paulblez's blog

Identifying the FFs in the FortNine FF video (May 2022)

paulblez — Sat, 07 May 2022 12:42:01 +0000

This is a lengthy series of comments and identifications regarding RyanF9's (Ryan Kluftinger's) video on FFs on the FortNine YouTube channel: 'Feet Forward Motorcycles are Technically Better' which was uploaded on 16th April 2022. This one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2ou5gt_94
I’ve watched RyanF9’s FF video a few times now, and there really is a lot of good stuff in it. Amazingly, it was viewed more than a *million* times in just four weeks and 4,607 people had commented on it!
My chief beef, as I said in my first (of several!) comments on the vid, is that he doesn’t credit any of his sources, apart from Tig Cross’s Electrom, from which he presents the whole item. It’s also occurred to me that I must be the only person on the planet who’s actually ridden at least one example of every FF shown in the video, and in some cases, many examples of the breed, including the actual FF that appears in the video.
Anyway, I’ve done my best to identify all the FFs that appear, and all the FF-relevant video sources, which I’ve described and listed below in order of appearance; all further info gratefully received.

So, in order of appearance, we see:
1/ The video starts with a few seconds clipped from a BBC West news item about the Voyager, with Royce driving the white demo machine (now blue, and owned by Graham Robb), with his wife Ingrid in the back. It must be from late 1989, at a guess. You can watch the whole original 3min item here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx_jFWjEcOE
2/ As mentioned above, RyanF9 presents the whole video from Tig Cross’s Electrom FF on Vancouver Island, with some great action footage throughout. Tig has made plenty of great videos of his own, most of which have been posted in this group; just go here to view them: www.electrom.ca
3/ 0.44-56” is snipped from my own 10 minute Top Gear FF item originally broadcast in April 1988; RyanF9 shows the original TG prog intro with William Woollard sitting in the late, fire-destroyed NMM Quasar at the National Motorcycle Museum, plus several seconds of FF action from Wroughton where we had over a dozen machines in action together. In order of appearance, we see the Fryer FFelocette, the VF750 Quasar, the Flying Banana, the Crowson white Quasar, the LC350 Phasar, Monty’s V50 Phasar, the VT500 Phasar, the Difazio White Eleffant, and Tim Brown riding his Tait-steered Gold Wing Phasar.
You can see the whole item, including the Intro, the UK FFs, the original Peraves Oekomobil in Switzerland, and the outro here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw-G50fjNXQ
There are over 40 still photos from that Top Gear item on bikeweb here: https://www.bikeweb.com/image/tid/102
4/ At 3.33” RyanF9 addresses the much-ignored issue of aerodynamics. He juxtaposes the 0.3 drag factor of a Tesla with the poor aerodynamics of a motorcycle, using a dummy sitting upright to illustrate the point. However, he quotes the figure of ‘only 0.4’ for a motorcycle which, as I’ve pointed out in one of my comments on the video, is ludicrously optimistic; 1.0 would be more accurate! Suzuki’s relatively slippery Hayabusa is only 0.56, whereas the original Peraves CH Monotracer was measured at 0.18. The open cockpit Monoliner was tested at 0.21, as you can see elsewhere on bikeweb, here: https://bikeweb.com/node/2952.
5/ At 4’20” RyanF9 actually shows a few seconds from the PeravesCZ promo for the new electric Monoracer. Unfortunately it’s spoilt because he’s chosen a bit in which the training wheels for learners were fitted, even though Peraves founder Arnold Wagner himself is driving it. However, a caption shows: ‘CdA 0.19; range 400kms’, and Ryan also mentions those impressive stats in his commentary. There are actually 9 short promo videos for the PeravesCZ Monoracer to choose from here: https://www.youtube.com/.../UCs0pB5FLYgdg8Zb1LLw.../featured
6/ At 4’39” There is some ancient and very grainy footage of Malcolm Newell riding a red Quasar, both going around a corner and on-board, which I suspect was shot by a cosy passenger shooting over Malcolm’s shoulder. The original 3 minute film, entitled ‘Living Tomorrow’, was made for the Central Office of Information (COI) and features Quasar co-designer Ken Leaman in the workshop with Malcolm and a staged crashing of the Quasar into a ditch to avoid a car pulling out. The crash sequence riding was actually done by Royce Creasey. You can see the whole film on IK's YouTube site here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEDlPruj3oQ
7/ At 4’46” we see a few seconds of Dan Gurney riding an Alligator up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2003. Ryan points out that “The Alligator made 230 [km/hr] from a single cylinder XR650 though!” I’m pretty sure the footage is from the official Goodwood video, but you can find it on IK’s YouTube site here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-huq32c_VQ.
