This is a picture after my first test ride. This FF bike will be a AKIRA moive bike replica. It is made from a 2003 Kawasaki 500 ninja (GPZ). I changed the fork rake to match the body of the moive bike but i found out that it is too much and i plan on chainging it back to stock rake. And modifie the body to fit the frame. Jeff

The Singleshock Phasar V50 (formerly known as 'Monty's') in mid-2010
- with Bodywork
- Bare from the Left
- Bare from the Right
- Five shots of HCS after reducing Trail to solve weave-on-braking problem - successfully, it seems.

I thought I'd be able to upload these so they'd be immediately displayed but it looks like you have to go through the attachments. Eddie McD

Here the Hossack front end it being held up while the first pieces of the frame are fitted between it and the engine. The rear suspension has been disconnected to allow the lump down to ride height un-laden. The engine is supported by four temporary legs with adjustable feet. These allow the lump to be levelled. The bottom of the sump is set level and the ground clearance set to the T-max quoted ride height. As shown the wheel base is exactly as per standard. You can see that there is room to reduce the wheelbase.

The new front end interferes with the standard location on the air-box. You can see is sitting on top of the engine. The radiator is unsupported - the lump of wood fell over.

There will be 2 new feet forward motorcycles in the USA soon! One will have an Akira style body and the other will have the body of a sail plane for weather protection and higher mpg.

My buddy, Jeff, is making the motorcycles and I (also named Jeff) will make the bodies.

Not much remains to complete the first FFM. A jig will allow the 2nd one to be made the exact same way.

These are modified Kawasaki 500 Ninja motorcycles.

Jeff in Tucson, Arizona USA

A lot has happened since my last post. The first thing that happened was that I got actual prices for the billet forks. It turns out that CNC is not that much cheaper in Thailand than in Europe. I guess that makes sense as the point of CNC is to remove most of the labour which is the element that is cheaper in Thailand.

After going through the designs with Royce Creasey and faced with an imminent departure from Thailand, I redesigned the forks from 50 x 25 x 3 mm rectangular section steel.

I have sent a fax to ISR to find out how much their hub center steering kit costs.

It can be seen at: http://www.isrbrakes.se/products/ns2/

If anyone has information about this kit, or a similar kit, please contact me to let me know.

Thank you!

Jeff Bales
Tucson, AZ USA
monsoon@comcast.net

The aerodynamic feet forward motorcycle that I plan to build, after completing the Manga style body for a client, can be seen here: http://goblinmotors.com/GoblinFFM.jpg

This build will take place in about 8-12 months after completing the body design for the client. The client will have an exact copy of the base feet forward motorcycle. I will retain the motorcycle as payment for the work and send the one-off Manga style body to him for attachment to his motorcycle. You've got to love swapping skill for skill!

It's not painted yet, but my GoblinAero commuter is a blast to drive! It holds 5 bags of groceries and the fairings really make it useful. I am an industrial designer that sculpts and molds my own items.

The video of the GoblinAero can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKyQOJmLttI

I will be sculpting a Japanese Manga style body soon for a friend, then I'll shape up an aerodynamic fairing for my own feet forward motorcycle. I'll post more when that project gets started in a few months.

Feet Forward is COOL!

Jeff Bales
Tucson, Arizona / USA

I like soup. It is a great mid-day pick-up; or a restorative after a long day in the saddle. This year I sampled many euro-soups in our 3000 mile loop through 8 countries. I think it may have been a dubious French soup that upset my intestines for a week after the first night. Nevertheless, from Bouillon to BohnenSuppe and Goulash to Slovenian Jota and Spargeln Creme, we relished in our Gruppe Suppe (Phrase courtesy of Tom, this year’s organiser)

The lure of the Ring

Finally became a Quasar owner, 1978 Red Quasar, bought off Andy T. Engine is running well after Andy had a new distributor fitted. I'm going to look at sorting the dash out first and make a list of other jobs to look at later. Added more pictures after three weeks of tinkering.

