SpeedBowl Racer

Following his dramatic successes with ‘Hot Climbing’ at last year’s European Championship (second) and World Championship (third), Belgian builder Freddie ‘Krugger’ Bertrand scored big again in this year’s European Championship with fourth place for a second board-track style custom called ‘SpeedBowl’.

I’ve admired Freedie Krugger’s style and engineering, his use of the new and look of the old, for a couple of years. Through the team at American Motorcycle Dealer, their Vegas World Championship, and Mark Van Der Kwaak’s web site, we are able to bring you this feature. Mark assisted with the CAD designing of Freddie's wheels (Freddie had them machined) and assists several other builders with CAD 3D drawings for machining ease. We hope to bring you a feature on his talents in the near future. Many of the build photographs with this feature came from his site DBBP.com of DBBP-Design for motorcycle product development.–Bandit

” I made a couple of versions in CAD and Fred chose the top left style,” Mark said of his drawings. “He wanted a very special brake system with a half brake caliper on each side of the wheel and hardmetal discs bolted to each side of the rims, making the whole wheel into a brake disc! I completed the CAD models for wheels and discs and the CAD-files were sent to a machine shop where each wheel was machined out of a solid lump of aluminum.

After Fred and I returned from California in October last year he told me that his next bike would have 23 inch wheels on the front and back,” Mark said. “The manufacturer of the 23 inch tires (Veerubber) had promised to donate a set of tires. He wanted them to have 4 spokes like the wheels used for racing bicycles, above.”

“The ideas for ‘SpeedBowl’ started to form while I was at the World Championship of Custom Bike Building back in October last year,” Freddie told AMD (American Motorcycle Dealer Magazine, the promoter of the World Championship of Custom Bike Building competition) following his latest success at the European Championship in Germany in March this year.

Fred designed and built a front fork from scratch with the suspension inside the steering neck! The oval tapered fork legs are works of art and the lower fork tree is made of 3 thin plates instead of one thick plate.

“The reaction that I got there and previously to ‘Hot Climbing’ really set me thinking. And talking with Roger Goldhammer (who took first place in the World Championship with his board-tracker) made me decide to build one more custom project styled after that era to give me the chance to incorporate some further ideas that I had not included on the ‘Hot Climbing’ project“.

Notice the mock cardboard wheels to represent the finished product.

The result was ‘SpeedBowl’ which, like ‘Hot Climbing’, while looking like a convincing interpretation of 1920s and 1930s race bike styling, with its 23-inch wheels, drop bars, authentic looking race tank and front end, is in fact another classic example of ‘old-but-new’ engineering.

Based around one of Custom Chrome’s 88-inch RevTech ‘Pandemonium’ engines and a RevTech 4-speed transmission, among other pieces of original thinking the front end of ‘SpeedBowl’ features a 65 mm shock absorber built into the steering neck.

” The wheels and brakes are definitely not the only unique thing on this bike,” Mark said. “ Fred used brake calipers from a “kart” and integrated them into the fork legs for an extra clean look. The whole wheel acted as the brake rotor as the calipers squeezed two hardmetal discs that were mounted on the sides of the rims.”

The forks have been widened and reinforced with an additional half section fork welded to each side to provide a beefy looking result that delivers high strength and provides the space to build the two small piston calipers (one on each side) into the fork itself. These grip narrow-band gap-mounted rim discs to provide massive stopping power because of surprisingly large total friction area that such a set-up produces.

Note that the oil was worked into the frame rails.

Krugger has used matching 23-inch by 120 V-Rubber tires front and rear, on speed-cycle style custom machined wheels whose one-piece hub/spoke/rim design leaves only some 12 or 14 kg (25 to 30 lbs) from a pair of aluminium blanks that weighed in at around 160 kg (340 lbs) each when Krugger set to work on them.

The custom made rigid frame, which does double duty as an oil bag, has a 50 mm diameter top tube that though tapering to the rear axle nonetheless produces a robust, high strength, solid rear end eliminating the need for a seat post .

” Fred made the battery compartment near the steering neck so it will be hidden inside the fuel tanks. The battery in the pictures is of course not the battery he used,” Mark explained. “Imagine if one of the filler caps came loose.”

Check out some of the details on this bike, the three metal gussets in the frame under the gearbox match the lower tree of the forks. Front and rear brakes are both operated with the foot pedal through a proportioning valve. Front brake calipers hidden in the fork legs, totally unique front suspension, oil in the frame, battery hidden in the fueltank…

The heavy duty chain primary and secondary, customized Barnett clutch, and self made rear sprocket layout has been achieved by raising the 4-speed transmission and wrapping the pipes round under the motor and transmission to emerge neatly and discreetly behind the kicker.

The RevTech engine uses an S&S Super E carb, with a Mallory ignition and two coils for the twin plug heads. Freddie told AMD that he had not yet had the time to dyno the bike, or take it for a spin around the nearby Spa Francorpchamp Formula 1 circuit that he is so familiar with.

As you can see the fuel tank is made out of fewer pieces than usual. Fred invested in new metal shaping tools, like an English wheel, a stretcher, shrinker and a bead roller. On his older bikes he used just a welder and an angle grinder!

Freddie’s success, since he first opened Krugger Motorcycles just 3 years ago, has been extraordinary. He raced moto-crossers as a teenager and having spent his 20s as a car race mechanic and driver at many of Europe’s best known circuits.