Several of us had the pleasure of talking to Dan Gurney and his son Justin at the event. Several pix here: https://www.bikeweb.com/image/tid/127
8/ At 5.00 a posse of six Ecomobiles appears over the hill, then in line through a chicane, plus a few seconds of Jeremy Clarkson in the back of one, being driven by Franziska Wagner, wife of its creator, Arnold. It’s all taken from the Swiss episode of Clarkson’s World, broadcast (IIRC) in1992; FWIW I provided a lot of the contacts and background information for the programme. This is the 3minute Ecomobile section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbdkZB9-Sd4
9/ The safety section of the video, which starts at 6.09, has some spectacular crash footage. The first is a horrendous real road accident in which a foolish guy rides straight into the back of a parked bike on the hard shoulder of a highway wearing only shorts, and his helmet comes off long before he hits the ground.
There’s footage of Honda’s innovative Gold Wing with an air bag going off and some ADAC footage of a dummy on a Suzuki crashing into the side of a BMW car. I liked RyanF9’s comment that “Putting airbags on riders is like putting lifejackets on cannonballs”. At 6’26” we see BMW’s roofed but not-quite-an-FF C1 scooter with a helmetless but seat-belted rider crashing spectacularly, with leg flailing. Ryan wisely comments, “Why not keep the rider in an engineered cocoon?”
At 6’31”we also see a shot of a bare C1 frame being pushed down by a massive weight, which is actually an illustration of one of the fundamental errors in the C1 design. BMW’s car engineers were convinced that the C1’s roof had to be strong enough to support the weight of a car on top of it whereas every motorcyclist knows that bikes don’t remain upright in a crash, so any roof on a motorcycle doesn’t have to support the weight of very much at all!
10/ At 6’33” we see the onboard footage of Ivan Diamond crashing his red Monotracer at Bedford Autodrome with EVO magazine journo John Barker in the passenger seat – and we hear Ivan saying “Oh fuck” as he turns it off while it’s lying on its side. The occasion was a demo ride organised by EVO magazine and I was standing on that very corner capturing the whole crash with my Canon EOS on motor drive as it happened – several of my photos were used in the subsequent article, along with my description of how to drive a Monotracer. I've put one of the crash photos up in the Peraves section here: https://www.bikeweb.com/node/3731
I also helped Ivan get his outriggers down after we’d picked the Monotracer back up. To his credit, Ivan not only finished the lap, despite tearing off one outrigger tyre, but he also gave someone else a ride around the track before driving home in the mildly scuffed machine. Three years later, I co-drove that Monotracer with Ivan from Istanbul to the Peraves HQ near Zurich. You can watch the 90 second crash video here, complete with several replies I made a year ago in answer to some of the ignorant comments made below it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es0y0y4cIrg
11/ Ryan says some strange things in the last minute of this FF video. At 6’47” he describes the FF seating position as “unthinkably weird” when he’s just spent five minutes demonstrating the precise opposite. Then he says “I don’t like it, but I don’t have to; the feet forward position implores itself.” Which, unless I’ve misheard him, makes no sense at all. Implores itself? Eh?
12/ At 6’55 we see a BMW C1 with a dummy rider on board and covered in test cables, crashing into the side of a car; it actually bounces off the car and remains on two wheels for the duration of the clip.
And that’s it! That’s the end of the video. No credits, no real conclusion, just music and the F9 logo!
No wonder several commentators have asked when RyanF9 is going to do a ‘Part 2’. In one of his replies he says that’s unlikely, and gives a few more thoughts about the pros and cons. I have commented on his reply, but I think this particular post is long enough already, so I may add that separately in due course. PNB

TTzero regs revert to FIM, so no-FFs allowed, shock [Or NOT!]

paulblez — Wed, 02 May 2018 11:58:22 +0000

When I last attended the TT races, in 2016, I had a discussion with the University of Nottingham TT Zero team about taking advantage of the more relaxed TT Zero regs to run a bike with better aerodynamics than all the conventionally-faired bikes. They said they'd discussed it and wanted to try it, but had been put off the idea by the powers-that-be who had implied that they probably wouldn't allow such a creation to pass scrutiny, so it wouldn't be allowed to race.
(They got on the podium anyway, which was great, after John McGuinness had trouble with his Mugen, relegating him to 4th).

