I’ve always been fascinated with vintage engineering and this particular example is quite remarkable. Exactly who first came up with the idea of using a wheel’s spokes as suspension seems to be somewhat elusive but the idea itself is quite brilliant. Or it could be utterly terrible. I’m having a hard time imagining how a motorcycle like this would handle.
So far as I am aware there aren’t any companies manufacturing these today, which seems kind of a shame as for one thing, it would allow a person to build a hard-tail motorcycle that doesn’t try to slam your arse through your nose every time you hit a bump.
This brilliant find comes via Frank @ The MotArt – A site that well and truly deserves a spot in any self respecting chap’s bookmark folder.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
The Roland Sands Mojave Boots have become best sellers since they were introduced a few years ago, they were developed from a blank slate to offer two primary functions – genuine daily wearable comfort, and all of the safety features you’d expect from a motorcycle boot. The team at Roland Sands Design started out with…
This article was written by Walt Siegl of Walt Siegl Motorcycles – when possible we like to bring you the story of a motorcycle in the words of the person who built it to cut out the middleman, giving you unfettered access to their thought process and methods. It was a natural progression from building…
The team at Flying Tiger Motorcycles have a long history of developing scented candles that people with gasoline in their veins might actually want to buy. We’ve previously featured the team’s Two Stroke Smoke scented candle, and the Motoman Oil and Leather candle from Flying Tiger. Both of them were hugely popular with our readers,…
This BMW R100RT is a family heirloom of sorts, it belongs to Sam, a Texan with a lifelong relationship with this BMW and a deep love for daily-rideable custom motorcycles. Ever since he was a child, Sam has had this BMW in his life – it previously belonged to his father who would sometimes take…
This electric scrambler by Droog Moto started life as a Brammo Empulse R, one of the most important electric production motorcycles of the modern age. Electric motorcycles make a lot of sense for off-road use, electric motors produce 100% of their torque from 0 rpm onwards and they produce very little sound – ideal for…
This is a complete collection of Honda SL Motosport models from 1971, all of the bikes have been restored except for the rare, low-milage SL175 which was in such fantastic condition it only needed a re-paint in the correct Candy Sapphire Blue. The collection is made up of a Honda SL70, a Honda SL90, a…
