The last ever hen's tooth found in a pile of rocking horse shite

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

I saw one at a tarmac hill-climb...it went like hell!

As it says in the Dirt Bike article, they were the precursors of the four-stroke renaissance in motocross.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

One or the other of those makes had a partnership with Bimota for a while...I shudder to think what dreadful lashup they would have come up with (ex-wife got rid of the Cagiva, and got a Bimota BB1. Lovely to look at, difficult to live with...I'll leave you to work out what or who I might be talking about).

[daveuprite]

As a huge Bimota fan / owner / devotee it's hard to hear criticism of them, but re. the BB1 it's deserved. Terrible bike. The idea of a fantastic handling mono is a good one, and there are quite a few rotax-powered specials out there to prove it, but the BB1 was gash. They also cocked up with the hideous looking Mantra, and almost bankrupted themselves with the splendid but flawed V-Due. These things happen when you are amazingly talented but small and ultra-specialised. Sometimes you hit and sometimes you miss.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

It had many, many faults, but the worst of the lot was that the inside of the petrol tank and the fuel lines rapidly dissolved in petrol. You then had to clean a load of crap out of the tank (which was under the engine), fuel-pump and carb, renew the fuel lines and filter and go again, knowing you would have to repeat the process in a year's time.

Other than that...the headlamps melted if used, the engine was hung very loosely from the cylinder-head and rattled around with various bits of the bike shaking off, the seat unit could catch fire, you had to take the bodywork off to check the oil (which could only be done with a hot engine), the chain could saw through the swinging-arm, and it was painted using VW touch-up rattlecans over uncured fibreglass.

Oh, and aside from the Rotax/BMW engine and associated electrics, there was no parts or tech back-up at all.

[daveuprite]

It had many, many faults, but the worst of the lot was that the inside of the petrol tank and the fuel lines rapidly dissolved in petrol. You then had to clean a load of crap out of the tank (which was under the engine), fuel-pump and carb, renew the fuel lines and filter and go again, knowing you would have to repeat the process in a year's time.

Other than that...the headlamps melted if used, the engine was hung very loosely from the cylinder-head and rattled around with various bits of the bike shaking off, the seat unit could catch fire, you had to take the bodywork off to check the oil (which could only be done with a hot engine), the chain could saw through the swinging-arm, and it was painted using VW touch-up rattlecans over uncured fibreglass.

Oh, and aside from the Rotax/BMW engine and associated electrics, there was no parts or tech back-up at all.

Otherwise it was brilliant...

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

It turned heads, and people would ask what it was when you were stopped by the side of the road trying to get it going again.