Wacky engine swaps

[firko]

Back in 1989 VMX was purely a pre 75 thing but that didn't stop some of the racers from building weird and wacky specials.The late John Hine was a dyed in the wool Bultaco man yet he also had a soft spot for Yamahas. John was given a blown up YZ ( 125J perhaps ) and after running the tape measure over it he figured that a Bultaco Pursang 250 motor would look pretty much at home mounted between the rails. As you can see it turned out pretty well, especially considering it was built in 1988/9.
                 
At around the same time over in WA Frank Veradi had an buggered '82 Maico and a B44 BSA motor sitting around doing nothing. Being a handy sort of bloke, he put 'em both thogether and created his Beeza/Maico hybrid.

[Marc.com]

Was that Wacky or Wanky..... still nothing like chomping up an MX bike and inserting a vastly slower archaic 4 stroke, heres my contribution, Bruin special off Trademe which the seller assures us is a major part of NZ motorcycling history. Man those XL350 motors will just about transform anything.

[Tony T]

Can't wait to see what turns up in this thread! Should be fun! 

Not that it's important, but I reckon that Yammy with the Pursang engine might be an '82 'J' model.

[Hoony]

i reckon you are on the money Tony as rear linkage was J only.

that RM / XL350 is a real shitter 

[Billet YZ]

My 2 cents worth on the bike in the top photo is a yz 100 j, the frame around the airbox is different from the 125`s. Peter.

[firko]

Another wacky combo, a Hodaka Thunderdog 250 powered '78 Maico Magnum

Below: A Husky 4 stroke powered Maico

[Marc.com]

that RM / XL350 is a real shitter 

Apparently professionally built, I assume the builders profession involved making sausages. Speaking of which we have this artistically lightened Super Sonic .... engine as stressed member, or someone holding on to their member

[Marc.com]

still in special building you sometimes get a pearl amongst the dose of crabs.

[holeshot buddy]

had a kx125a5 with a tm400 engine
and a yz125k with a cr480 engine
and a cz125 1974 with a rt360 eng

[lukeb1961]

[Davy123]

TGM FRAME..the rest is obvious 

[Kenneth S (222)]

Is it just me or do these photos disturb anyone else? These people should be shot, messing with these classics they way they have. Looking through these photos is like watching a train wreck in slow motion, or perhaps more like that very uneasy feeling you have when one of your mates sends you a Powerpoint email of this gorgeous looking Asian girl with perfect curves and as you progress through the photos the final couple reveal She is really a He!!

[Marc.com]

when one of your mates sends you a Powerpoint email of this gorgeous looking Asian girl with perfect curves and as you progress  She is really a He!!

cmon on Dude, no fooling us, that was your last holiday experience in Thailand.

Anyways building 4 stroke specials out of blown up other bikes goes back to an era when we wearn't rolling in cash so you had to recycle a little ..... just some recyclers are better than others.

[firko]

Is it just me or do these photos disturb anyone else? 

Jesus Kenneth, that's a bit harsh isn't it? If you took the time to delve into our sports beginnings you'd find that there was a time when the production motocross bike didn't exist. You couldn't walk into a mega store and buy a bike made specifically to race motocross off the shop floor...you had to build your own. Scrambles bikes were constructed from road bikes using your engine of choice in the lightest and best handling frame using the best available suspension components. The most popular of those 'specials' was the TriBSA which consisted of a Triumph Twin engine fitted to a BSA frame. There were many other variations of the hybrid special and as the sport progressed, more and more innovation came into being.

Above and below, two great examples of the TriBSA concept.

These people should be shot, messing with these classics they way they have

Harsh again Ken, I've built a number of engine swap specials over the years (XL350 Honda powered CZ, XL350 powered Montesa King Scorpion, Triumph T100 500 powered Bultaco M11 "Metisse", XR500 powered CR250 RZ and more) and have never "messed with a classic" at all. Each one of the donor frames was saved from the scrap yard or had been rooted to within a skerrick of its usable life by its previous owner. I'm pretty sure I speak for most special builders when I say that I'd never chop up a complete, restorable bike to build a hot rod.
Sure some engine swaps don't make a lot of sense to anybody but their builder but I think that's overridden by the originality and interesting engineering they add to the mix. Without the low volume bikes (CCM, Cheney, Rickman, ATK etc) and home made specials our sport could run the risk of becoming a sea of dull same old, same old plastic covered clone bikes. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing at all wrong with well restored stock bikes, they're the foundation of what our movement's about but one blokes standard resto is little different to another blokes standard resto. I believe that the hot rod special injects a bit of much needed colour and individuality into the mix.

From the special builders perspective it gives us a chance to use our imagination, show off our engineering skills and inject a bit of artistic flair into our creation. The special gives those among us who 'march to the beat of a different drummer' a chance to express ourselves by competing on something we've created ourselves.

[Tony T]

still in special building you sometimes get a pearl amongst the dose of crabs.

Is that one of yours, Marc? Very nice regardless. 
And looks close enough to the real thing that a lot of people wouldn't notice. Plus it would be a damn sight more reliable.