Monster motorbike!
A giant motorbike that weighs as much as a school bus and is powered by a truck engine will be among the amazing special attractions at the Melbourne Motor Show. Monster Motorbike will make its east coast debut when the Motor Show opens its doors at 5 pm on Friday 29 February.
Designed and built in Perth, it weighs a massive 13.6 tonnes - around 10 times the weight of a family car - and is the brainchild of stunt driver Ray Baumann. Ray spent three years developing the massive machine and has wowed spectators at its early demonstrations out west. Monster Motorbike is intimidating just standing still, at almost nine metres long and more than three metres high, but is truly awesome when Ray uses it to crush cars and caravans.
Baumann used to drive road trains, then turned to setting records for jumping vehicles over all sorts of other vehicles, and Monster Motorbike combines elements of both occupations. Its Detroit Diesel engine and six-speed Allison automatic come from a prime mover, and it uses a two speed Eaton differential from a road train to drive a massive chain on each side of the rear wheel. The wheels and tyres come from a Caterpillar 80 tonne front end loader and are well suited to car crushing, at almost three metres high and well over a metre wide.
Why would Ray Baumann and his small team of collaborators want to spend three years and many thousands of dollars building such a behemoth?
"We did stunt driving for quite a few years, broke a few records and broke my back a few times, so this is a way of taking a bit more care," he said.
"Now we crush things, which is definitely less risky than jumping them - we still do jump things, but not at the Melbourne Motor Show."