When Bruno from France renewed his Sideburn subscription he sent a note with a photo of his bike. I'd never seen it before, so I asked for more details. Bruno apologised for his English in advance, but it's good enough to get the gist. Here's what he wrote and the bike he had owned for 20 years...
My interest in motorcycles began at the end of the 1960s. My first bike was an orange 1974 Honda 125S, I discovered later it have approximately the same paint scheme than the HD XR750. Later I had a 1979 Yamaha SR500.
I did my engineering studies, and always had the idea to built my own bike. We had in France small bike builders like Moto-Martin and Barigo (off road). In the first part of the 1990s, due to my job, I had the opportunity to meet Patrick Barigault, founder of Barigo. At that time, Barigo was producing a new enduro and superbiker (supermoto) bike with an aluminium frame. I asked if it was possible to buy only a frame, but it was not. But Patrick had a prototype frame in the attic of is own house! Agreement reached! This was the middle of 1995. With the frame I bought two wheels with brakes, the fuel tank, the electrical wiring and mufflers.
Because I wanted to built a road legal flat tracker, I wanted an air-cooled version of the Rotax engine instead of the DOHC water-cooled cylinder head used by Barigo.
Now the bike building began.
All the parts had to be new, due to the registration. Due to my job, I had a good contact with the local French authorities. I was manager in charge of Engineering (Design, Prototypes, Testing, Homologation, ... ) in a company who produced urban buses.
Parts I Bought
Engine: Rotax 560 GS from SWM Europa
Fork: WP Roma (special order) from French importer (Seurat)
Rear shock: Barigo WP shortened
Wheels: 18’’ Akront rims on KTM hubs (front axle Ducati modified) (19’in road legal dirt track tyres were not available in the '90s)
Front disc: Beringer
Carburetor: Dell’Orto 40mm (first version), then Keihin FCR 39 mm
Handlebar: KTM Barigo
Tachometer: Scitsu
Headlamp and turn signals: Aprilia
Parts I Designed
CNC 7075 alloy parts (all CNC parts have been machined by a technical school)
Triple clamps (designed to have Castor Angle 25°, Castor 95 mm)
Brake brackets
Engine brackets
Rearsets
And a lot of small parts
Others Parts I Designed
Body parts in fibreglass (from parts origin unknown)
Colors, painting scheme, logo
Intake pipe (because of the position of the rear shock absorber, the carburetor is mounted very inclined)
Exhaust pipes (mock-up home made) / Mufflers modified with Supertrapp discs and caps
Side stand
Pipes (brakes, oil)
Various brackets
It weighs around 130kg
Individual registration was made two years later, December 10, 1997.
All this would not have been possible without my friend Philippe who did the CAD work (models and drawings) on the basis of my sketches. I want to thank him for that.
I use my bike around my home, on the small roads, sunny days due to the lack of mudguards !
Why SingleTon ?
Singleton = unique, but also Single cylinder and the Ton up !