Guys, thanks for all the comments on the new bike, I thought you may like to know the background first hand.
Firstly, it is not a Faber project. It has been a weekend hobby engineering project between me and a mate who happens to be one of the Faber partners, Miles Webb. It helps somewhat that the bloke’s a genius with a brazing torch. Miles and Ralph Rustell built the original KSI frames for Knobby Shop – if you ever see one, the RW stamped on the headstock stands for Rustell Webb.
Second, there aren’t any production plans, just two bikes built for us. Are they for sale? No.
Could we have built something identical to the old bikes? Absolutely, yes – but we realised we didn’t want to. “Why not?” is a bit more difficult to explain, but in a nutshell I didn’t need a replica because I already own and race an original KSI. For his part, Miles doesn’t really ‘get’ the whole nostalgia thing – he is more for looking forward not back, and he just wanted to build his son a special race bike.
The UK twinshock race rules are written to encourage ‘bums on seats’ – the only requirements being two shocks, air cooled, drum brakes and no USD forks. That may not be vintage pure, but it sure as hell works and importantly it is easy to police. The effect is that - alongside the period perfect stuff that some people prefer - there are some interesting specials out there racing. They say that variety is the spice of life but if that upsets you, just head over to Belgium where they allow 50mm forks, Keihin FCR carbs and all sorts of other stuff that will really blow your fuse. They do have good beer though. Maybe the two are linked.
This bike is nothing more than an air cooled trail bike engine in a steel tube frame with twin shocks, early 80s forks and drum brakes. It doesn’t look vintage because we didn’t want it to. We just wanted to do something with that simple race formula and the engine and chassis are awash with trick bits that the photos don’t show. We chose to squeeze a 500 engine out of a 350 base just because it was a more interesting path than using an XR500 motor [yes, a 500 fits].
So there you have it. Not a show or concept bike built to advertise something, not a prototype, not a replica. It wasn’t intentionally built as art, or to provoke debate as some have suggested. It’s just a fun dirt bike project built by a couple of old sods with Castrol R in their veins. That said, the reaction since it was revealed on Saturday has been mindblowingly positive and we are a bit shocked to be honest.
Now, if you’ll kindly excuse me I need to finish building the bloody thing and then go plaster it with mud!
Race safely.
Dick Tett.
