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The special featured here belongs to Laura Campbell-Bell. Sometimes she pretends it doesn't. No, she's not ashamed of the machine - quite the contrary - but she likes to know what people have to say about it behind her back. So she hangs back and eavesdrops. In summer the Tuesday evening bike meets at Poole Quay are a favourite for this surreptitious exercise. This is one of the biggest bike meets in the country. It attracts thousands of riders who come to see and be seen or, in Laura's case, listen.
And what does she hear? Mostly a question: "What is it?" The GSX-R750 Suzuki engine has been around in one form or another for 20 years and is instantly recognisable to anyone who can tell a Teapot from a Kettle and a Gixxer from a Gamma. Just about everything else is a mystery.
The overall effect is something of a cross between a streetfighter and race rep but, while the gorgeous alloy tank harks back to the golden era of the 60s café racer, the mini-headlights and USD forks are here and now. As for the tubular cradle, cantilever frame... onlookers inspect it from this angle and that, scratch heads and shrug shoulders.
Laura, a 34-year-old office IT manager, enjoys the mystery the machine creates. A goal of most special owners is to stand out from the crowd. This bike sure does that, and the fact that so few of the parts shoved into this whole are identifiable adds to the intrigue.
Laura watches, waits for her moment and then makes it clear to onlookers that she is the owner by stepping forward to double-check that she has turned off the petrol or brush imaginary debris from a tyre.
Even in this day and age, most people are gobsmacked that the owner is a woman, and not a very tall woman at that. Laura measures 5ft 2½in. That half-an-inch is important because, in certain cases, the tip of a toe is all there is between a finely-exercised balancing act and disaster. When you are 5ft 21½in tall you learn to be careful where you bring the bike to rest. A slight incline and...
Laura's machine is not what you would call a girlie bike. It's raw and aggressive. There are sharp edges where you would expect curves. It is the kind of bike that would be more at home in a race paddock than fashion show. To be honest, I think it looks rather bitty - a machine on which the choice of equipment has been dictated by performance, not aesthetics. The result is not drop-dead gorgeous in a superficial way, but it does have impact, and that impact is in itself impressive.
'Meaty' is how Laura describes the bike. "I like to be different and this bike is different," she said.
Although most casual observers are flummoxed, the bike is a hit with aficionados of the art of DIY invention. Laura is editor of the Street Specials MCC's mag and debuted the machine at their rally. It had been on the road a matter of days after a two-year refit and most of the 300 new miles it had on the clock were covered on the journey from Laura's Dorset home to the event in Leicestershire.
Words/pictures: Brian Tarbox
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Feature archive from Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Magazine on-line
Mystery ride