Tony Foale In a Rare Yamagator
A British innovator on an innovative American machine: Tony Foale riding a prototype Gurney Alligator fitted with a watercooled 450cc-ish 4-stroke Yamaha motocross engine. Probably some time around 2000, at a guess.
(The production machines were fitted with highly tuned air-cooled but fuel injected Honda 650cc single-cylinder engines putting out some 70bhp). PNB
Photo: Sent to Michael Moore by Tony Foale himself: http://eurospares.com
I don't know who the
I don't know who the photographer was, Tony sent this and a few other photos to me after his trip.
The C clamp approach
We'll probably never know why now, but it is perplexing how much effort was put into these Alligators, without addressing the basic matter of making them fit human beings. Dan was a big guy and could reach the handlebars without leaning forward, but Tony is visibly stretching forward off the seat back and that's the norm for ordinary-sized people. Maybe some current Alligator owner will fit a remote steering head, like almost all other FF cut and shut builders, to provide a comfortable riding position. Easy enough.
That would just leave the need for some foot and leg protection, another easy fix, and then, apart from some bodywork, it'd be a representative cut and shut FF, better made than some, more expensive than most. But a long way adrift of anything that could be called 'state of the art'