Simply 300 examples of the Metisse Steve McQueen Desert Racer can be made, it’s a low-volume manufacturing motorbike based mostly very carefully on the Metisse owned and ridden by Steve McQueen within the Sixties.
“This rig is the most effective dealing with bike I’ve ever owned!” – So stated McQueen about his Metisse, a motorbike shaped by taking an engine/gearbox from a serious producer (Triumph on this case) and pairing it with a light-weight racing body and high-quality suspension.
Quick Info – Steve McQueen Metisse Desert Racer
- Steve McQueen was famously keen on his authentic Metisse desert racer within the Sixties. He raced it off highway extensively and it largely changed the Triumph TR6C that he’d been driving beforehand.
- The Metisse makes use of a tubular metal duplex cradle body fitted with a 650cc Triumph parallel twin and four-speed transmission. It’s significantly lighter than a comparable Triumph from the period.
- “Metisse” is a French phrase for an individual of combined heritage, it’s used on this context to explain the Rickman-designed Mk3 which makes use of an in-house developed body with an engine, suspension, and brakes from different producers.
- Every Steve McQueen Metisse Desert Racer is construct model new utilizing a restored Triumph engine and transmission, simply 300 can be made, they usually had been co-developed with Steve McQueen’s son Chad McQueen and Dave Ekins (brother of Bud Ekins).
The Metisse And The Rickman Brothers
Brothers Don and Derek Rickman had been profitable off highway motorbike racers within the late Nineteen Forties, competing in trials and scrambles occasions in the UK.
That is Don and Derek Rickman, the brothers had been achieved riders who arrange their very own firm to fabricate frames and rolling chassis for top efficiency bikes. Picture courtesy of Rickman Bikes.
The premature dying of their father left them his totally outfitted workshop within the Fifties, they started constructing their very own bikes and inside 20 years the brothers would develop their enterprise into the biggest surviving motorbike producer in Britain.
It grew to become clear to the Rickmans that the bikes they had been competing on had been just too heavy to be aggressive.
They designed their very own motorbike body utilizing high-end Reynolds 531 tubing, they fitted it with British motorbike engines and transmissions, and used the most effective suspension and brakes they may supply. Later the brothers would use engines from different international locations, together with Japanese engines in a lot of their hottest highway bikes.
The ensuing motorbike was far lighter than the bikes that they had been utilizing beforehand, with higher dealing with and efficiency. Demand for these new Rickman bikes was excessive on either side of the Atlantic.
Steve McQueen driving a Rickman Metisse, McQueen was a genuinely gifted racer on two wheels and 4, and he was an enormous fan of his Rickman Metisse within the Sixties. Picture courtesy of the McQueen Property.
Because the Sixties progressed they started providing highway racing motorbike body units as properly, and by the mid-Seventies they had been promoting 4,000+ a yr, making them the biggest surviving motorbike producer within the UK.
The Metisse Mk3 is probably going the motorbike that the Rickman brothers are greatest remembered for right this moment, it revolutionized the world of off highway motorbike racing within the Sixties, it was extremely influential on the manufacturing scramblers of the day, and it remained surprisingly aggressive towards the light-weight two-strokes after they arrived.
The Metisse Steve McQueen Desert Racer
As famous within the introduction this motorbike is one among simply 300 that can be made as a part of this sequence of McQueen Metisse replicas. The bike proven on this article is body #002, body #001 went to Steve McQueen’s son Chad McQueen, so that is the primary one which was ever supplied for public sale.
This Metisse has a nickel plated brazed 4130 chromoly tube body, 35mm Ceriani forks, twin Girling shock absorbers, and it’s powered by a reconditioned 650cc TR6 Triumph parallel twin.
This Metisse was constructed utilizing the corporate’s well-known nickel plated brazed 4130 chromoly tube body with an identical 4130 chromoly tube swing arm. Up entrance you’ll discover 35mm Ceriani forks and BSA yokes, and there are twin Girling copy dampers and is derived within the rear.
Energy is supplied by a totally reconditioned 650cc TR6 Triumph parallel twin of unit development with a reconditioned 4-speed gearbox and a sequence drive to the rear wheel. The engine is fitted with an Amal single concentric sort R930/23 carburetor and twin up-swept chrome exhaust pipes.
So far as off-road scrambler sort bikes from the early Sixties goes, the Rickmans had been among the many easiest on this planet, they usually retain a robust following to the mannequin day.
The Metisse Steve McQueen Desert Racer you see right here is at the moment being supplied on the market on Accumulating Automobiles out of Gloucestershire in the UK. If you happen to’d prefer to learn extra about it or register to bid you may go to the itemizing right here.
Pictures courtesy of Accumulating Automobiles
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