New Tricks
for a Magic Bike
Getting hold of the kind of motorbike that
I would need wasn’t such a problem. The nice
people at Suzuki let us have one of their RM
Z450 bikes.
HIS bike has won awards for being a
tough and reliable off-road machine.
We were amazed at just how reliable it
was, despite the things we were asking it to do!
The bike has a single-cylinder, 449 cc engine
capable of delivering all the power I would
need and accelerating quickly across rough
terrain. It was a beauty, but I needed someone
to help me turn it from being an award winner
on dry land to a record breaker on water – and I
found them in Devon.
T
Sealander Marine International are based in
Plymouth and they are people who are used
to taking things that you would think should
be driving along a road, and sending them
skimming across water instead. Graham
Plymouth and they are people who are used
to taking things that you would think should
be driving along a road, and sending them
skimming across water instead. Graham
Davis is a marine engineer and the Managing
Director, while Charlie Broughton works with
Sealander as a design engineer, developing,
among other things, amphibious vehicles.
Charlie designs the sort of thing that you can
drive down a slipway in Southampton with 40
passengers aboard and drive out of the water
on the Isle of Wight, delivering the passengers
to their hotel without anyone ever getting their
feet wet. If I was going to add foils or planes to
the bike – always bearing in mind the Guinness
directive that the bike should not float – these
were the lads to turn to.
Charlie showed me an image of the Suzuki
projected on to the side of a van – a rare bit
150 HYDROPLANING MOTORBiKe
of nice clean space in an otherwise busy
workshop – and described how the ideal place
to position what he called a ‘planing surface’
would be between the wheels right under the
main chassis of the bike. If I got my balance
right, the front wheel would take care of itself,
as it did for the riders on the internet videos,
and the planing surface would supply the lift
required to keep me on the surface. Charlie’s
rough drawing looked a bit like the hull of a
boat with an open rear end, which is hardly
surprising because what we wanted it to do was
to act like the hull of a boat. What Charlie had
to concentrate on, and I would have to bear in
mind when I was riding, was to get the planing
Above: The Suzuki had
a relatively smooth front
tyre to help the wheel
skim across the water.
a relatively smooth front
tyre to help the wheel
skim across the water.
Right: That single-
cylinder, 499 cc engine
was a thing of beauty.
cylinder, 499 cc engine
was a thing of beauty.