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45 years ago, my great-uncle Athol jumped his ailing BSA over a barrel-and plank ramp and through a flaming hoop out the back of the Cobden pub for a carton of beer. Stunt riding has evolved somewhat since those heady days, and while Athol’s long suffering Beezer was bone stock, today’s stunter generally makes some fairly significant mods before they’re happy with a motorcycle.
Modern stuntbikes with their specialist tackle tend to raise a few eyebrows parked outside coffeeshops, so when Nam Tran from Melbourne stunt crew Front Up Freestyle told me he’d just bought a pristine secondhand F4i and was about to tear it to bits in homage to the wheelie gods, I thought it was a process worth documenting.
So here it is - 5 hours’ work on a Sunday afternoon, $2 grand’s worth of sexy bits off the internet and one of Japan’s finest sportsbikes to be sacrificed.
12:00pm: Get naked
“Fairings are expensive,†says Nam as he pulls the plastics off the sides, tail section and front of the F4i, “This poor bike’s gonna spend a lot of time on its side.†Lights, dash, exhaust and ram air snorkels are all removed.
12:30pm: Barring up
Stoppies, in particular, benefit from wide, high and very solid handlebars. Not wanting to go for the full top triple clamp conversion (which he’d need if he wanted to put flat motocross ‘bars on the F4i), Nam’s chosen a set of two-piece clip-ons from Yanashiki, angled upwards for best leverage. The solid aluminium bars can be flipped and re-used in the sexy red clamps, or replaced when they get too badly damaged. As they’re not too much longer than stock clip-ons, no new hoses or lines are needed, and everything slips straight on.
12:45pm: Brace your rear
Two issues here - the FUF boys tend to pull stand-up wheelies while standing on their pillion pegs, which fold up, bend and in general don’t like being jumped and stomped on. Also, the exhaust and subframe tend to take a knock or two as the bike falls over. Killing two birds with one meaty subframe brace, Nam ditches the standard pillion pegs in favour of a Sick Innovations subframe cage, which gives additional sideways strength to the subframe and a bit of sideways exhaust protection, as well as huge, chunky, grippy rear footrests for stand-up tricks. It bolts on in minutes.
1:00pm: Cage match....
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nice article. goto the original website link for detailed pictures and the complete article.