Last week I shared a few videos from my time at the Two Stroke Extravaganza – now it’s time for some photos!
I no longer have a two-stroke (it’s been three years since I sold my last one, which was an Aprilia RS250) so I took my BMW HP2 Megamoto cause it at least says “2” on the side:
There was one car at the show so let’s get that out of the way early: say hello to this Trabant 601, one of 2.8M units that were built between 1964-1990 (making it the most popular vehicle in East Germany).
It utilized a 594cc two-stroke engine which was rated for roughly 25 horsepower and 40 lb-ft of torque.
In addition to the “hybrid” sticker, this car amusingly featured a license plate that was an abbreviation for “Iron Curtain.”
Remember to get the youth involved!
John Pera brought out a beautiful Moto Rumi – it was one of the loudest bikes at the show! After 71 years of life, the kickstart spring broke the night before the show, but thankfully he had a spring in his spares and had it ready to go.
I’m glad this one had a sign because I had never heard of it before: meet the Tandon Kangaroo Supreme!
Tandon was the creation of of Devdutt Tandon, an Indian living in England who planned on building bikes in the UK for export to India and other 3rd world countries.
The Kangaroo was a trials bike featuring a 122cc Villiers two-stroke engine.
One gentleman brought three fascinating Italian bikes out:
1. Bimota V-Due – much has been written about the V-Due and how it ruined Bimota when it was introduced in 1997. By 1999, Bimota was bankrupt after having to allow owners to return their poorly-running bikes (it was the first production fuel injected two-stroke). The Italian firm made some fixes (like ditching the fuel injection) but it was too little, too late. After the company went bankrupt, one of the engineers (Piero Caronni) bought the leftover bikes and spare parts, eventually releasing three versions that had a decent chance at running, culminating with 25 units of the Edizione Finale (Final Edition in Italian). If you have some time, I highly recommend going to OddBike for a fantastic article covering the V-Due story.
2. Aprilia RS125 – in 2009, Aprilia offered a special livery (known as Spain’s No 1), a replica of the 250cc GP bike that Jorge Lorenzo won the 2007 World Championship with. Due to EPA emissions standards, the baby RS was exclusively for closed-course riding even though it came with lights, mirrors, a horn, and everything else you’d expect to see on a street-legal machine. The 125cc 2-stroke engine is a Rotax unit, and fueling was handled by a 28mm Dell’orto carb. Dry weight was just 280 pounds and while it seems like a tiny bike, the ergonomics aren’t bad for bigger riders, either.
3. Cagiva Mito Cup – it’s tough to find info on these but according to the owner, Cagiva made 40 of these. He calls it his “Triple 7 Bike” because it’s got the #7 of Eddie Lawson, the transmission has seven speeds, and apparently just seven examples were produced in this Lawson replica livery.
Built by the American Brake Shoe Company, this is a Schwinn bicycle with a Excelsior Spryt Autocycle engine mounted in the front wheel.
The single-cylinder engine makes 3 horsepower and was claimed to return 100 miles per gallon.
This beautiful Hodaka Combat Wombat was built by Alex Steel in 1974 and was written up in several publications including Old Bike Journal and Dirt Bike Magazine – the latter started their article by saying, “What do you do when there’s nothing left to do? Chrome it.” It’s now owned by Lee Fabry.
There were several bikes I hadn’t heard of before – one of which I recently used as a Guess That Bike feature. This is a Guazzoni Matta Cross 50:
Dan bought this Skoal Bandit from us at Iconic, it had been sitting for several years and he has restomodded it in a lovely way:
This lovely Benelli features a twist-grip shifter.
This RD400 was wildly modified:
Check out the heads and the see-through clutch cover!
Van Tech was one of America’s first dirt bike manufacturers, though the company did not build complete bikes. Instead, the brain child of Bill Van Tichelt built frames for small-displacement Japanese motors like the Honda S90, Kawi 100/120, and Bridgestone 90/100. There were two main advantages to a Van Tech frame – first, they weighed much less than their OEM equivalents. Second, with an engine adapter kit you could hot swap engines! Here’s one with a Hodaka Ace 100 motor!
As they claimed in one of their ads – you can “run a Hodaka this week- and a Yamaha next week – just by changing from one VanTech engine kit adapter to another.” No matter the choice of powerplant, these little bikes have become highly collectible over the years.
This features a Honda CR110 tank and seat, though one of the most fascinating aspects of it is the intake.
Lovely NSR250 that the owner was about to ride home.
It was cool to see so many bikes that were ridden to the show.
The winner of Best Enduro.
This Centaur won Best Mini. When it was released, the Centaur was claimed to be America’s only “full-size” folding scooter. It was marketed as a portable transportation solution that could be folded up in three steps and carried on a boat, plane, trailer, or car. The two-stroke Clinton engine produced 5 horsepower, good for a top speed of 40 miles per hour, consumption of 100 miles per gallon, or carrying capacity of 400 pounds.
Yamaha MT-07 with a Banshee 426 engine transplant!
I shared a video about this bike if you want to hear the owner fire it up.
Marcus Chang – I’m ending with the one you wanted to hear more about!
This is an ATK with a Rotax 256 tandem twin engine – according to the owner, the engine makes 70-80 horsepower.
This crazy custom was originally conceived as a desert racer to take on Baja.
The owner actually has five of these in various states of completion and is open to selling some of them…
There were plenty of other bikes at the show, but those were some of my highlights. Which was your favorite?