Formula 1 inspired
As a starting point for a custom creation an F1 car’s oil tank doesn’t immediately spring to mind. Yet for Belgian sculptor Roland Groteclaes it was inspirational…
The whole thing started with the tank,’ Roland Groteclaes tells Bike. ‘It was the heat exchanger oil tank from a Formula One car that I got from an English friend (Roland is Belgian). Once I had that, I just had to work out how to make the bike.’ And so how exactly did he build it? And isn’t that a Bimota Tesi frame…?
»Bike: Why is a sculptor making a motorcycle?
Roland: Before this I’d made sculptures based on motorcycles, and exhibited them all around the world. But I suspected that maybe some people thought that I could only make fantasies that never work. This bike is to show them that I can.
Is that really a Tesi frame?
Yes it is. I had a few Bimota parts lying around but not a frame, so I contacted a guy I know in Italy who has a lot of Bimota stuff and asked him if he had a Tesi frame. He did – it was a blank frame with no VIN number. Originally I wanted to build a Tesi front end too [Bimota’s famous hub-centre steered, load-separating layout], but it’s very hard to find those parts because no-one will split a bike.
How did you come up with the look?
I tried to make the bike look like it’s from the 1990s – the engine [a race-prepared air-cooled Ducati V-twin] is from then, so are all the Bimota parts, and the forks are from a 1990s Ducati 916. Then I thought what were the best brakes from the 1990s and for me they were Speigler’s eight-piston non-radial calipers. I managed to find a pair online for sale in Switzerland, but the guy who had them told me he wouldn’t send them in the post and that I had to go and have a coffee with him first. So I had to drive for five hours to Switzerland, have a coffee and come back with them.
What about the trellis subframes?
I drew a lot of different designs and ended up with a 23.5-degree rake, so it’s not a racing bike, but it’s not a chopper either. The wheelbase is the same as a DB5 [the 2005 Bimota sportsbike], so it’s not crazy short. I was going to make the frame from standard chromoly steel, but then a friend said I should use 15CDV6 which is a low carbon steel used in aerospace and F1 and is very expensive. I thought: ‘I’m an idiot artist, why not use the best of the best?’
I made a jig for the frame then started cutting tube with an angle grinder to make them fit. Then I asked a friend who is a much better welder than me to TIG weld it together. I made a dummy of the tank out of wood and used that so I could build around it without worrying about scratching it while welding. The tank itself has an aluminium tank inside it because I was worried the petrol would react with the carbon fibre.
What’s it like to ride?
It’s good fun. It feels very light, though I haven’t weighed it yet – and it’s not as uncomfortable as it looks. The riding position feels sporty, but it’s entirely rideable.
Saying that, I haven’t ridden it very far because it’s not actually legal yet.
What’s the reaction been?
I know some people don’t understand it, but a lot do like it. I’m not selling it though – I built it to keep. There are so many memories associated with this motorcycle and if
I sell it I end up with some money but there’s no story with that.
‘It’s good fun. It feels very light, and it’s entirely rideable’