Custom builder Jesse Rooke is on to something here. The Slotard is a new super motard style custom and from the photos it doesn’t appear to be quite finished, not really sure. But look closely and see what he’s done.
The most notable piece is the engine which appears to be a V-twin with the rear cylinder removed and a supercharger(?) in its place or is that just the transmission up there by itself? You’ll recall the supercharger arrangement used by Roger Goldammer in Trouble. Interesting arrangement in any case. There is an underslung shock and a short exhaust under the engine. Upside down fork, single disc up front with six piston caliper and single disc/sprocket in the rear.
My guess is great handling and tons of low end grunt, probably sounds pretty cool, too. We’ll have to keep our eye on this to see the final photos. Accessible performance? How’s this? It would make a helluva kit, too, wouldn’t it?
Link: Rooke Customs
The Kneeslider: Roger Goldammer’s Trouble
csmuha says
the seems to be the transmission… not a supercharger
kneeslider says
The tranny is in there for sure, but it looks like, … hmm … you might be right, but it’s awfully crowded in there. Maybe I wanted that to be a blower in there, too, and after Goldammer’s Trouble My eyes were seeing things. After looking at the bigger photos on Rooke’s site again it appears the intake goes straight in without diversion.
mark says
God, it’s nice to see the custom builders finally doing something other than choppers.
todd says
I’m afraid it won’t work so well. Every time you get on the throttle the rear wheel will try to tuck up underneath the bike. There would be some serious jacking going on unless they have figured out some sort of throttle linked rear suspension compensator. Oh well, it’s still funny how so many people can’t seem to get away from harley motors. I bet a stock DRZ400 would put it to shame.
-todd
aaron says
it’s amazing that in the “if you can’t buy it build it” world of “Xtreme Kustoms” no one wants to make their own transmission…. slot a stacked arrangement like the r6 has into a big twin and you might be able to fit the thing into something resembling a bike that would be fun to ride! even the “faithful” could probably do something decent with a hybrid twincam/vrod drivetrain. of course I’m overlooking the obvious here – that the v-rod is the vastly superior motor anyways!
dave says
aaron-
Umm.. lookit the Confederate Hellcat. Stacked proprietary transmission. Big twin style motor. Been there, Done that. Maybe what people need is an American bike that doesn’t follow the “rules” laid out by other companies… Just a thought.
aaron says
confederate and chopper builders are very different entities. a company with one paint job and two models that does a new design every 3 years vs companies that do a new design for every bike (well, kinda). the only thing confederate shares with people like goldammer are the air cooled twin.
dave says
But, now you can see what these “custom” builders are doing… They just buy off the shelf parts and components, then wrap ’em in funky sheetmetal. Give it a wild paintjob (that will look silly and dated next year) and you got a ‘custom’ bike. LOL
Ever notice that you see something slightly cool (american cafe racers) and then never see it again? If we built Hellcats like that, we’d have been able to make 10 a year… MAYBE. Instead, we made one like that, then had the parts duplicated TO OUR SPEC. so we could go production. 175 bikes a year. Not counting the Wraith. Point is; the “Cstom-builders’ are really just catalog-kit-builders working out of the Drag Specialties book, and an S&S catalog. Rules apply. No-one wants to really do anything different. This Rooke bike is interesting, but we just can’t get our heads around what he was trying to accomplish with the final drive and output sprocket.. I bet it’s a handful to ride… (and not in that good/fun way)
dave
JoeKing says
Flash….. news bulletin from AMA Proracing
Rule revision for Supermoto lite class
Engine displacement…200-250 4-stroke sgl. cylinder
Also permitted:
Harley Davidson 1000cc Supercharged sgl. cylinder
No doubt would have the same success as the Buell XBRR
aaron says
dave-ok, so you’re shilling for confederate. they’re good bikes, from what I can see. yes, they may be the most interesting thing coming out of america right now. yes, I would kill for a wraith. (and yes, I would love to see a W-3 in there rather than a twin. but if I can’t afford a stock wraith, I definately cannot afford a heavily customized one off wraith!)
and yes, consumer chopper culture is crap. the chinese make more money off would be “good ‘ol boys” than anyone. most “customs” are bolt ups of pre-existing parts with a “one-off” paint job that was featured in easyriders countless times.
my point is that there are a few that create unique objects: rooke, goldammer, krugger, sundance, and the early arlen ness. (chica and zero are also favorites of mine, but too committed to their own interpretation of “old school” to be included here.) these people will pick up a pencil (or a hammer and sheet metal) before picking up a catalogue. a custom bike from these builders can have one off front and rear suspension, bodywork, frame, wheels, brakes (!), etc. why (before goldammer took a vertical mill to the engine in “trouble”) does none of these builders make (or modify) anything related to the drivetrain? why not tilt the motor forward ducati style? why not buy a gearset off a hayabusa and make up a nice small transmission? some mental block, I guess…
let’s not even get into the “american twin” addiction – people will point to the ACR as unique before mentioning something like the feuling W-3 or the baldwin autocycle. the acr is just the old “sporty in a featherbed” that’s been around since at least the late 60’s. you can’t call it creative that he stuck a big twin in an upsized featherbed frame. they didn’t even try to get away from the dunstall/norton look.
