We asked if there were other race bikes being built for the new season, and DTRA regular Jesse Moore got in touch. Both he and his sister Emily, race, and his brother-in-law, Simon Bird - the 2021 DTRA Sideburn Vintage Two-Stroke champ. Now their dad, a regular with them at the races, is getting in on the fun. Jesse takes up the story.
Dad and I have wanted to make a two stroke triple flat tracker for a while because they sound so damn cool, so he bought a really rough Suzuki GT380… He’s done an awful lot to the engine, moving the crankshaft bearings and using labyrinth seals so that it will reliably run on premix (meaning we can junk the nasty oil system), three Mikunis, a little bit of porting and a slightly different piston design… So he made such a nice job of it that when we put it all in the Suzuki frame we were both almost sick.
Neither of us could bring ourselves to build it up in the stock frame, so we designed and made a frame based on the Shell Thuet frame design, out of T45, all so we could get the geometry right. It’s still on going and there’s a few braces and things that need adding, but here it is with the new swingarm made up and welded in, body work balanced on for a bit of a mock up.
Wow! just awesome! what a family.
All that talent out there. Let's rebuild an engine, let's build a frame... Love it. Looking forward to seeing this up and running.