American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 172 November 2013 | Page 55

To the power of three Written by Duncan Moore - [email protected] Each year at the World Championship of Custom Bike Building there are some unusual motorcycles, and 2013 was no exception with two sidecar outfits entered in the Freestyle class. The highest placed of them was Pure Vision, built by Roman Bus, of Wildstyle in the Czech Republic NE of the attractions of the World Championship of Custom Bike Building for its competitors is the simple class system, where, for instance, in Freestyle anything is acceptable. The open access policy means that builders of trikes and sidecars can compete head-to-head with custom motorcycle builders. One entrant to successfully take advantage of this system was Roman Bus, who runs a business in the Czech Republic under the name of Wildstyle. One of his entries for the 2013 World Championship was Pure Vision, a radical, motocross inspired sidecar. Roman’s starting point for the build was a 1942 Flathead motor that was fully rebuilt and then fitted with a Mikuni carb and a minimal one-off exhaust. A four-speed gearbox backs the motor up and an open chain primary drive connects the two. To house the drivetrain Roman set about constructing his own frame. Rather than go for a traditional straight leg or wishbone down tube frame he, instead, created a chain link effect downtube. At Described by builder Roman Bus as a ‘Nivo’ system, the air shock for the front suspension is inside the headstock O www.AMDchampionship.com Laterally mounted steering damper on the handlebars helps to keep the bike under control when a passenger rides in the sidecar the back of the frame a Softail style suspension setup has been built. However, instead of placing the shocks under the transmission, Roman has used a linkage system above the gearbox to drive a pair of Rock Shox mountain bike air shocks. These in turn have been connected to a small compressor to allow the bike to be raised and lowered at the flick of a switch. At the front of the frame the head tube has been made massively over-sized in order to allow it to house the suspension. Described by Roman as a ‘Nivo’ system, the solid fork legs act upon a lever mounted to the upper triple tree, which in turn pushes on an air shock inside the headtube. Like the The Flathead motor was rebuilt with a one-off exhaust and a Mikuni carb AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - NOVEMBER 2013 55