Constructing one complete motorcycle entirely on your own, engine and all, would be enough of a challenge for most mortals - especially if the result turned out as well as the vintage-era BSA Empire Twin M46 created single-handedly in Melbourne, Australia by Emu Engineering's one man band, electrical engineer Doug Fraser. You may recall that we featured this machine back in RC219.
That 30s-style tribute to the historic BSA marque, in the form of a rigid-framed girder-fork 50-degree V-twin what-if motorcycle based on doubling up the Val Page-designed M23 Empire Star single which debuted in 1936, was Fraser's attempt to build a bike he wished the British firm had produced in the pre-war era, except they never did.
I Its year-long construction took 1400 hours of hard spare time graft in between earning a living, and more than fulfilled its creator's intent to produce a practical, good-looking bike which moreover has proved thoroughly rideable.That's evidenced by the 2000-mile roundtrip shakedown ride that Doug undertook on the M46 (= 2 x M23 - geddit?) immediately after its completion in 2008. This took him to the BSA National Rally on the Queensland Gold Coast, at which the brand new bike won the Best of Rally award - an achievement equalled at almost every such event it's turned up at. Indeed, since taking to the highway it's covered over 20,000 trouble-free miles in the hands of its creator - so, job done, right?
Well, yes - up to
