When I did the first article on Strange Bikes, I figured it would just be a fun piece and that would be the end of it. However, the mail from the ORC readers was overwhelming and they literally DEMANDED more weird wheels. So, after more research, here you go ... yet another collection of everything from unique to bizarre. Enjoy!

GRM Maverick Trials Cub
Check out this hybrid Bill Grapevine framed, Triumph Cub powered trials bike. It uses Bultaco forks and wheels, hardtail rear, and a 66 Mountain Cub bottom end with earlier top-end components. It has a handmade tank and airbox, modified exhaust (Sammy Miller pipe, Matchless muffler).

It uses a 922 Amal concentric, ARD electronic magneto, the "R" cam, and a 9:1 piston, .040 over. With the timing set at 30 degrees BTDC, the bike was smooth and soft at slow speeds and not prone to stalling, but still had good power. The bike 160 pounds, ready to ride, full of fluids. That's 3 pints of fuel and 2.5 pts of oil.

MALTRY TRANS-AMA
Many special one-off trials bikes were built in the late 70s and early 80s. This Maltry had a 6-speed gearbox and was powered by a 321cc Hiro engine.

COLLIER 250
It doesn't getting any stranger than this. The only British-built entry at the 1981 Scottish event, it was built by Bob Collier. He used a 250cc OHV BSA/Sunbearm twin cylinder scooter engine and built the rest of the bike from what appears to be a whole bunch of left over metal. Especially bizarre is the monoshock rear suspension.

SCORPION
Dave Lomas on his Villiers-powered Scorpion with monocoque frame. This 60s bike had a link front end and the gas tank was part of the frame.

CRDC MONOCOQUE CRDC
(Competition Racing Development Center) was a small company in the San Francisco area formed by Don Haagstead and Jim Gordon that built a number of aluminum monocoque chassis in the 1970s. This 360 Yamaha single-powered dirt bike built as a project for the February 1974 issue of Cycle Rider. The frames are .050" thick 5052-T4 aluminum, and the bare frame weighs 10 pounds.

AERMACCHI THUMPER
Paul Brodie builds Aermacchi race bikes in the Pacific NW and these photos came from his http://www.italiansingle.com website. He first built it with the DKW leading link fork, but swapped to Honda forks after having some cylinder head clearance problems.

HAGGLUND MILITARY MOTORCYCLE
The 1975 Hagglund (Sweden) NATO military bike prototype had interchangeable wheels made up of welded sheet steel and a single-sided leading link front fork, single sided swing arm, etc. It used a Rotax 2 stroke engine with "snowmobile" style variable speed transmission/clutch assembly.

WORKS HUSKY WITHLEADING LINK FRONT END
Finland's Aarna Erola took fourth place at the 1961 Coupe d'Europe at the Shrubland course. Torsten Hallman won on a telefork Husky.

250cc DOT SCRAMBLER
Here's a leading link fork photo from 1964. Note how the DOT has stanchions that go straight from the steering head to the link pivot. The bike has a floating front brake. The DOT links were just two lengths of steel strap. The rider is Ken Sedgley.

125cc SPRITE TRIALS
This photo dates from about 1967, and shows an early Frank Hipkin Sprite with A 125cc Sachs engine.

WORKS AERMACCHI 250CC SCRAMBLER
Not much info is available about this strange looking beast. A leading link front end a variation on the old Yamaha Monoshock make for a strange coupling.

FN 175CC TRIALS
An uncommon bike shown at the 1956 Scottish Six Day Trials.

JAP HAGON GRASS TRACK OUTFIT
A JAP-powered Hagon in 1965. Compare the leading link forks to the next bike.

VINCENT GRASS TRACK OUTFIT
Another 1965 grass track rig with some genuinely radical forks. The engine is a mighty Vincent V-twin.

MOTOBI/GREEVES SCRAMBLES SPECIAL
You want strange, you get strange. The engine had been identified as an Aermacchi and the limited info notes it was a Swiss project from 1961.

500CC MIVAL SCRAMBLER
Taken at the 1959 Motocross des Nations The bikes had chain-driven DOHC engines with magnesium crankcases.

BIANCHI 500CC SCRAMBLER
At the Belgian GP in 1960. It's a big four stroke single with a perimeter frame. Most odd.

MOTO MULLER REGOLARITA
Not much info about this Italian hybrid, but it was an ISDT bike in the 60s.

ASPES MOTOCROSSER
An Aspes 50cc MXer from the late 60s or very early 70s.

LAVERDA 75
A 75cc Laverda dirt bike? Laverdas like this took a batch of ISDT gold medals in the 1950s, but this is a later model ... possibly from the mid-60s.

MOTO GUZZI MOTOCROSSER
This is a mid-1960s Moto Guzzi 125cc Regolarita. The travel looks quite long for that era.

MALTRY 250 SCRAMBLER
The only photos we have are in this brochure, but the bike is strange enough to be included. The year is unknown. Here is a translation of the brochure into English:

Scrambler 250 ccm
Motobi - the superior and most simple 4-stroke
- 1 cylinder, 4-stroke OHV-engine
- stroke x bore 57 x 74 245 ccm
- crank with 6 bearings
- 25 hp at rear wheel
- dry weight 98 kg
- engine characteristics can be altered to suit track
- choice of 19" or 21" front wheel with large 180 mm brake
- 18 x 4.00" rear wheel
- special forks, damping adjustable in 4 settings, travel 165 mm
- rear swingarm with 3 time adjustable shocks
- low center of gravity
- wheel base 1390 mm
- choice of short ratio or long ratio gearbox
- large choice of final drive ratios with 6 gearbox sprockets and 5 wheel sprockets
- price (from Zurich) net 3000,- swiss francs, new

250 MOTOBI WORKS SCRAMBLER
A 1961 "works" scrambler, presumably with 4 speed transmission. The seat/rear shock tubes look beefier and longer than in the street frames and the steering head has been raked out from standard, probably to give more cylinder head/ front tire clearance.

TRABANT METISSE SCRAMBLER
Here's a bike you could get lots of cheap engine parts for now that the Iron Curtain has come down. The 20 Dec 67 issue of "Motor Cycle" had an article on a Dutch scrambler using a 500cc Trabant two-stroke twin engine. The first bike was built in a BSA frame, and a Metisse-framed bike was in progress. The builder was Joop Kruisinga, from Gouda, Holland. The bike had some success, and was MUCH lighter than a pre-unit 500 Triumph engined bike.