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People often point out that two-wheeled vehicles are inherently unstable, and that four wheels are much safer. Following that logic, six wheels would be even better, right? Maybe not always.
If you’re one of the 108,000 people who follow Australian trials and stunt rider Jack Field on Instagram, you might be familiar with this already. In early March of this year, he bought four Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 motorcycles, and exactly a month later the bikes were lashed into pairs and towing chariots around a stadium in Sydney, Australia at 40 mph.
The videos have scattered around the internet and delighted riders and non-riders alike, for the madness of the activity and the ingenuity of the idea. Living and breathing motorcycles as we do here at Common Tread, the question of "why" never really came up. Because it’s awesome, obviously. Even so, we were left with a few questions: Who put the contraptions together? How do the controls work? What the heck does it feel like to ride?
Thanks to our consummately connected colleague Jen Dunstan, we got in touch with Jack Field and got the details on the build and the experience of being a modern-day Ben Hur.
“Back in the 1930s the Australian Police had a motorcycle stunt team that would go around to agricultural shows doing displays,” explained Field via e-mail, “and part of their performances was chariot racing.” The commemoration came together when he was invited to participate in the Sydney Royal Easter Show, a celebration that features agriculture, carnival atmosphere, and live entertainment that brings in around one million spectators every year.
How did they come to be? “I fabricated almost everything from scratch myself,” said Field, borrowing his friend Damian Kennedy’s shop, equipped with a lathe and milling tools. The only thing he didn’t claim was the custom braided brake line, which links the rear brakes of the bikes and runs to a foot pedal in the chariot. Everything else is his doing, including 13-foot clutch lines that were cobbled together with parts from an Impaktech Easy Pull kit.
The throttle and switches on the right grip operate as usual, Field said, in part because of a common-but-crucial bit of technology on the Svartpilen 401: Ride-by-wire throttle. After engineering a wiring harness “from a roll of 12-core cable I found in the shed,” the controls from the bike were run up the control arm (or “reins”) so the racers can match revs and use the throttle (almost) as normal. Total cost of the build? "I lost count of the hours I put into them" says Field, "but these turned into some expensive toys."
An obvious question is what they’re like to ride, and considering Field’s berserk talent on a motorcycle we certainly wondered if these chariots are actually death traps. “They are surprisingly easy to ride at speed,” he said. “Basically it's like riding a quad but standing in a trailer being towed around, and steering with a set of reins. Seems normal, right?” Normal? No. Worthy of a CTXP episode? Probably yes.
As with any project, there are still improvements to be made. The racers can’t shift while riding, for example, so they use second gear and a liberal dose of rev limiter, as you can hear in the videos. “I'm going to build an electronic shifter on the bars,” said Field, “so we can change up and down the gears on the fly and give us a bit more legs on the bigger open tracks.” Godspeed, Flair Riders, and let us know when the U.S. tour comes together so we can try one.
