Motorcycle specifications Grind Hard Plumbing Co1300 Monster Chopper 2024 Junior logger

Leave a big V2 in the hands of European engineers and you'll get a sick sports car or roadster. Put it in an American workshop and you'll get an extravagant custom. If, on the other hand, it ends up with the Grind Hard Plumbing Company, the poor guy's going to find himself stuck in a surreal machine, dubbed the Monster Chopper. And it's not a nickname; it's his real identity. It's enough to give curious onlookers and trappers alike a good mechanical scare.

Sweet madness, generated by a group of buddies tinkering in a garage. It's not a small local manufacturer or tuner at all; just a couple of eccentric (without being pejorative), resourceful creators. After tinkering with quads, Barbie cars, M3s, trucks and the like, here they are, tackling a mix of chopper and farm machine.

Just two ingredients to start with: huge wheels and a twin-cylinder KTM Super Adventure. To put the two together, Ethan Schlussler, Edwin Olding and their buddies designed a tubular trellis frame to house the Austrian V2, then set about designing two swinging monobars to hold the wheels and the entire braking system. Welding all these steel tubes together is a remarkable feat, complemented by an unlikely choice of brakes. The front disc is clamped by two opposed 6-piston calipers (Tokico, surely taxed to an old 1000 GSX-R or Hayabusa), while the rear houses two Nissin two-piston calipers.

Steering was a real headache. The only way to turn the huge gumshoe was with a steering hub, as on the Bimota Tesi - but with Toyota gear. The transmission uses two interconnected chains. We can't imagine the weight of this monster, but one piece of information scares us: the designers expect to reach 70 mph with it, or around 112 km/h.

The guys from Idaho used logging vehicle wheels to carry the Monster Chopper. Gigantic 46-inch Mickey Thompson Baja Pro XS tires will try to take the bike for a spin, but their flat profile and dimensions are incompatible with two-wheeled riding.

It may sound silly, but the guys at Grind Hard Plumbing spend hundreds of hours getting their machine to run. They have to invent everything, EVERYTHING. And no doubt they'll see it through. In terms of media impact, the effect was a success. As for what's to come, the adventure has not finished twisting ideas and tools.