Shocking news from home

Thanks to my work I am supplied with a constant supply of motorcycle magazines from around the world, which is both incredibly useful for what I do and also helps me keep up to date with what is happening back home with all things two-wheeled.

While thumbing through the December ‘10 of issue of Australian MCN, I spotted a snippet featuring Laurie Smith’s latest creation. Laurie hails from the same part of the rock as yours truly and runs his shock shop ‘Suspension Smith’ out in Fyshwick. Now some Aussies may know Fyshwick as some iniquitous outpost where fireworks and exotica* of all denominations can be had by with a diversionary cough and wry wink in the right direction.

But amongst the bordellos and caches of explosives, Laurie tinkers away in his workshop and is gaining a reputation for turning out some crazy pieces of machinery. Some of his previous works include a bonkers ZX-10R Dirt Bike/Supermoto and his latest Frankensteinesque effort is knocking up a neo-girder front-end for a Yamaha R1. He isn’t the only person to undertake such a task but I took special interest due to Laurie being from Canbrah.

I’ve met Laurie only the one time actually; back in 2006. On the advice of my uncle I paid him a visit to see if he could perk up the handling on my ’98 VFR 800 – my first ‘big’ bike - as ground clearance and a squidgy rear end under power were becoming a problem. While pondering the options Laurie presented, I cruised around the corner, scored a test ride on the current ZX-10R and after wiping the foam from my mouth, promptly traded in the old girl. From that point on the only rear-end that got squidgy under power was my own.

With his latest venture, it seems Laurie is trying to gauge the effectiveness of a design which although deemed archaic, could find a new lease of life thanks to modern metallurgy, engineering and manufacturing processes. Yamaha and Bimota among others have tried hub-centre steering and BMW have their Duolever setup so there is definitely more than one way to skin a dead cat when it comes to making a bike steer.

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but surely curiousity is the next best thing.

* See I didn’t use the ‘p’ word, despite the increase of traffic it would’ve undoubtedly sent my way.