Now (May 2018) in the run-up to the 2018 TT Zero electric race, I've had a further discussion with the UoN team, via their Facebook page. Once again, I lamented the fact that, with the exception of the Agni team in 2010, no-one has ever taken advantage of the more relaxed aero regs for TTzero. I posted the links from this site of both the 2010 Agni:
http://www.bikeweb.com/node/2422
and the mocked-up image that Royce Creasey created, of an FF on the TT course, back in 2010:
http://www.bikeweb.com/node/1859

Miquel Gimeno-Fabra of UoN responded with a simple and rather depressing message: "Check the regulations for 2018, they are the same as for normal IC bikes and we have written confirmation from the organisers banning TT Zero bikes from using dustbin fairings"
If the regs are "the same as for normal IC bikes" that means no fairings beyond the front axle or behind the rear axle, and the requirement for the rider's back to be visible from the rear.
This is a great shame, and the opposite of progress IMO, since it clearly amounts to a ban on FFs. PNB

UPDATE: Many thanks to Michael Moore for this insight:
https://www.iomtt.com/.../Regs/TT_Regulations_2018-2903.pdf
https://www.iomtt.com/.../TT_Regulations_2017_0206.pdf

MM: "Appendix F covers TTZero. They do allow FFs to have rear bodywork that doesn't exceed the top of the rider's head. Bodywork must protrude no more than 50mm in front of the front tire or 200 mm behind the rear tire. This seems to be the same as in the 2017 regs, and both years require full visibility of the rider from the side excepting forearms/hands. Hips may be obscured in the seat no more than 150mm. There doesn't seem to be a requirement about visibility of the front wheel/tire, but side area to the rear of the rider must be at least 20% greater than the area in front of the rider.
So I'm not seeing a big change. Dust bins are still legal but you can't hide the legs inside the bodywork."

PNB: So, one can only conclude that someone just doesn't like the idea of anything as unfamiliar and outrageous as an FF taking to the TT course!

Cedric & PNB's Electric FF Challenges! (In BDN, Feb 2018)

paulblez — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 14:02:55 +0000

Below is the text of Cedric Lynch’s letter to British Dealer News, printed in the February 2018 edition of BDN and illustrated with a John Mockett cartoon and a photo of Cedric with his electric streamliner, (built in 1991 and on the road since 1992). It is reproduced here with Cedric’s permission.
You can also see a reproduction of the letter and cartoon, along with photos of the TT winning Agni and many photos of Cedric and his streamliner in the Cedric Lynch folder here: http://www.bikeweb.com/image/tid/57

My recent discussions with Cedric have prompted thoughts of a triple-whammy challenge. Who will be the first person to build an electric vehicle capable of riding or driving from Land's End to John O'Groats on a single charge? Or further still: a thousand miles on a single charge?
Or the ultimate challenge for our times: to do 1,000 miles on a single charge in under 24 hours!
© PNB March 2018

Cedric wrote: "I have just read January’s British Dealer News, and noticed a lot of articles about electric motorcycles and scooters, lamenting their high cost and short range. May I explain what the problem is? I have 70,000 miles of experience of electric motorcycling, over 30 years, and I built the converted Suzuki GSXR750 on which Rob Barber won the first TTXGP electric motorcycle race in the Isle of Man in 2009.

At the current state of the art, batteries cost about £300 for each kilowatt-hour of energy they can store, and weigh about 5kg for every kilowatt-hour (some as little as 4kg, but these cannot be discharged at very high rates). A typical motorcycle or scooter needs about 2kw at 30mph, 5kw at 50mph and 12kw at 70mph (electrical energy, assuming it is converted to mechanical energy with 80 to 90% efficiency). This means that a moped or small scooter doing 30mph will, if it is to do 100 miles on a charge (as the petrol version can do on one tankful), needs 100/30x2 = 6.7 kwhrs of battery weighing about 30kg and costing £2,000. A larger machine on which it would be reasonable to expect 200 miles at 70mph will need 200/70 x 12 = 34kwhrs which will cost £10,000 and weigh 170kgs; that is just the battery, not the whole vehicle.