August 2010, newly painted and with new electronic distributor. Now has driving lights on each fork. Now owned by Gavin Newell and I have the VF750 based mk2, July 2011.

This was the first time I saw a Quasar, 1980 when I was 14. I think the event was at the Police HQ in Preston and even had a Police version. The last pic is a group from the show.

(if he can use my name, I can use his title)
F-Roads

Ok this is the 'final' design - ready to go to the builders. The forks have been pared down to 3.6kg for the pair. They are 6061 – T6 alloy. FEA has been done assuming a 1 G stoppy with a 300kg all up weight all on the front wheel.

There's been a lot of discussion today (April 1st, 2009) about the relative merits of the Buell motor compared with the SV1000; the main concern with the Buell is the width of the primary and possibly cooling problems when it's faired.
The SV1000's only real problem is its length, though I am not too concerned about wheelbase; I'm sure it will still be shorter than a Quasar and by all accounts they go round corners very well.

So I thought I would post a few pics from back when I was designing the R1-based machine.

Been thinking about the Buell 1200 as a sutible engine for my FF, what it has going for it,
Very narrow,45deg V so short to, side exit exhaust so no problems with a hot crotch (eg a sv1000) enough horse power 95-104bhp, but much more importantly low reving low down torque, IMHO this is esential for real world riding ie power availble instantly.
It also has very respectable economy ive seen 55mpg quoted.

My first attempt at a Hossack front end was designed to be built as much as possible out of stock material - tube and box section - as possible. The ball joints were bought from a friendly neighbourhood motor factor for the princely sum of 600 baht (about €12).

It started with a tape measure. That didn't get me too far, so I got a friend to photograph me on my T-max from as far away as possible with maximum zoom. It wasn't nearly far enough, but the results are acceptable.

Since the re-build of BikeWeb has killed my links I am going to build this as a blog, rather than a book

I had been keeping this under my hat until such time as it appeared it would actually going to get off the drawing board.

Craig Vetter here in Carmel, California, USA. My goal in this “Freedom Machine” is to build a one-person vehicle that sitting upright and comfortable will go 70 mph, into a 20 mph headwind, while carrying 4 bags of groceries, and get 100 mpg. Oh yes… of all the vehicles at my disposal, I want it to be my first choice.
This is not my first FF machine. In 1980-81, I built this Streamliner around a Kawasaki 250 single:

This machine was good for 108 mpg in my fuel economy contest of 1982. But, then, the speed limit in the US was 55 mph. Today, we ride faster. Today, I want to know what is possible the way I ride now.
I began with a used Helix from EBAY, changing only the bodywork to reach my goals. No engine mods. No drive train mods. No wheel changes. Only streamlining.

Big Sur bridge, California, USA
You will note that the skin is kind of rough. This is because it is made up of thin, yellow plastic sheet-stock which does not form into compound curves very well. This is fine for now because I change it all the time. I have many problems to solve before I do final tooling. As I solve each problem, the shape changes. Making my prototype in this manner saves a lot of time, money and itching. To make changes, I cut this stuff with scissors and attach it with little plastic “Christmas Tree” push in fasteners. Much of this machine is made of plastic foam and inflated panels. All very lightweight, durable and inexpensive. Rather than to try to explain all here, let me point you to www.craigvetter.com for a chapter by chapter account of this project.
I maintain this web page to show you how easy it is to build something like this. This thing is screwed together with a million little 8-32 screws and self locking nuts. A band saw and drill press are my most exotic tools.
Will I actually achieve my goals? Well, this is my first choice in vehicles and I really can carry 6 bags of groceries. However, until all the holes are smoothed over, I do not expect much in the way of fuel consumption improvements. Stay tuned. I am happy to answer questions and respond to your comments.

Hi, I've just joined this forum but cannot find any section where members can either advertise items for sale or items wanted ... am I missing something? If this section is the only place to ask then what I am after is a standard screen for an FJS 600 Silverwing. Does anyone have one for sale?