VOL. 52 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 15, 2015 P99
back in 1978, only it wasn't him
who patented it. Zimbabwean
F1 mechanic Norman Hossack
had the same idea a couple of
years later, and this time he did
patent, even though by rights he
should never have been granted
that, since Fior had the idea first.
But Hossack forgot to keep up
the payments needed to renew
the patent, leaving BMW free to
jump in and appropriate it free
of charge. Nice work if you can
get it!
But there have been literally
dozens of other attempts to build
a better front end over the past
century, starting with the hub-
center Ner-A-Car produced on
both sides of the Atlantic after its
1921 debut, on which Cannon-
ball Baker rode from New York
to Los Angeles in 1922, covering
more than 3,300 miles in just
over seven days on a device
powered by a tiny 221cc engine.
Comparable hub-center systems
were developed by Britain's Jack
Difazio in the 1970s, as used
most famously on the Mead &
Tomkinson Kawasaki endurance
racer nicknamed Nessie, then
by French designers Alain de
Cortanze and Daniel Trema on
the myriad different versions of
the ELF 500GP and FIM Endur-
ance racers, through to the mod-
ern day Bimota Tesi and its Vyrus
cousin. Radically different non-
tele fork designs have also come
from, among many others, Ernie
Earles, Jean-Bertrand Bruneau
of @ToMo fame, Phil Irving of
Vincent, Andy Stevenson of ASP,
John Britten—whose later bikes
carried what is essentially a Fior
fork made in carbon fiber—and
of course US engineer James
Parker, whose RADD front end
equipped the avant-garde Yama-
ha GTS1000 introduced in 1993.
Sadly for those who believe that
motorcycle chassis designers
shouldn't stay rooted in the past,
but instead invest in the future,
the Yamaha wasn't a commercial
success, and no other volume
manufacturer—apart from BMW—
has dared since then to swim
against the tide of convention.
But that hasn't stopped
smaller companies like Ariel,
with its new girder-fork Ace GT
that's just reached production,
or enthusiastic engineers from
outside the industry, from trying
to develop a better front end
that isn't just funny, but also
