Time Out
After several years of use and small modifications, day-to-day life and work got in the way and in 1988 the machine was largely forgotten, as the factories all moved into the monoshock market. But in 2011 it was resurrected and is often seen back out in the sections again. Rather than bog the reader down with fine detail it is probably easier just to study the images included here to see just how much work and ‘out of the box’ thinking it took to build this machine and then to have it field tested at the highest level.
Heath: “Many thanks to Jean-Paul for the information. In the modern World Championship it is now unheard of to see any sort of prototype machine being ridden but this machine takes us back to a time when things were rapidly changing in motorcycle trials design. Not only could a ‘homebrew’ machine ride a World event but the factories were also trying out new ideas in the public eye. This is evident in the photo Jean-Paul included of the pre-production Fantic mono-shock that would eventually become the 301 that Thierry Michaud rode in many events, the year before production got underway. Sadly not a practice any of the factories would feel comfortable doing these days.”