Freddie’s decision to jump into the motorcycle business full time is paying off sooner than he dared hope.

“The last 3 years have been beyond my wildest dreams” Freddie told AMD. “These days I try and spend around half my time working on custom builds and half my time on customer bikes. I work on my own and do everything from servicing and repairs right through to projects like ‘SpeedBowl’. With a family to support, I kept up my other career as a race car driving instructor at Spa Francorchamp because like anybody starting their own motorcycle business, you just can’t be sure how it is going to work out.

“But I have been able to finish doing that now and spend my time entirely focused on Krugger Motorcycles”. Asked if he would stick with board-trackers , Freddie said “Oh no, with ‘SpeedBowl’ I think I have now done everything that I wanted to with that look. I have another project nearing readiness that is collaboration with Mark Van den Kwaak (‘Duckman’… www.dbbp.com) that is a much more contemporary custom bike, but I haven’t entirely finished with retro or racing style bikes.

I have in mind something from the 1940s and early 1950s for another build; but that will have to wait until I have sold ‘SpeedBowl’.

The good news for Freddie in terms of his continuing profile includes taking Best in Show at French custom publication Freeway’s ‘Kustom Show’ in Paris in April. Having missed out on one of the top three places at the European Championship that carried with them an expenses paid trip to the World Championship in Las Vegas later this year and by the narrowest of margins, Freddie’s win at the Kustom Show and the organisers’ decision to become the latest event to sign up as part of AMD’s European and World Championship Affiliate Program, means that for the second year running, Freddie will be competing at the World Championship.

“I was disappointed, naturally, not to get into the top three at the European Championship” Freddie said, “because I very much wanted to be able to compete at the World Championship again. Last year was such a great weekend and the opportunity to meet so many fantastic builders makes it an important opportunity for guys like me.

At the second World Championship, 2005, Freddie Krugger (left), Valeria Thomas, Bikernet Bonneville Race Rider, and Roger, the master, Goldammer.

The winner, for the second year running, was Canadian custom engineer and parts specialist Roger Goldammer. That was a remarkable Achievement. However, second place was again scooped by Michael Prugh of Independent Cycle,Rapid City,South Dakota,and third place again taken by Bertrand ‘Freddie’ Krugger from Belgium with his Speedbowl!

KRUGGER MOTORCYCLES
Basse Bodeux 4983
BELGIUM
Tel: 00 32 80 684 559
Fax: 00 32 49 532 6500
Email: Info@krugger.net
www.krugger.net

BIKERNET TECH SHEET

Owner:Krugger
City/State:Belgium
Builder:K
Fabrication:K
Manufacturing:K
Welding:K
Machining:K

Engine:
Year:2005
Make:Revtech
Model:Pandemonium
Displacement:88 cubic inch
Builder or Rebuilder:
Cases: STD
Case finish: bare cast
Barrels: RevTech cast iron
Bore: 3 5/8-inch
Pistons: forged 8.25:1
Barrel finish: black wrinkle
Lower end: Rev Tech
Stroke: ?
Rods: Jims
Heads:STD
Head finish: bare castings
Valves and springs:Manley
Pushrods: JIMS
Cams:Andrews .470-in. lift AB grind
Lifters:JIMS
Carburetion: S&S shorty Super E

Transmission:
Year:2005
Make:Rev tech
Gear configuration:
Primary chain by K
Clutch:Barnet

Frame:
Year: 2005
Make: K
Stretch: who knows
Rake: 28°
Modifications: oil in frame

Front End
Make: Neck Glide by K
Model: One-off K
Year:2005
Length: short
Mods: calipers in legs

Sheet metal
Tanks:K
Fenders:K
Panels: none
Oil tank:in the frame 4 liter

Paint:
Sheet metal: K
Molding: none
Base coat: Dog shit brown color
Graphics: none, Harley by K
Frame: powder dog shit brown
Molding: none
Base coat: Powder
Graphics: none
Special effects:
Pinstriping: Jean Do frech paint stripper

Wheels

Front:
Make:K
Size:23 x 4.5
Brakes:K
Tire:Vee Rubber

Rear
Make: K
Size: 120/70 x 23
Brake: K
Pulley: sprocket K
Tire:Vee Rubber

Controls
Foot:K brass
Finish:
Handlebar:K
Finish: Powder shit

Electrical
Ignition: Mallory + dyna
Ignition switch:K
Coils:dyna
Regulator: CCI
Charging:CCI
Wiring K
Harness:K
Headlight:K
Taillight:K from bicycle
Accessory lights: none
Electrical accessories: bare
Switches: just one
Battery:from Sccoter

What's Left
Seat: K
Pipes:K stainless steel
Mufflers: nope
Gas caps:K brass
Handlebars: K with clutch control inside
Grip WL replica
Pegs:K brass
Oil filter: AP racing
Oil cooler:Copper tube
Oil lines:copper
Fuel filter: Pingel
Fuel Lines:copper
Clutch cable:/ hydraulic
Throttle:K
Throttle cables:
Fasteners: nuts and bolts

Comments:Everything on this bike is build by me. I work alone on my old farm (exept the CNC machining of the wheel).

Credits:Thanks to CCI for their support