The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Yamaha Virago Waterbike

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A lot of motorcycle riders like water sports along with motorcycling and warm weather can bring up a tough question, should I go riding or out on my boat? Well, James Garlitz had the same problem and decided to do something about it, he put together a waterbike. Starting with a 1985 Yamaha Virago, he built three aluminum floats filled with urethane foam. He mounted a 9.9hp … [Read more...]

Batman’s New Motorcycle – The Batpod

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Add Chris Corbould to your list of motorcycle builders because he is the person behind the new Batpod, the high tech motorcycle you'll see Bruce Wayne riding in the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight. The photos released are intentionally unclear, they want you to see the movie, naturally, but from what you can make out, I can guess we won't see this at your local dealer any … [Read more...]

DesmoHarley – A Real Ducati Harley Davidson Merger

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Chris Barber, builder of the Alfabike, left a comment on our story about a potential Ducati - Harley merger with a link to his latest project and I think you'll like this. I guess he couldn't wait for the corporations to merge and, being one of those "can do" guys, decided to take matters into his own hands. Chris has created an engine, based on a Harley Davidson crankcase and … [Read more...]

Kainzinger Vmax – V-Fource 1680

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As Yamaha forever fiddles around planning the introduction of the long awaited new V-max, I was thinking again about something I thought about long ago, a sportbike powered by the V-max's V4 engine, though maybe "sportbike" is a bit misleading, the idea is a great sounding muscle bike that likes to turn. It certainly isn't the first engine many builders would consider for a … [Read more...]

Moko Frames for Harley Davidson V-Twins

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In The Kneeslider's carefully catalogued haphazardly strewn collection of hundreds of back issues of motorcycle magazines, lies a treasure trove of information. Many of those mags have post-it notes sticking out from the pages with a small note about some interesting content on a particular topic, something I thought might be worth investigating in more detail. I got an email … [Read more...]

Alfabike Follow Up

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After we featured the Alfabike a few days ago, some comments said it looked like it would be tough to kick start. One comment by sweetlemonaid provided a link to some photos of the bike during the build and there's also a link on the site to a video showing the builder, Chris Barber, kick starting the bike. Doesn't look hard at all! By the way, Chris has built a few other bikes … [Read more...]