Bikes_2

This motley crew did their very best to sell me this rather tidy 350 Bullet for 20,000 India rupees. At about US$750 it would have been a worthwhile buy, if I lived in India, or had the means to take it home with me.

This rather complicated looking vehicle was built by an Australian bush mechanic, by the name of Lucky Kaiser. He took a second world war vintage Rolls Royce 'Merlin' V12 aeroplane engine, and cut a pair of cylinders off the front of it. After about 2000 hours in his machine shop he had the biggest V twin motorcycle in the history of the universe. It came to over 5000cc displacement. At a later date he dropped a small supercharger on to it, to give it a little more 'get up and go'.

A collection of choppers spotted in Phuket, Thailand, during "Phuket Bike Week" 1998. They were all members of a club called "The Bangkok Springers".
These bikes were built to an amazing standard and were transported to Phuket by truck, but were then actually ridden around the island on a regular basis.

Here is a home made brake lever for our SR500, going through the stages to completion. At this point it is roughly cut from 1/2" aluminium plate. With a hacksaw and electric jigsaw, not a CNC machine in sight.

Here it has been filed and sanded to shape, and is awaiting a few holes to get it operational. A little cheating was done here as the machine shop milled the two flats on it to slip into the Yamaha brake master cyliner assembly.

Now it's in action, and has worked brilliantly for some four years now, including a spill where it was bent almost double. It was soon hammered straight with a little heat from the gas cooker to help it along.

A faded old picture of the results of Pauls first attempt at chopper building, back in the early eighties. The bike is a 750 kawasaki twin, with 6" over front forks, raked front end ,and a lowered rear. The seat was handmade from leather, the paint was done with aerosols, and all welding was done by Paul at work.
Surprisingly, the bike handled and rode as good as any other in the local pub crowd, and showed a clean pair of heels to many a "sport bike". Maybe it was just the rider!!!!.

"Is he gonna ride it????"
The wife sleepily puzzles the latest of Pauls bike building exercises. The V8 Chevy. This one definitly won't be outhandling anybody!.

Early days on the V8 project, when the motor was turned the other way. The workshop was freshly built, with tool board and music, and was the perfect setup for pondering whether the V8 bolide was really a step in the right direction, or a major waste of time and resources!.

This odd looking creation was built by "Rat". It is Toyota flat twin powered, and the front forks started out as Harley Davidson items. The whole seat assembly is spring mounted and the rider sits about five feet above the ground.
One of the original "Kenya cowboys" from the bushwar of the sixities, he emigrated to Australia after white rule in Kenya collapsed, and spent his life there racing, building and singing about motorcycles and life on the road. His age is estimated to be around seventy something, and he can barely walk nowadays, hence the trike, but he is still going strong.
Last I heard though, was that he had sold the trike, and had moved back to Australia, but recent rumours are that he's back in Angeles. The trike was painted black not long after this photo was taken.