Coming Soon: The Single-Crown Motorcycle Fork?

Imagine how clean a cruiser would look without that extra fork clamp. Someone already has.

Enthusiasts who have been around motorcycling for a while may recognize the names Brian Littler and Dan Hanebrink as perennial motorcycle visionaries, two guys who have pushed the technical boundaries of motorcycles. Hanebrink is probably best remembered as the man behind the Monotrack racebike of the mid-1970s. That monocoque-framed machine was powered by a three-cylinder snowmobile engine driving through a torque converter. It used 16-inch wheels long before they were fashionable. Hanebrink also made handling kits for the Kawasaki triple of that era. Littler was also involved in some innovative racebikes.

The duo has teamed up and turned its attention to applying that innovative thinking to "ultra-high-performance/rod motorcycles," according to their business card. The first product of this out-of-the-box thinking is the single-crown design shown here. The design has the potential to offer a unique and much cleaner front-end.

It is initially expected that the fork will be sold separately to custom-bike builders. Since the design requires a unique steering stem and head, the steering head would be included for the builder to weld to the frame.

In addition, Hanebrink and Littler are working on complete bikes as seen in the drawings for the motorcycle shown here. They have given us no information other than that they expect to have photos of the bike this summer.