monocoque flat tracker.

[firko]

                                                         
                                                     
                                                                                                                  thanks to Gus Preim for his photos and research

[Freakshow]

how much did he have on the jap haon LTR ?

[FAT-TOY]

Quote (how much did he have on the jap haon LTR ?)

   Freeky I went back past that bike a heap of times over the weekend and never found anyone at home.  I wasn't interested for myself but I thought some of you blokes might be.
                                                                                             Zane

[firko]

While digging around looking for something totally different I came across these photos of monocoque desert frames made by Charlie Curnutt in the late sixties or early seventies, apparently to suit Husqvarna motors. Charlie was well known for his well made shocks which were the only shocks to have if you rode the California deserts back in the seventies. There's not much info accompanying the frame photos so it's a bit hard to get ones head around the concept behind them. The captions are all the info shown.  Looking at that Bultaco M11 "Metisse" tank it looks that the base has been modified or more likely removed altogether and is just a dummy with the fuel held down low in the rear "down tube" section under the seat and pumped out with the little pump. It might be a little cobby looking but some innovation seems to have gone into it.
                                                           
Note that these three frames have spines that serve as additional fuel tanks for use in desert racing. The frame with the fuel tank on it has a fuel pump mounted at the base of the front down tube.    
                                                           
Another view of the frame with tank and seat.. 
                                                           
A different angle on the frame with tank and seat. 
                                                         
Period Curnutt shocks.

[pancho]

Here's a unique flat tracker. I believe these monocoques were made in California in the early seventies. It looks like a later Kawasaki swingarm R6 forks and YSS shocks are later additions. She's not the prettiest girl in the class.                                                      
                                                   

Looks like some-one had an L.E. Velocette, noticed it handled pretty well and thought "Lets give it some hurry up with a heart transplant"
 cheers pancho

[Michael Moore]

There's more Curnutt info (including rebuild sheets) to go with those photos above in

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/suspension/

The photos were supplied by a former Curnutt employee who will continue to watch for interesting stuff when he makes his regular visits to see Charles Curnutt. 

I also have some more CRDC monocoque info on my website but you might want to use the local Google search at

http://www.eurospares.com/search.htm

to hunt them out as they are in several different spots.  IIRC when I was sent the photo I was told that the Yamaha CRDC tracker is being ridden by Wade Boyd, a local fast guy.

cheers,
Michael

[Scootern29]

Mr. Firko,

maybe I can shed some light on the photo's of the Curnutt frames, as I took the pictures. The entire frame was a fuel tank for desert racing. Desert racing was what Charlie Jr. was doing at the time and the courses were 80-100 miles in length. Some like the legendary Barstow to Vegas or Check Chase were close to 180+ miles. You had to pit for fuel every 35 or so miles so this cut down on pits which = time. They didn't have plastic desert tanks in those days. The gas tak perched on the one frame may not be what was originally on the chassis, but that is the tank that was on the frame at the time I pulled it out for the pictures. I remember it on there when it was sitting in the back of the factory yard. They were set up for Husqvarna engines as that is what Jr. raced. This was somewhere in the late 60's early 70's as the motors were right side shift. They may be cobby but the inovation was there. I can tell you first hand that Chuck and Charlie Jr though outside of the box.

[firko]

Thanks Scott. I've always respected the real innovators of our sport....guys like the Rickman Brothers, Don Jones and Charlie Curnutt. When I moved to the US in the mid seventies the very first event I rode was the Annual Pumpkin GP held on the Halloween weekend at Corona. Being a young fella from far away Australia it was a real eye opener to see trick bikes like nothing I'd ever seen back home. One thing I noticed that weekend was the number of bikes running these weird looking red shocks that turned out to be Curnutts. Before long I had a set on my 360 VA Montesa and I've been a fan ever since. I've got three sets in my 'shock locker' so I may rebuild them for my DT1 desert sled project.  Are those old steel Curnutt frames available? I reckon it'd be a very cool project to build one as a shrine to one of the sports better innovators.