The battery in the 2009 TTXGP bike weighs 85kgs and cost £8,000 (which was, at the time, about the price of a complete petrol-powered GSXR750), and it holds just enough energy (10.5kwhrs) for one lap of the TT circuit at an average of 87mph. If someone comes up with a battery that can store four times as much energy for the same cost and weight as the present-day batteries, then a few simple calculations show that it will be possible to get an adequate range and speed with an electric-powered typical motorcycle or scooter.

However, there is another way: forget the typical motorcycle or scooter and design something with a streamlined body (yes, I know this is not allowed in motorcycle racing, but there is no law against it on the road). It won’t look anything like ‘normal’, but it has the rather nice side effect of keeping the wind and rain off the rider, giving car-like comfort but with motorcycle manoeuvrability and fun. It will slip through the air on about one-sixth of the power that a normal motorcycle needs at the same speed, and suddenly you achieve your dream speed and range on a battery that you can buy now and has a very reasonable weight and cost. Also, you only need one-sixth of the electricity to charge it; so little that you can get almost all of it from less than £1,000 worth of solar panels on the roof of a building next to where the bike is usually parked. The batteries will have such an easy life that they will last 12 years of more.

I say this from 25 years of experience with such a vehicle, which I made myself. It looks rather crude and home made, but if you put together an aerodynamicist and an industrial designer, you could come up with something that has ‘wow’ appeal and also performs even better. The first firm to crack this will clean up in the market. Such a vehicle will probably be ridiculed at first by traditional motorcycle enthusiasts; however, the Honda Cub was ridiculed by traditional motorcycle enthusiasts in the 1960s and it has gone on to become the best selling motor vehicle in history.

If anyone is interested in trying to develop a marketable, streamlined electric motorcycle, I am willing to provide free technical assistance. Just one condition: include the Saietta electric motor among those tested in the vehicle, and adopt it for production if it proves to give a longer range on a given battery than any other motor that you test.
© Cedric Lynch, Potters Bar
Cedric.lynch@rediffmail.com"

UK-reg Peraves Monotracer for sale

paulblez — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 15:12:34 +0000

UPDATE 13th April 2018 David HAS SOLD his UK-registered PERAVES MONOTRACER

These are the details: 1st Registered 2009 - 1 Owner - 16,000 miles. Powered by BMW K1200 engine.

Air conditioning, ABS, electric start, electric tilting roof, heating, radio/cd player, traction control, windscreen wipers.

Enjoy exhilarating performance and still talk to your passenger! Top speed: 150+mph; 0 - 62 mph in 4.8 sec and up to 60 mpg!

MoT until November 2018 • Full service history • Private plate UF0 4FUN available separately • Trailer sold with the machine.

£37,995 ono

There are also 8 photos of this machine in the Peraves Monotracer section of bikeweb here: http://bikeweb.com/image/tid/171

RIP Dan Gurney. 1931-2018

paulblez — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 00:00:15 +0000

RIP Dan Gurney. 1931-2018. One of the all-time greats of American and World Motorsport has passed. But what a great life, lived to the full for 86 years. Among countless other victories, Dan won the 1,000km race at the Nürburgring with Stirling Moss in 1960; in 1967 he became the only American to win a Formula 1 race in a car designed and built by his own company and the same year started the tradition of spraying the champagne when he won the Le Mans 24 hour race with AJ Foyt. He introduced full face helmets to both Indy cars and F1. In a tribute article in 2000, Joe Rusz of Road & Track magazine called him ‘A Renaissance Man’. Dan Gurney was an absolute legend of motorsport, as both a driver and engineer, but also living proof that nice guys can win.

And he was as enthusiastic about motorcycles as he was about cars – with his sons and colleagues at his company All American Racers in California he designed, built and successfully sold the Alligator feet first motorcycle back at the turn of the new century. Timed by Cycle World magazine, it did 0-30mph in 1.1 seconds and 0-60mph in 3.1 secs – the fastest accelerating FF ever! Top speed was somewhere on the far side of 130mph.

I first met Dan in the pits at the 2003 Goodwood Festival of Speed, where he rode an Alligator up the famous hill at considerable speed. I’d gone forearmed with a folder full of FF material and he listened politely, and with apparent interest, to what I had to say. He said that if I was ever out in LA I should come and have a ride on an Alligator.

Fast Forward to December 2011 and I found myself in LA for the launch of the Yamaha Tmax530. Afterwards, with the help and hospitality of film maker Peter Starr, who had known Dan for decades, I was able to take up Dan’s kind invitation, visit the AAR workshops in Santa Ana and go for a ride to Ortega Canyon and back with his champion racer son Alex. It was one of the most enjoyable rides, and one of the most enjoyable days, of my whole life. I remain eternally grateful to Dan and his sons Justin and Alex, to his personal assistant Kathy Weida, and to Peter Starr for making it all happen.

