The
last time this bike appeared in PB was in the November 1987 Katana
Frenzy. The owner, Roger Turner, thought low speed wheelies were
cissy so we had to photograph him monowheeling past the company Astra at
80mph.
This is also the bike which caused the now legendary
fire which burned Towcester Tuning Shop to the ground. Strictly
speaking only the fuel tank was involved: the rest of the bike was
parked outside at the time and survived.
Roger's been wheelying, tuning and drag racing his
Kat for four years with no real bother beyond a few valves dropping out
and the motor needing more maintenance than usual - when the pic was
taken it had blown another head gasket. It's a small price to pay
for what he reckons is 170bhp.
"The speedo goes into the rev counter." he
explained, stretching out on a comfy chair and placing the pair of
well-chamfered Doc Martens attached to the end of his legs at a more
comfortable angle. "Mainly the bike is used for scratching
round the lanes on Sunday afternoon and getting through the
traffic. It takes 10 minutes to get to work on the bike and an
hour and 10 minutes in a car." |
No surprises there.
"I use it for drag racing too it's definitely
one of the fastest bikes with a standard wheelbase
- the wheelies are the limiting factor now. When I first made the
seat it had a ridge in which touched the fuse holder. As the seat
slipped back slightly under acceleration it unplugged the fuse and cut
the power, so the seat slipped forward again and remade the
connection. The bike would wheelie up the dragstrip going up and
down, up and down. Everytime I looked under the seat the fuse was
back in. It look me a very long time to work out what was doing
it."
The tike also blagged its way into the Bimota Mallory
practice day where the outrageous straight line speed 140mph on the two
straights - nearly made up for the limited ground clearance. Only
two racers and a well-ridden YB8 came past.
"I loved Mallory. I'd love to do it
again."
Would you road race the bike?
"I'm a bit frightened of that in case I threw it
down the road. I couldn't really afford that."
Would you enter it in Awesomestocks of the first
prize was £ 1,000?
Long silence.
RP |
