|
Mago
|
 |
« on: January 25, 2014, 09:04:49 am » |
|
It was in Northern Ireland and on the Isle of Man, that Niklas Pfeiffer from Philippsburg, a small town close to Heidelberg, got infected with the „road racing virus“. In addition to his talent as a racer he is also at home in bike design and a top mechanic and consequently had the idea of developing his own bike for road racing. When he came up with his plan in autumn 2012 it was not only a surprise for his club-mates at Rheintal-Motor-Sports-Club, but also for his friends in the Continental Road racing scene, who so far knew him as a tough, but fair competitor for podium results.
The newly introduced supertwin class seemed to be a good field to create a competitive bike for road racing at reasonable cost. Kawasaki's ER6, with a modern 2-Cyl. Engine looked a promising basis to build on. In less than 5 month Niklas designed and built a new racing bike – the NKmotors Supertwin, using modified components of other Kawasaki models and a lot of custom parts, he designed and manufactured in his workshop or had made to his specifications by various suppliers.
A good reputation in the Hockenheim racing scene and many contacts to specialised technicians and machine shops in Nordbaden let him find partners with sound technical knowledge for almost any problem, turning up during the project. Development of the racing engine f.e. had been done in cooperation with Kraus Racing in Östringen. Lothar Kraus, a competitor in World Superbike Championship in the late 1990s, offered his valuable experience in engine design, step by step improving performance and reliability on his engine test bench. Tuner König in Ludwigshafen looked after balancing the crank assembly, making the engine run smoothly even at maximum rev's. Bespoke springs, shock absorbers and fine-tuning of suspension components came from Hyperpro suspension technology from the Netherlands.
Roll out took place on Hockenheim Grand Prix circuit on March 23/2013. In such projects this usually is the moment, when a lot of bigger and minor problems turn up and have to be solved one after the other. It was therefore a surprise for the whole team that the brand new NKmotors Supertwin ran like clockwork lap after lap. But for refuelling no technical support had been needed, when Niklas finished his test after 45 laps. Obviously planning, design, manufacturing and final assembly “had been done well“.
On April 4 the second test was scheduled at Zolder / Belgium under supervision of Hyperpro suspension specialists. When test rider Peter Heijmans from NL came back from the final lap, again no problems had turned up and not even any „fine-tuning“ had been necessary. When Peter raced the bike for the first time at Northwest 200 in may, it ran again free of technical problems, finishing on 18. place.
A month later, designer and mechanic Niklas Pfeiffer was competing at 'Horice TT' in Czech Republic. Against strong international competition, he was rewarded with a podium result, finishing on 3rd place!
Some weeks later at Southern 100 on the Isle of Man he finshed 3rd again in the 'Support-Race'. The next two races at Armoy and Mid-Antrim are part of Northern Ireland Road Race Championship and therefore are well known for large fields of top-class riders and even there he finshed in the top third of the field!
Encouraged by his success in the first season, Niklas spontaneously decided developing an enhanced version of the bike for the season ahead. In autumn 2013 he began sorting out ideas for an NKmotors Supertwin EVO1, with the main objective of reducing total weight plus many other technical improvements. Even though the scene is dominated by bike builders from Northern Ireland and Isle of Man a Finnish rider already signed up for 2014 with NKmotors. Tuuka Korhunen, best Newcomer from the continent at 2013 Manx Grand Prix will race the NKmotors Supertwin EVO1 in Tourist Trophy 2014, relying on Niklas Pfeiffers personal technical support during both weeks.
|
