American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 217 August 2017 | Page 31

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2016 Freestyle class
7th place -
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One of the enduring characteristics of the AMD World Championship of
Custom Bike Building (when it was staged in the United States just as
much as now that it is held in Germany) has been the platform it has
provided for the emerging talents of the fast growing custom bike scene
in Central and Eastern European countries.
ussian builders have been regulars
at the ‘AMD’ for many years, and
have achieved some great results,
and never fail to show great
bikes. One such has been Sergei
Maltsev and the crew from Fine Custom
Mechanics, Moscow.
Their first appearance at the World Championship
was in Sturgis in 2009 with ‘Bender’, a ‘Puncher’
Pandemonium 88” engined Springer with a
RevTech 6-speed, perimeter brakes, own made
rigid frame and Rick’s (Germany) billet spoked
wheels (Top 20 Freestyle class).
In 2010 they followed that up with ‘Moscow’, an
innovative Ultima 120” engined quasi-rigid – it
had a swingarm but with twin springs mounted to
the rear axle left and right, with a Baker Dual Drive
5-speed and Autoclutch (9th in the Freestyle class).
R
www.AMDchampionship.com
Both bikes made it clear that here was a dedicated
group of talented engineers who were capable of
innovation, followed by ‘Boo’ in 2014 (an Ultima
shovelhead style 96” engined rigid with girder style
front end and perimeter brakes (Top 30 Freestyle
class).
Then last year (2016) they brought two bikes -
‘Rook’, which scored a 4th place in the Retro Mod
class, but BOOM!, along came ‘Bonny’, scoring 7th
place in the AMD World Championship of Custom
Bike Building, their best ever finish and one of the
finest pieces of avant-garde craftsmanship and
creativity seen for many a year.
The engine is a 750cc M72 2015 ‘Puncher’ –
‘Puncher’ being a colloquial for the BMW R71
derived ‘Boxer’ twin that has gone on to be the
most produced engine in the history of the
motorcycle industry. The M72 was, essentially, a
Soviet WWII era ‘Boxer’ copy that was produced in
various factories from the early 1940s and up.
The Soviets acquired the blueprints and tooling
designs from BMW in 1940 before the Nazis tore
up the non-aggression pact between Germany and
Russia and invaded the Soviet Union (Operation
Barbarossa), in Moscow known as the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and invaded Russia in
1941.
Much of Soviet industry was packed up and moved
east, out of the range of the German bombers, and
this M72 was built at IMZ in Irbit (Irbit Motorcycle
Factory, where Urals are also made) from 1943
until 1955 – about 1,300 miles east of Moscow –
and this is a 1955 example. FCM have been
producing ‘Puncher’ engines since 2004.
The engine runs on methanol, has a Mikuni
35.5mm Flatside alcohol tuned carb, with an
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - AUGUST 2017
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