The following year the whole 2012 Goodwood Revival was themed around Dan Gurney, complete with replicas of the 1964 ‘Dan Gurney for President’ posters, and it was great to see Dan again, and to hear Lord March deliver a great speech in his honour on the main straight of the Goodwood circuit, before Dan replied with a gracious speech of his own.

I just wish I’d been able to get back to Santa Ana to see the great man – along with the latest development of the Alligator – before he passed away. RIP Dan, it was an honour and a truly great pleasure to spend some time with you and to ride two of your wonderful Alligator motorcycles.

I can do no better than end with his wife Evi’s words on the notification of Dan’s passing: ‘With one last smile on his handsome face, Dan drove off into the unknown just before noon today, January 14th, 20018. In deepest sorrow, with gratitude in our hearts for the love and joy you have given us during your time on this earth, we say ‘Godspeed’.
PNB

I wrote an article about my visit to AAR and the ride on the Gurney Alligators for The Rider’s Digest, April 2012 (cover shot of No.165) and in tribute to him, a version of it is now up on the TRD website here:
http://www.theridersdigest.com/adventures-in-la-la-land-a-tribute-to-dan-gurney-1931-2018/

There are lots more photos of Dan and the Alligators in the Gurney Alligators folder of the commercial section of bikeweb, here: http://www.bikeweb.com/image/tid/127

New Additions in June: Pix from Beaulieu 2005 & Voyager to Vence

paulblez — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 15:53:27 +0000

For photos from the latest gathering of UK FFers, go to 'Events and Meetings' in the Image Galleries section and click on Beaulieu 2005. On a blisteringly hot weekend in June, this entertaining annual event at the historic village of Beaulieu in the New Forest saw most of 'The Usual Suspects' turn up, along with some welcome newcomers. Most notably, Beaulieu 2005 was the first public appearance of Andrew Gibbens' ComforTmax and its superb level of finish was much admired. Originally transformed to FF mode by Royce Creasey way back in 2002, Andrew has spent much of his spare time over the last three years making top-quality bodywork and seating to make a 'proper job' that almost looks as if it could be an official Yamaha option. (For pix of how it looked back in 2002, go to 'Royce Creasey's creations'.)

Beaulieu 2005 was also the first appearance outside the Isle of Man in 20 years for Mo Simpson's Quasar, recently acquired by Paul Blezard and ridden to and from the event in company with Julian Bond's subtly modified Burgman 400K3. John Bruce's Coda 400 came out of mothballs for the first time in years and Bob Wreford rode his extraordinary Bananaskin to the event - a humble Honda 500 V-twin disguised withthe original Flying Banana bodywork and a host of accessories of his own making. As usual, Arthur Middleton came all the way from Ireland on his GPZ500FF and Harry Kroonen brought the amazing Carver Tilting Three Wheeler over from Holland, and was joined on Saturday by the only British-registered one in existence. Graham Robb's recently repaired blue Voyager joined Ian Kew's ex-Duckworth white one for Sunday's parade and you can read about Graham's recent adventures in Europe with his machine elsewhere on the site in 'Voyager to Vence'.
PNB

Blez's FF History (Updated January 2019)

