American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 179 June 2014 | Page 55

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Stick 52, finishin
When he’s not working at German
custom specialist Thunderbike, Michael
Naumann spends his spare time in the
workshop building custom bikes for
himself, like Stick 52

www.AMDchampionship.com

ICHAEL Naumann not only is a privateer builder, but he
is also a very prolific builder as he had two bikes
entered in the 2013 World Championship of Custom Bike
Building. Among his two entries was Stick 52, which
placed tenth in the Freestyle class.
The most striking thing about Stick 52 is Michael’s use of large
diameter wheels. However, given that his day job is building bikes at
German custom specialist Thunderbike, which has done a lot to
promote larger diameter wheels, it should come as no surprise that he
has taken the idea to its natural conclusion and used a pair of 26in rims
for this build.
The 3.5 x 26in wheels Michael has used on Stick 52 where sourced from
fellow German wheel specialist Rick’s Motorcycles, and are in fact a
pair of front wheels, due to nobody having used such a large wheel at
the rear before, none were in production, and so a front was modified
for use at the rear. Because of the constraints of using a front wheel at
the back of the bike, a sprotor arrangement has been fitted to allow
braking and drive to all be dealt with on one side of the hub. The front
wheel was also modified to allow a Beringer ‘inboard’ brake rotor to
be mounted. This is, of course,
matched to a Beringer caliper,
while at the rear a
Kustom Tech caliper

M

AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - JUNE 2014

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