The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Motorcycle Builders – Bottpower

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Bott 1000 Morlaco by the Bottpower Project

The Bottpower Project is so named because the builders liked the concept of the Battle of the Twins race series from some years back. The BOTT 1000 Morlaco, their current project, is powered by a Honda 954cc Fireblade engine and incorporates a Hossack-style front suspension mounted on a trellis type frame.

Hugo Van Waaijen, industrial designer on the project and in charge of designing some of the technical pieces, dropped us a note to show us what they had done so far. The project is headed by David Sanchez who does much of the design and actual construction. They’re assisted by Ernesto Arnaez who is the resident IT expert and web designer for their company.

The bike is in the final stages of the build process, they estimate another 8 months or so before things are complete and I think it looks very well done.

They have a number of other interesting designs on their site, including a hybrid motorcycle and an earlier design, the BOTT 250 H7, powered by a Yamaha TZ250 engine. The team is trying to gain a bit of exposure through their individual projects with plans for bigger things in the future.

This is a great example of one of those motorcycle builders we just don’t run across every day, a small team working away and doing what appears to be excellent work. Keep your eye on these guys, there may be a lot more coming in the near future.

This is the first of what we project as a long series of posts covering motorcycle builders who are creating their own ideas of what a motorcycle should be. If you are a builder and would like to see your project highlighted here, let us know. If you have a website where your work is on display, send us the link and we’ll have a look. We can’t put everyone’s work up but we’ll try to show as many as we can.

Link: The Bottpower Project
Related: Motorcycle Builders We’re Looking for You

More photos below:

Bott 1000 Morlaco by the Bottpower Project

Bott 1000 Morlaco by the Bottpower Project

Comments

  1. Thanks for showing the project. Just for the record, it is all a “private” project (we have normal daytime jobs) meaning David Sanchez invested his own money into it. He built almost everything himself (including welding the frame and fork,a CF airbox and CF fuel tank) but for sure we hope one day we can race the bike. As always problem is time and money
    David Sanchez also translated Tony Foale’s book in Spanish

  2. This is what I’m talkin’ about! It’s time we retire the chopper shows and show some documentaries on people creating real bikes! What’s the weight on the Morlaco Hugo? How’s the front end perform? I like the logo.

  3. We are still in the development phase, so hopefully somewhere early next year we can test ride it. Weight is unknown untill now; the frame itself is some kg’s lighter then the original aluminium one but we made the front fork sturdy to be sure (it is always easier to lighten it). We have a plastic fueltank cover with a CF fueltank underneath. The exhaust is still a proto because we want the exit to be at the front (like the new Honda 800 has, but we planned that all along;-) First priority is it should ride, then we can look into more weight reduction (wheels, brakes, etc.) Logo was created by Ernesto Arnaez, and he won the Rossi competition with the flower power graphics some years ago

  4. I like it. This is the kind of innovation that we should be seeing more often. I need to go research the front end design more.

  5. congratulations. This bike is very cool aesthetically & I’ll bet very functional…

    Were you able to lower the fuel tank’s position compared to the stock Honda Fireblade? (it looks lower).

    Will the radiator be placed in the same general area?

    A naked version would be awesome.

  6. The airbox has gotten bigger, the fuel tank will be positioned behind the engine/underneath the rider (like the MV Augusta F4 more or less has).
    Radiator will be in the same place more or less. The radiator and front shockare missing in these pictures. Actually in CAD we have a naked version; hopefully in some months we have some renderings of that one. Tnx everbody for the positive reactions

  7. “PB – Performance Bike” magazine has a good cover story about building your own bike. Along side each photo of a project is a high-level scale that rates the uniqueness, cost, viability, etc.

    There are some wild ideas, like a 495 cc parallel twin Ducati by cutting in half the 4 cylinder. Are you scoffing? check it out at a major bookstore if you are in the western hemisphere.

    If this project wasn’t so expensive I’d like to see someone do it….parallel twins make a lot of sense in the overall package of a performance bike.

    p.s. Roland Sands’ “No Regrets” also made the cover. Cool deal to further promote the customization or building of performance bikes in the US