paulblez — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 02:39:07 +0000

Paul Blezard's potted FF history
I've been riding scooters and motorcycles for over 40 years and writing about FFs for more than 30. I was 'turned on' to FFs by reading Royce Creasey's HighTech articles in Bike magazine in 1979-80 and by meeting Malcolm Newell with the Cibie Z13 Phasar at the first NEC motorcycle show in 1981. I have ridden a very high percentage of the FFs to be seen on this site, (something like 50 in all), and had articles published about most of them.
My 'FFing career' started when I bought the Difazio-Creasey CX500 Flying Banana from Jack Difazio in 1983 and rode it to the south of France ten days later - see the July 1984 issue of Motorcycle Sport for the full story. I also rode and wrote about Royce Creasey's first solo attempt at an FF - the Ducati 450-engined 'High Techati' in 1985 - and the prototype British Racing Green Voyager 850 in 1988. The Banana was also mended and modified by both Royce and Malcolm during the time I owned it, from 1983-1990. For most of the 1980s I combined scribbling with chaperoning teenage American schoolgirls around Europe on coaches. I've since written features for most of the UK specialist press and several foreign magazines and also had motoring articles published in the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Sunday Mail, Top Gear Magazine and Auto Express, amongst others. Many of them have been about FFs, including the Ecomobile and the MonoTracer.
I've had a go at most forms of motorcycle competition, from moped endurance racing in FFs and 80mph AR50s to the Le Touquet Beach race on both ancient trail bikes and modern motocrossers and racing at Le Mans on single and twin cylinder road bikes and my Burger King 650. I raced the Flying Banana twice at Silverstone in the 1980s and took part in two Ecomobile world championships in Czecho and an Ecomobile training at the Nurburgring in the 90s.
I rode four different FFs to the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France to spectate at the Bol d'Or 24 hour endurance races of 1983, 4, 5 and 6. in chronological order these were the Banana, an original Quasar, the John Bruce BSAFF and an LC350FF Phasar. None of them returned entirely unscathed....and each adventure was the subject of a magazine story. Stumbling across an upturned Renault 5 in the dark on the fast lane of a French motorway was particularly memorable....(See BIKE and Motorcycle Sport, January 1985 issues).
I also took the Banana to the 1985 Le Mans 24 hour race in company with the 'White Eleffant' - its 'sister' Difazio CX500FF, ridden by its then owner, Tudor Thomas, who now owns the Z13 Quasar and the Slug GPZ 1100. One of the winners, Guy Bertin, had a brief spin in the Banana afterwards.
In 1988 I wrote and presented a ten minute feature on feet first motorcycles for the BBC's Top Gear TV programme. For that, I assembled at Wroughton aerodrome what I believe was the largest and most disparate gathering of FF machines ever seen in one place, before or since. I also wrote and presented a video about the first Ecomobile World Championships at Most, in Czechoslovakia in 1991. Other Claims to FF fame include riding an Ecomobile into the BBC TV studios live on Blue Peter with John Leslie in the back. That was during a three week trip to the UK from Switzerland with the original blue Ecomobile in October and November 1992. I took over 100 passengers in the Eco, including Simon Le Bon, two members of the House of Lords, 'King' Kenny Roberts Snr, former Norton designer and TT winner Peter Williams and Cosworth co-founder Keith Duckworth. I also thrashed it around a wet Donington Park circuit with a key African member of the Riders for Health team in the back.
In 1991 I co-wrote, with Philippe Le Roux, the keynote speech which he presented to the German Engineers' Institute (VDI) conference in March of that year on behalf of Norton. It was all about Feet First motorcycles, and I rode the Voyager demonstrator machine all the way to Munich, non-stop, with the accompanying slide show on board, which I displayed as Philippe talked.
The same year I played a key role in the design and development of London's first taxibike and looked seriously at using the Voyager as a taxibike, having rejected the Honda Helix which taxibike creator Rob Cave originally wanted to use. In the end the Voyager wasn't available, so I plumped for Honda's Pacific Coast 800, but I had been seduced by the Helix, and went on to own three.
The Honda CN250 Helix/Spazio/Fusion (as it is variously known) was the world's first superscooter and was still the mass-produced machine closest to the FF ideal until the arrival of Honda's NM750 in 2014. Since the CN250 was first released in 1986, superscoots have grown like topsy, and I've 'upgraded' my machines accordingly. I owned both Mk1 and K2 Burgman 400s before moving on to the 'Burger King' AN650 which I went on to race in the inaugural Moto Tour de France in 2003.
I also acquired an early Mk1 TMAX and it was temporarily transformed into a 'BubbleMAX' by Phil Meaton for the first day of the Central London Congestion Charge in February 2003. In standard form I competed with it in the Nick Sanders Moto Challenge of GB in August 2003 and in the inaugural big scooter race at Circuit Carole in Paris in June 2004. In 2002 I tested the prototype 'ComforTmax' initially developed by Royce Creasey for Andrew Gibbens, and compared it with a 'fresh' standard machine from the Yamaha UK press fleet. (see pix elsewhere). In 2005, I re-tested the finished ComforTmax after Andrew Gibbens rode it down from Newcastle to the Beaulieu show. I once more compared it to standard Tmaxes and also rode it two-up to the Goodwood Festival of Speed before returning it to Andrew G who sold it to Monty Billington, who had a lot of fun with it before he was seduced by Van Den Brink Carver tilting 3-wheelers.
