The Black Rat

[BAHNZY]

And another instalment of the Black Rat build just before Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all and have a safe and prosperous New Year.

Bumper & The Black Rat

[Hoony]

its lloking good bumper, lots of work has gone into it to get it to that stage.

i reckon you need to get a road tyre for the sidecar wheel though, it will make it much easier to turn.

Merry Xmas Bumper and Bahnzy.

[firko]

What a nice resto, especially considering what a shocker it was originally. Nice to see Cholins shocks finding a use........Merry Christmas to you too Bahnsy.

[Tim754]

Glorious work Do honestly mean that Bumper

[EML]

With that FLASH new motor it looks a lot like a Rat with a Gold TOOTH

[firko]

Seeing the Black Rat rebuild is a bit like watching one of those trashy cable shows where they find some poor girl who wasn't invited to the prom because she was too ugly and giving her a plastic surgery makeover, turning her into a babe.       
                                                         

[BAHNZY]

Glorious work

Tim,
Bumper had gone to great lengths to ensure that the, as you refer to as 3am engineering, has been maintained. All of the previous versions of the RAT have been left untouched, simply blasted and powder coated. You can look  anywhere on the chair and you'll find old welds, tube that was cut off and not ground away. He is sure that each piece of weld, angle iron, etc  has a story to tell.

[270YAM]

Good to hear that the some of the 'character' has been maintained, hopefully you have left a few of the original zip ties on there as well! Has the original tank been stripped back or is that a new tank in the photos?

The restoration looks fantastic, can't wait to see it out on the track.

That was the first MX outfit I ever climbed on, I think that's where the damage was done- I wanted an outfit! My dad and I met Steve in the pits one year at mortlake. I can't remember what year it was now ('96?) but I must have only been 8 or 9.

 It was a real thrill meeting Steve again at Morgan and telling him that he and his 'beautiful' piece of machinery were the reason I got into the sport, I couldn't shut him up for the rest of the weekend- he had an absolute ball.

[EML]

Good memories Matty , that is what side cars are all about and good on them for rebuilding the RAT

[Bumper]

 so road tyre -or knobby ? as i have only just banged my head and thought 3 wheels are ace
what should go on the unsuspecting 2nd carrier platform . and whats the difference with the steering
between the two

[Tim754]

Worn sixteen inch Road tyre If you put anything with grippy tread on the wheel it will do just that, grip, hook up ,try to steer and well over ya go. Speedway, Dirttrack ,MX slide slide slide on the outfit wheel. 

[BAHNZY]

If only you new how much effort, searching, corruption went into finding that 16" knobby you'd have a fit!        I'm guessing you've all just done yourself an injustice cause it would've been a pretty interesting 1st corner spectacle, my body thanks you.

[Bumper]

thanks tim ,the rat,s off to get the exhaust done this week
as i think you said the muffler ended as a fence post on the way home
from it,s last race meeting (i swear it was on there when we left officer)

[popeye]

And make sure you put plenty of air in the spare.... About  40 PSI usually works fine....

[Bumper]

it,s ok bahnzy it was only a year on backorder or maybe we need the grip
and they can,t get a 16" knobby tyre !!!!! i feel a HOLESHOT + first corner blitz coming up
yeeeeeeeeeeee harrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr