The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Aluminum Norton Commando

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Among the interesting motorcycles I noticed while at Vintage Motorcycle Days was this 1974 Norton Commando with all hand formed aluminum bodywork by Evan Wilcox. It seems Evan has been doing a lot of this over the years from the looks of things on his web site. This particular Norton has twin headlights, a see thru primary cover and four Brembo calipers up front, four and … [Read more...]

Martin Conquest trike

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When I mentioned trikes the other day, I said I had a hard time figuring out why people would want them and several readers pointed out a lot of older or handicapped riders found them to be a way to keep riding. That's an excellent point and just to emphasize the fact, here is the Martin Conquest, specifically built for the wheelchair rider. The wheelchair rolls right in and … [Read more...]

Yamaha MT-03

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Speaking of Yamaha, I just noticed this though it may be old news, it's the Yamaha MT-03 which looks like the baby brother of the MT-01 concept bike that was introduced in 1999. It has a single cylinder engine, an LED headlight, a side mounted Ohlins shock, belt drive and it has that "future standard" look. I like it. … [Read more...]

Star Twin responds to Thunder Star questions

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We've been trying to sort out all of the numbers being tossed around about the Thunder Star 1200 TDI diesel motorcycle. The more we looked, the less sure we were of anything. Close examination of several magazine writeups revealed different numbers within the same article! For instance, Streetfighters magazine had both 180 kilometers per gallon and 180 miles per gallon, an easy … [Read more...]

Hayabusa powered DP1

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Dennis Palatov started from scratch with a "what if?" and his answer is the DP1, a Hayabusa powered track car with carbon fiber body and far too many technical features to mention here. He is building this as a prototype for eventual production (projected February 2006) in several power variations, a stock Hayabusa engine, a turbo version and one to be powered by the Hayabusa … [Read more...]

CAD bikes

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Always on the lookout for new thinking in the design field, I found this site of Mark van der Kwaak, a transplanted Aussie living in the Netherlands, who does some superb CAD work with a lot of fresh ideas. Working as a designer of stainless steel pumps using PRO/Engineer CAD software, Mark took his passion for motorcycles and mixed in a little CAD and you see the result here. … [Read more...]