All of the above adventures with big scooters have been recounted in Twist & Go scooter magazine. For the launch issue of the magazine in the summer of 2000, I did a 'roofed scoot comparison' of BMW's C1 with the Benelli Adiva and Phil Meaton's Gilera 125-based 'Bubble'. (For what it's worth I suspect I'm the only person both to have carried a passenger on a C1 for ten miles and to have ridden a Benelli Adiva 125 two-up from London to Brighton).
I plan soon to experiment with Ffing both my Burger King and my TMAX. My current stable of machines also includes a BMW HP2 1200 Enduro and a KTM 450 on which I've competed in a couple of North African Rallies. I also have a Mk2 TMAX which I used in Nick Sanders' inaugural Euro Challenge in June 2004, covering 7 countries in 7 days via numerous mountain passes in the Picos de Europa, the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Vosges. (see Twist & Go nos 32 & 33 for the write-up - www.twistngo.com).
In April 2005 I bought Mo Simpson's Quasar at the Stafford Classic Bike show and in June rode it down to Beaulieu and back two days in a row and paraded it on the Sunday. The Quasar had lots of refurbishment done during the summer and I picked it up to coincide with the annual Quasar rally in Hastings, where no less than six working Quasars were gathered together. (See www.quasarworld.com) I have since driven the Quasar to events all over England, including the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Revival in both 2006 and 2007 and to Beaulieu three times.
I also rode Ian Pegram's roofed Genesis Burgman 650 in all of its 3 different incarnations from 2003 to 2009 and compared it with my own standard 'Burger King' and original Quasar before I finally decided to buy it in January 2010, having sold the Quasar to do so. I have also ridden all three of Mark Crowson's variously modified Quasars and his tuned GS1000 Phasar.
In August 2005 I flew to Winterthur and rode an Ecomobile for the first time in eleven years. Two hours later I drove Eco 5003 all the way to Brno for the annual training and World Cup. While there I rode several other Ecomobiles and also drove 5003 from Brno to Prague and back in an afternoon to pick up my girlfriend. We returned to Prague after the World Cup and I then drove the 5003 all the way back to Switzerland.
In 2007 I did a similar trip, driving a new Ecomobile from Winterthur to Brno, this time with a passenger all the way. At Brno I was the first journalist in the world to drive the new Peraves MonoTracer and I later rode it some 80 or so miles right into the centre of Prague before riding a 1200 Ecomobile back to Winterthur via Munich.
In 2008 I repeated the Winterthur-Brno-Winterthur trip and had a memorable ride in the back of Roger Riedener's freshly converted electric Ecomobile.
In 2009 I got the chance to drive the E-Tracer, the first MonoTracer to be converted to electric power, and wrote up the story for Motorcycle News, amongst others.
In 2010 I drove myself directly from Zurich airport to Brno in an old Ecomobile and on the way back met up with the Designwerk team and their newly built electric ZeroTracer at the top of the Susten pass shortly before they set off 'around the world in 80 days' a couple of weeks later in the Zero Race.
In February 2011 I drove the Genesis 650 non-stop to the south of France to meet up with the Zero Race competitors for the last two days of their trip around the world in 80 days on electric power. The overall winner was of course the Oerlikon-sponsored ZeroTracer designed and driven by Tobi Wuelser and Frank Loacker which can be seen on the Peraves page of this site.
In March 2011 I flew to California to ride the latest Zero electric motorcycles but afterwards met up with Craig Vetter and spent several days riding his Helix-based FF streamliner which returned 100mpgUK in varying conditions and also had a top speed of 80mph. See the Craig Vetter Creations page for photos.
In July 2011 I rode the second electric Monotracer at Brno, which had won its class and $2.5million in the Progress Automotive X-prize in Ohio the year before.
In December 2011 I flew to LA to test the new Yamaha TMax 530 but a few days later spent an afternoon with the late, great Dan Gurney and his sons and got to ride two of the Gurney Alligators up and down the Ortega Canyon.
In August 2012 I co-drove Ivan Diamond's red Monotracer from Istanbul to Switzerland, with Ivan and also drove both of the electric Monotracers again.
In January 2015 I returned to California to ride the latest Zeroes' but also got to ride Terry Hershner's record-breaking 'Vetterised' 2012 Zero with which he had recently done an 'Iron Butt', riding over 1,000 miles on public roads in under 23 hours, completely unassisted, having already ridden the machine across the USA in record-breaking time. I also got to ride Craig Vetter's FFed Helix again, in refurbished form. Later the same year I rode Andy Tribble's 1987 Ecomobile to the launch of 'First Principles', the biography of Keith Duckworth by Norman Burr, at Castle Combe circuit. The following month I rode John Bruce's Coda with 440 engine and Pete Culley's C90-engined FF.
In 2016 I had a Honda Vultus on long term test from Honda Europe and rode it to the Riberac FF gathering in the South of France and other events all over England.
In February 2018 I rode David Baber's Monotracer to the Ace Café's first Electric Vehicle day and I was the last person to ride it in the UK before it was sold to a Frenchman a few weeks later.
In July 2018 I rode the Wreford-built Bananaskin from Dawlish to the Dordogne for the Riberac FF gathering and back via Bergerac, Neufchatel, Hastings, Wiltshire and the Quantocks.
PNB. Last updated January 2019.

