IT is safe to say that for a bike to be entered in the World Championship of Custom Bike Building it will have a selection of one-off parts used on it. Some builders take this theme further than others and one who has taken the theme to extremes is Veikko Sikiö, of Waylon Machinery, Juupajoki, Finland. When it came to building WSA, his entry for the 2014 World Championship, and the bike that took top honors for him at Twin Club MC Norrtälje show in the summer, is almost entirely hand-made.
The starting point for Sikiö’s project was the engine build. The began by selecting a set of old Triumph pistons and a set of Ironhead Sportster flywheels so he could then work out how to get an 800cc V-Twin configuration. The heads on the 60-degree V-twin were originally found on single cylinder BSA B33 engines, and to get the exact configuration he wanted Sikiö has moved the intakes. This set-up means that he has a four cam motor, which features home-made crank cases and cylinders. He made them by recycling old alloy car wheels. Each wheel was melted down and then the molten alloy was poured into molds he had crafted to create the parts he needed.
Due to the engine’s unique design everything had to be carefully thought out and made to work accordingly, and a case in point is the Bosch magento. Mounted in front of the downtube of the frame it is driven by a short chain on a sprocket on the end of the crank.
While he May have modified the heads to place the carbs where he wanted them, Sikiö wasn’t happy with the performance of the Amal carbs he originally fitted. His answer to the problem was to make his own carbs, which were in place when the bike was displayed at the World Championship.
The engine set-up is completed by the manual oil pump mounted between the cylinder heads that is used at start-up to ensure the heads are properly lubed.
Power is taken from the motor by a home-made open primary that is connected to a clutch sourced from a Jawa speedway bike. Behind the clutch Sikiö has used a four-speed BSA gearbox. However, just to confuse people, Sikiö describes the drivetrain as being from B&W Gear Co Ltd. The company doesn’t exist, he simply cast the name into the parts because he could.
Given the unique nature of the engine and drivetrain it should come as no surprise that the frame on WSA is a one-off, made by Sikiö. Once again he has used his casting skills to create the brass lugs that the steel tubes have been brazed into. The same techniques have been used on the girder fork at the front that has friction dampers along with the coil springs, and integrates the risers for the narrow, one-off bars.
In order to keep the handlebars as clean as possible, and also due to the lack of space on them, as they are so narrow, the only controls are an internal throttle. The clutch is foot operated and works off the same pedal as the rear brake.
Completing the selection of cast parts on WSA is the custom oil tank and seat pan, while Sikiö also used aluminum to create the hand beaten gas tank.
Given that the Twin Club MC Norrtälje show has a strict ride-inn rule, if the bike isn’t ridden into the show it isn’t eligible for a prize, there was no doubt that this hand-built special was a runner and this was reflected in the voting by Sikiö’s fellow competitors at the World Championship who placed the bik second in the Freestyle class.
WAYLON MACHINERY
Juupajoki, FINLAND