1′32.6

Icon's Triumph Tiger 800XC - “Dromedarii”

By guest writer Ian Lee.
via PIPEBURN
So you decide you are going to build a custom bike. From this starting point you have so many directions you can head in for the style of your build. Should your bike run motocross bars or clip-ons? Is it a good idea to lengthen your swingarm? Is it really a problem if you want to run both Firestones and pipewrap? All good questions if you are a run of the mill customiser. However, if you are in the same state of mind as the builders at Icon, then your ideas will stretch far beyond conventional means, to the realm of the post-apocalyptic. 

After seeing Icon’s bike starring in the Raiden Files ‘Portland to Dakar’, Triumph approached Icon to put forward the idea of a build. OEM & custom builder collaborations seem to be the flavour of the moment, with manufacturers looking to workshops to show what is possible when customising their product. Icon called all the shots on this build, with Triumph supplying the bike and letting Icon work their magic. With Icon not willing to call a bike a ‘custom’ unless it has had serious work done to it, this bike has had produced in the vision of what it would take to survive should society break down. 

A Triumph 800XC was chosen for this build, it’s plastic fairings being replaced with protective cage arrangements. An oversized fuel tank, stuffed with Rotopax fuel cells, replaces the factory unit. The fuel tank cap is part of a filler spout from a jerrycan, complete with handle. The rear subframe has been raised, and any superfluous bracketry taken to with a grinder, allowing easy viewing of the Leo Vince exhaust. Ohlins stiffened suspension help hold Continental TKC80 tyres onto the road, dirt, whatever terrain you come across. And to see what terrain is coming up the bike has been fitted out with PIAA high intensity discharge lighting. 

Finished in desert tan, it is exactly what you need to get around at the end of days. Take some time out to watch the video on Icon’s website, you will see why Triumph is willing to collaborate with them. Icon is a professional outfit, with a lot of show to match the go of the bike. They don’t fap about, don’t compromise on anything on the build, and their build quality is exceptional. Post apocalyptic exceptional, hopefully.