Laurent Dutruel at Zen Motorcycles is closer to his Bonneville dream. His custom bike, a tribute to Masayuki Morimoto’s boardtracker Harley, is completed and first road tests and tuning are going on (see video after the jump.) Laurent Dutruel will try to nail a land speed record in the 1000 A-PG class, (less than 1000 cc gas powered Pushrod engine, artisanal frame fabrication.) His challenge is to go faster than 148.397 mph (238 km/h) with his bike powered by a Buell XB 9 engine with no front suspension, no gearbox, just the clutch and a mini disc brake. To reach his objective Laurent is training, learning how to pilot his machine while mimicking Rollie Free riding position. In the coming weeks I will publish a story with complete technical data. Enjoy the first pictures and video.
Dude!
I can’t help but be excited for this guy, and anyone else chasing speed.
that bike turned out way cool !! hope this guy does what he has set out to do. good luck !!
Awesome custom, really one of the best looking bikes i’ve seen in a while! Fantastic job!
But as it was mentioned in the first posting of this bike when it was still under assembly, he needs to seriously invest in a rulebook. Awesome looking means nothing to a tech inspector when you completely ignore half the rules. If it arrives at Bonneville looking exactly like this, it will never race in competition.
Good luck and god’s speed, I hope you make to Bonne, pass tech, and set a record.
Rollie Free . Father of Planking
Started that thing with a rope . Love it
FYI. Laurent told me that he is in permanent contact with the organization to check what is legal or not. Contrary to what has been said before in comments, you can race in Bonneville with no front suspension.
Fantastic bike. It would win bike shows too…
Love it. The starting rope? So cool.
beautiful bike. But, like GG said, he needs to do a bunch to make it legal.
AWESOME!
Much luck to you in nailing your a land speed record goal in the 1000 A-PG class,
Cyril – Thank you for letting us know about these cool projects.
The students and I look forward to seeing this machine and meeting Laurent in person. The pusruit of a dream like this is a most honorable endeavor and definitely has my respect. Best of luck…….and I’ll se you on the salt.
-Darin
To all of us who started the family Briggs and Stratton lawnmowers with a pull rope, We Salute You!
Can I get a pull rope pulley attached to my road king?
Crazy!
Merde!
Laurence
Incredible bike, great mecanic details, good luck on the salts.
damn that thing is sexy. i wonder how much it weighs….
cyril. get us some build specs soon
Totally friggin’ cool!
Over & Out,
Jeff
Amazing build, and the dude has more balls than a pool table! Awesome! Hope he does well and lives to try whatever is next. Even if he doesn’t break the record, the bike is so damn cool that he’s still a winner. Big thumbs up.
The Stewards at Bonneville will make mince meat of this M/C when they get their first view of it .
They’ll fail it first because of the mechanicals and second for the riders position .
That may have been passable in Rollie Free’s day but its blatantly unsafe by todays standards .
That said , its a cool custom . But like others have already said , a few dollars spent on the Rule Book would of been a wise investment indeed if Bonneville ( or any other LSR venue ) was the goal .
One thumb up for the build
One thumb down for the lack of planning
power to weight ratio = flight.
Neato..
I whish you the best laurent!!!! love your tank… 😉 See you on the track
Nice work…..good luck.
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Can somebody post bonnie rule book on bike issues RULES RULE RULES we got to many of them!
For all those wanting the rule book…..here is the website link so that you may download it. This is for BUB, I do not have the info for SCTA or anything for Speedweek. My apologies if this isn’t what you are looking for.
http://www.speedtrialsbybub.com/2011_event/r&r11.html
-Darin
What is with the light below where the transmission should be ?
It faces backwards.
All is ok the bike is good for Run.
an absolute masterpeice of rolling art from the ZEN boys!! well done!!!!
You better spend the $10 on the 2011 SCTA rule book and read it. Basic things such as a chain guard and primary guard are missing. Also, your feet have to stay on the pegs, you can’t ride it like Rollie Free did way back.
good luck Laurent 😉
It’s a beautoiful looking bike! I’d love to feature it in the Iron & Lace Calendar….
But, I’d hate to have it fall on the primary side on my leg.
And is the gas tank big enough to do a run?
I said “It’s ok for the run with the control staff”.
Laurent have another tank for the run, and he have more Gaz in the frame.
You can see (on pics) the bike for bike-show, not really in “race configuration”, there are many differences.
Come in our facebook page for see the différences
Thierry