(and yes, I overlooked many creative people like csyz, but I’m trying to keep an apples to apples thing going here…)
aaron says
I just had a thought – this thing should try to wheelie when you roll OFF the throttle. I sure hope rooke stuck a slipper clutch in there!
aaron says
oops, one more thing – I lied about sundance. I just spotted one of their bikes in my photo screensaver, and remembered that the reason I liked them so much was that they DO play around with their engines. they just do such a good job of it you can forget that harley never made a twin carb XR750 style Knucklehead.
dave says
Hmm.. interesting, aaron… I need to say, while I do love Confederates, I’m NOT a harley guy (I was a service mgr @ a large southwest h-d dealership for years) I ride old hondas, and euro bikes. I *used* to work for Confed, until after Katrina wiped us out, and management decided to move to Birmingham. JT and I have elected to stay in New Orleans, and have started a design studio. We have been watching the other guys, and while some things are visually interesting, most are unridable, and very tired, unexciting design. Powerplants and drive systems aside, chassis and suspension should be rethought, and perfected THEN install an appropriate engine/trans for the design. The custom guys are building interesting things, but is that what you really want, as a consumer? Would you rather have a one-off ride that someone -arguably- threw together, or a vehicle that was designed/tested/and proven to go into production in limited quantities? How about $50k vs. $10k?? That’s another point too…
I think Paul has some good discussion going about “accessible performance” and honestly, we are designing something around that idea as I write this. We will see how the press and market research looks at what we’re doing (and the segment as a whole) and go from there..
Paul, I think you need to start a forum for these discussions..
dave
aaron says
I think $10K may be delusional – quote, unquote – my opinion of the direction norton looked to be taking, two months ago. I’m a design freak, so $15K cool is (to me) better than $10k wallflower. I think that if sold back to back, triumph’s 675 could do better at a $2k higher price point than an evolution of the daytona 650 , just because of it’s style and “soul”. I also think that at ducati the sportclassics could replace the monster and SS models. when sales slow, you could always release the monster mk2, faired and unfaired (and give heikki naulapaa a call for his input – his “demon” designs should do quite well…)
whoa, got off topic there…
bottom line is – a chopper is like runway fashion. beautiful, but stupid and painful in the real world. the slotard is designed with the chopper mindset. but at least he’s trying – I would have pulled the front wheel in and moved the transmission back and down. but he’s got the weight centralized much more than I would- a performance parameter that may oughtweigh the odd tranny layout. the antisquat may make this bike more efficent in a straight line, counteracting wheelies that are fun, but slow you down. and it looks like there’s limited rebound at the rear, which should prevent the wheel from tucking too much.
jesse has a motocross background too, which (along with some ama roadracing) should give him a rough idea of what this bike needs. maybe he found a decent compromise?
acessible performance? hook yourself up as hyousung importer to wherever you can (bolivia? camaroon?), strip thousands of bikes and rework them to suit your needs. mass produce (injection moulding?) some beautiful, unique bodywork to fit a new frame, and hire a suspension wizard to design a tweak suitable for volume production and application to all those suspension components you’ve got lying around. If you can build (and sell) ten thousand bikes a year, at double the retail price of a hyousung, a bike that can turn heads (in a good way!) you might have a chance. but finding stable startup capital (20 to 50 million, to throw out the first number that comes to mind) will be a way bigger struggle than any design or production or marketing efforts.
yeah, a forum might work… but I’d rather Paul spend his energy on the design contest first!
hoyt says
Mike Cooke’s ACR does have a home-built/modified transmission. The wheelbase seems to be a bit too long, and if I had the money, I wouldn’t want an open drivetrain.
Somone does need to come out with a gear driven primary for the aftermarket big twins (although, the aftermarket motors might have to have the rearward bottom re-shaped to accomodate the gear-driven primary (look closely at Yamaha’s big twin and you can see how the bottom is “cut-out” to allow for a very tidy gear-driven primary).
Victory’s big twin gear driven drivetrain is still too long because it doesn’t seem to have this cutout.
this project should be encouraged….not for a false promise in successful motard racing, but to push the envelope of the industry he is spending his time. I’m sure Rooke is well aware of the many naysayer comments & facts about applying this engine to this bike style (the half of the motor he is using still probably weighs more than other motard engines).
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I saw a new Hyosung 650 sport-twin the other day. cool frame and stacked headlight look.
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I’m hoping the design contest is not for some time as I have to learn the modeling software I picked up.
hoyt says
“they didn’t even try to get away from the dunstall/norton look.” Mike Cook wanted the Norton look with an American hot rod influence (open primary, gold flake paint, flat black).
With the 103 twin cam motor, I would be surprised if it didn’t beat a hellcat, wraith, & ecosse in a road course comparison. The man deserves a lot of credit as he and Curt Winter are the only ones that I have seen that are pushing the custom bike scene in a better direction (sport -ing chassis that will make use of that torque.) A direction beyond posing.
Curt Winter says
Modifying engines and transmissions is always cool. I’ve relocated trannys before and while it did shorten the wheelbase, the labor involved greatly outweighed the performance gain. A chassis that has a 59″ wheelbase can function as well as one with a 56″ wheelbase. It’s all about weight placement, swingarm length, swingarm pivot location, kneck angle and trail. We all know that a big twin Harley motor is best suited for a cruiser, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be put in an agressive chassis and handle realy well. Trying to modify one to compete on a national level is a bit far fetched. Look at the money and recorses that Buell has spent and still not capable of beating a bike half its displacment. I would love to see aftermarket componys design shorter primary and tranny assemblys, but unless everybody suddenly wants to start building Harley race bikes I think it will be limited to the one off designs. As a frame builder I would love to see it. Somebody please prove me wrong !!