Some stories, with photos, here:
www.paulblez.co.uk
Video of my Quasar and other FFs parading at Beaulieu in 2006 here:
Nick's video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA8aFt-XH4w
Video of FFs at Wroughton here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foAgByo_txA&mode=related&search=
on board video of the electric ecomobile lapping quickly in the rain at Brno here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4J4lBIHuvs

Some of the FFs I've ridden:
The Difazio-Creasey Flying Banana (also owned for seven years)
The Difazio White Eleffant CX500
The Creasey High Techati 450
5 Reliant-engined Quasars: - Neil Vass's (now in the National Motorcycle Museum), Mark Crowson's (standard and QuickaQuasar), Mark Verden's Reliant-Guzzi, Mo Simpson's Isle of Man Quasar, around the TT course, which later became my own.
The VF 750 Quasar
The 'Thirteen' Quasar, now roofless and the rear-engined GPZ1100 'Slug', both now owned by Tudor Thomas.
Craig Vetter's Helix-based streamliner, including 3 laps of Laguna Seca. See the Craig Vetter's Creations page.
Terry Hershner's record-breaking Vetterised electric Zero.
2 Gurney Alligators.
4 Voyagers: The original green Creasey Voyager 850 prototype; The Demo Voyager V05 (now owned by Graham Robb) Colin Russell's Voyager; Keith Duckworth's Voyager V03 (now owned by Ian Kew)
13 Ecomobiles: 5002 'The Old Blue Machine', 5003, the single sided steered black machine, and several others including 5086 which is powered by a K1200 engine and the beautiful dolphin-themed machine. Also the 1991 yellow machine that was featured on the front cover of Motorrad as 'Das Gelbe vom Ei' (the yellow of the egg) and Koen Van de Kerckhoven's 1992 Ecomobile, in Belgium.
5 MonoTracers: the original factory demonstrator in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, David Baber's UK MonoTracer in 2009, 2012,2017 &2018, the newly converted E-Tracer in 2009 and the second electric Monotracer in July 2011 and both of them again in 2012.
3 Phasars: The LC350THS, Julian Bond's VT500, Monty Billington's V50 Guzzi
3 Newell Gold Wing FFs: Andy Tribble's, TIm Brown's, Richard Baughen's
Pete Lawrence's Delta Talbot (now Colin Ferguson's)
Jan Nelder's Difazio HejiraKL650FF (now Colin Russell's)
The NVT FF moped racer at 3 races in 1985, 86 and 87.
5 John Bruce FFs: the BSAFF, the Black Dream Racer, the Coda 250, the Coda 400 auto and the Coda 440 manual
The 1912 Wilkinson which was featured on the Top Gear FF programme
The ComforTmax, in both original 2002 and final 2005 versions.
Colin Ferguson's 'Comfergmax'.
Ian Pegram's Genesis Burger 650 in all 3 versions, which I now own.
An Isle of Wight FF with XS650 engine and modified Reliant front end - can't remember the name of the builder.
2010. Sold my Quasar, bought Ian Pegram's Genesis and took it to Zolder for Clean Week, the Isle of Man TT and Silverstone for Day of Champions.
Also to Mallory Park for the Festival of 1,000 bikes, Snetterton for the first UK mainland electric race and Brands Hatch for the last of the season. Also to the South of France and Switzerland for the last two days of the Zero Race in February 2011 and back to Zolder for Clean Week 2011.
See the Genesis section of the Image Gallery, under 'One Offs'.