Maarten Janssens, a 20 year old industrial engineering student from Belgium, got the motorcycle bug very early, courtesy of his enthusiast dad, who had Maarten riding a little scooter at the tender age of 4. By the time he was 18 he was riding in the Belgian national enduro championship and he got the idea he might like to build a racer from his KTM 250cc 2 stroke enduro bike. Of course, thinking and doing are two different things, but Maarten is a “doer” so, over the Christmas holiday in 2009, he began drawing his plans, by Easter break 2010, he started building, just finishing in March of this year.
He has the advantage of having a pretty well equipped shop at home, lathe, milling machine and several welding posts, but tools don’t build on their own, someone has to learn how to use them and then put in the time. It looks like these were well used.
Beginning by creating his design on the computer, he TIG welded the entire frame and swingarm from steel. The gas tank plus front and rear subframes are aluminum. The front subframe holds the radiators and battery. Front forks and caliper are Suzuki 750 SRAD, seat comes from a Honda RSW 125 and the fairing is modified Aprilia RS125. Rear shock is Yamaha R1, wheels are Aprilia on both ends. The KTM 250cc engine work began by lightening the flywheel by 540 grams and removing 300 grams from the outer clutch hub. He polished the exhaust ports and custom made the exhaust. Maarten says the power kicks in at 9000rpm and runs to about 12500, he’s getting about 70 hp at the crank.
Wheelbase is 53.5 inches, fuel capacity is 4.2 gallons and dry weight is a mere 93 kgs!
He still has a little engine sorting to do but the build looks great. Not bad for a 20 year old student, in fact, it’s not bad for anyone, period. Going from idea to racer, from computer design to finished bike, it’s a big leap from the idea (the easy part) and the person who gets to work, gets his hands dirty and makes it happen (the hard part). Don’t forget to check out the video below and hear that glorious 2-stroke engine wail.
Images by MJ-Works
