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The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Ian Drysdale’s Spectacular Drysdale 1000 V8

By Paul Crowe

Images removed due to legal dispute in Australia

Putting a V8 engine in a motorcycle is easy, just build a bike big enough, like a Boss Hoss, and you can wrap it around anything, though as one recent home build, the Simca V8 shows, with a bit more thought and finesse, the results are a lot more pleasing. On the other hand, Ian Drysdale, the Australian engineering wizard, takes the idea of a V8 motorcycle to an entirely different level, he designed and built the engine first before building the bike and the results are just about as pleasing as you could possibly want.

Ian, as many of you know, played a major part in developing the Carberry V-Twin, one of the three major Royal Enfield single derived twins, plus he built the Godzilla V-Twin of his own design, using tapered cam lobes like the Mercedes-Benz F1 engines and master and link connecting rods like radial aero engines and he’s responsible for design and machine work on Russell Sutton’s radial engine builds. Drysdale also designed the prototype of the Vento 3 cylinder engine used in the Vento ATV and he’s the been designer/builder/fabricator in many, many more projects. Referring to Ian as a “builder” is either high praise for the word or a serious slight to Drysdale.

Inspired by the 500cc Moto Guzzi V8 GP engine, the 90 degree Drysdale 1000 V8 originally appeared 20 years ago as a 750. Using two FZR600 16-valve cylinder heads, the 4 cam, 32 valve engine also uses Yamaha pistons, though the connecting rods are of Ian’s own design and join together on a milled billet crankshaft inside his own sandcast cases. The exhaust is a twin 4 into 1 arrangement exiting under the seat.

The transmission is a six-speed cassette-type box with parts from a variety of manufacturers and slides out for service, delivering power through an FZR1000 clutch. The upside down fork, wheels and brakes come from an R1. The swing arm is Kawasaki ZZ-R1100 with an Öhlins shock mounted sideways.

Ian adds:

The latest 1000-V8 is an ongoing development of the 1996 model 750-V8, and although outwardly very similar, it has a lot of refinements that are not immediately obvious.

One that is obvious is the rear exhaust system, we had to add 600mm ( 2 feet ) of tailpipe in there to get the fueling right, which was a squeeze in an already crowded space!

The changes to the rear suspension are also visible I guess, I was chasing a more linear rate as the 750-V8 was too radical a rising rate.

The main advance is the fuel injection – I had to butcher up BMW K100 throttle bodies for the EFI on my 750-V8 in the 90’s as there were no injected Japanese bikes then! I now use 2 sets of modified 39mm Kiehen TB’s from a CBR600 – it’s a shame to have to cover them over, the 8 trumpets sticking straight up look fantastic.

The bike is very compact, especially when considering the engine, though much of the engine, including the heads, can be removed in situ.

The engine develops 150 horsepower and will spin to 15,000 rpm.

The bike you see in these photos is already in the hands of its proud owner, that’s the first of five.

I have plans to build one of the “street fighter” versions ( naked with twin shocks and low pipes ) for myself and another for my business partner, and I will consider building a couple more customer bikes. The price is the hurdle obviously, hand built specials are expensive animals and I currently need US$100,000 to make it worth while building one.

Pricey? Of course, but hand made excellence of this type is not found in factory showrooms and the skills and time of a builder like Ian are in demand for a great many other projects, but when the subject of V8 engines in motorcycles comes up, there are few that measure up to this level of craftsmanship.

Isn’t it amazing what time, skill and the proper can-do attitude can accomplish? What an absolutely superb build.

Posted on February 27, 2014 Filed Under: Motorcycle Builders


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Comments

  1. Yeti2bikes says

    February 27, 2014 at 1:13 pm

    WOW! What a bit of work. The body work kind of reminds me of a yellow Britton. I can’t wait to see the naked version. I’m intrigued by the rear suspension.
    What is the weight of this bike?

  2. Jon Hutchison says

    February 27, 2014 at 1:28 pm

    Neat bike. a few years back, while at the San Bernardino Harley/Yamaha shop, a guy came in with a 8 cylinder street bike. He’d hooked up two four pipe Arial square fours in a chain gang to what looked like a standard brit tranny. It sounded exactly like a v-8. It was ridden regularly on long tours. At first glance it looked normal and wasn’t overly long either.

  3. Paulinator says

    February 27, 2014 at 6:17 pm

    Wow!!! Gorgeous.

  4. steve says

    February 27, 2014 at 8:05 pm

    Nice work Ian! Any photos of the engine bits?

  5. Ramadancer says

    February 27, 2014 at 10:04 pm

    Stunning indeed.

    How about a quality audio file of this machine’s sound, it has to be an absolute treat. And ‘at full song’ might be just right.
    With a $100K US build cost, and with 750SS Ducati’s fetching that number, it seems a bargain.
    Thanks!

  6. Oberon says

    February 28, 2014 at 10:11 am

    Not only is this design beautifully packaged, but it shows that if someone wanted to do it, a V-12 wouldn’t be impossible.

    • tim says

      March 1, 2014 at 6:20 pm

      It has been done but in a rather, um, larger, package: Allen Millyard’s V12 KZ1300’s come to mind
      http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/features/v12_custom_kawasaki_2300cc/

      I actually thought Paul had featured it here but maybe not. It must have been a print magazine article I read about it. Have a look on youtube there are videos and audio of it running.

    • Yeti2bikes says

      March 3, 2014 at 1:35 pm

      V 12 Honda CBX

      http://thekneeslider.com/honda-cbx-v12-by-andreas-georgeades/

  7. Larry Kahn says

    February 28, 2014 at 5:16 pm

    Looking at the tires it would seem it goes around corners as well as being a stunner.

    • Paul Crowe says

      February 28, 2014 at 5:34 pm

      Yep. Alan Cathcart had the pleasure of a little track time with the V8 checking lean angles and such. He seemed to liked it.

  8. Giolli Joker says

    March 2, 2014 at 1:25 am

    WOW!!!
    Can’t wait to see the streetfighter!!!

    Ok, now I just need 100k$…

  9. The Phantom says

    March 2, 2014 at 6:21 am

    Ian’s website has sound clips and pics of the naked version he built some years back:

    http://home.mira.net/~iwd/

  10. Randy says

    March 2, 2014 at 6:56 pm

    Sounds, very nice…

  11. Leston says

    March 3, 2014 at 11:54 am

    id love to see how that suspension actuates

    • Janbros says

      March 4, 2014 at 1:48 am

      the shock is compressed from both sides : the alu blocks are bolted to the bike at the bottom centre of it, where they can twist arround the bolt. the tie-bar from the swingarm pulls at the blocks, makig them go inwarts pushing towards each other.

  12. steve w. says

    March 3, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    Nice! I can still remember the scream of the 2000cc V8 Suzuki in the midget from Outhouse Engineering. Actually it was run 2 different ways. At one point as a screamer with all the RPM and then later as a torquer, moaning away.

  13. joe says

    March 5, 2014 at 7:41 am

    Nice looking motorcycle, and the engine looks better than the Moto Guzzi V8.

  14. Tom Lyons says

    March 5, 2014 at 8:19 am

    Looks very nice!

  15. lostboy says

    March 7, 2014 at 8:10 am

    I really like the older kawasaki zr front look.

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