The Beginning of the Incomplete Boxer...

Well, this is what started the whole project (top left) - a wicked high speed tank-slapper that seemed to grow from riding over a frost heave in a straight but slightly bumpy road. The bike just turned to jelly under me and I decided that parting company was the smartest thing, as the bike became a bronc'. Leathers and a new Arai kept me unscathed from the 70mph get off, but the bike was hammered. The shocks were pulled apart with the subframe, and the bike went quite a ways on the cylinder head (through actually). The only thing salvageable were wheels, forks and the engine. Months later, as I was going over the bike, I noticed the trip meter that I had reset that fateful morning - it read 66.6 miles... Spooky.

The bike sat for 4 months waiting for me to decide it's fate. As it was the first real bike I'd owned, I finally decided to rebuild it but I vowed to make it a better boxer - if I was going to rebuild the bike, I would do it with an eye towards making it handle and stop as well as I could. That was the beginning but the project has grown and the goals have expanded. I now want a truly end-all boxer special. I must have the world's largest collection of articles on hopped up or racing boxers and I want something better. As I have started vintage racing I think it would be great to have a boxer that would look classic but hold it's own on a racetrack.

I turned to my friend Scott Kolb who mistakenly offered to help build this bike. I have plenty of ideas of what I want done but I'm lacking the tools or skills to really take on something like this. Scott, however, has both in spades. With a new frame, paralever and transmission from a '92 R100GS we set about planning the bike. That meant bracing the traditionally flexy frame. We read Tony Foales' book, Motorcycle Chassis Design. We read The Racing Motorcycle. We lurked on the Motorcycle Chassis Discussion list. I created the drawing (left) in Photoshop to show Scott what I was thinking. I didn't want to reinvent the wheel I just wanted it to run true. The tape on the frame above shows our initial thoughts. This bracing would be strong but will the carbs clear and how do we get the engine out?