The Kwacker

The pictures show the old 900 as drug from the back of the barn. It's got the 70's roadracer + novice sheet metal fabricator look going on. It also had a Darth Vader looking headlight nacelle with a tach, ignition switch and a couple of idiot lights for neutral and low oil pressure. The motor, front end and the back end originally were from my drag racer. These were some nice parts. Grimeca brakes, Cerianni forks, Kosman rear wheel - high buck stuff. It also had a side car attached to it. The paint job never got finished. It was supposed to be a two tone with a darker red metallic to spiff it up. They were Lincoln Continental colors and looked pretty sharp on the car. A little effete on the bike without the darker color, however. Due to a couple of setbacks, it got to be time to go on the big trip I was planning, paint job or not. So the two tone paint never happened.

The side car worked pretty well. I mounted an air shock for suspension, that way you could adjust it for load which kept the bike from leaning too much when you had a passenger on board. My son and I took a trip to eastern Kentucky with the thing and it was a lot of fun. It was a great trip until we ran into a big rainstorm on the way home. I didn't think about installing a drain plug in the bottom of the hack and my kid had about three inches of water sloshing around his feet by the time the rain quit. We ran out of gas just north of Indy because the storm had knocked the power out to all the gas stations. I carried an extra gallon along and coasted to a stop under an overpass, and poured it in. We made it home without further incident, after which I promptly put all the parts back on the dragbike and peddled it off. I got an offer I couldn't refuse.

I started collecting parts to put it back together but never got it finished. The front forks are off a 1000 Suzuki, the wheels are Kawasaki 1000. The 900 engine came from a big go-cart some knucklehead had put together. It was down right scary. I took the 900 out and put a 250 back in. I'm not even sure where that ended up. The swing arm is a 2" over rectangular tube job I made. I think I've even got some struts for it if I decide to go drag racing again. This time I think I'll put a stock seat and tank on it since I've got them already. A big 7" chrome headlight, new ducktail, rear fender, tail light, and some turn signals should be about everything I need to put it right. I can do most of this one at the house. Keep me out of the recliner this fall and winter. If I put a hack frame on it, the outrigger wheel would let me ride it in the snow. That could be a gas. I've got some old slides I took way back when of bikes racing on the ice. The sidecars were nothin' but sliding machines. Just thinking about them gets the juices flowing. I'm thinking this could definitely happen.