Finding out you can’t believe everything you see on TV was a bigger blow to my young mind than discovering the truth about those charlatans, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. For the makers of reality custom car and motorcycle television, there is also a very real problem to overcome. They can’t exactly put to air five hours of some guy polishing a swingarm, even if that’s what it takes to get it right. So, corners get cut, outside vendors are brought in, and deadlines are met no matter what. For TV star, custom builder, and genuinely funny guy Ant Partridge, that left a sour taste in his mouth, especially when one particular flat tracker was butchered beyond his control. So, he started the project again from scratch and delivered the Partridge Design ‘Ho-Tax’ FTR Framer, literally fit for a star of track and screen.
Ant provided the backstory to begin the tale of this fearsome flatty. “Originally built for my mate James Haydon, MotoGP, BSB, and World Superbike racer etc, on my TV series Goblin Works Garage on the Discovery Channel, however, when filming TV shows, unfortunately, I don’t get to do all the work myself. This has always been a bone of contention for me when making television because it means you have unrealistic deadlines and are forced to trust others to carry out work for you.” Now, if those other people had done brilliant work in the background, the job would have been right, but Ant was less than impressed (to put it politely) and couldn’t bring himself to give James the shoddy result.
“But the bike before you is 100% new and one that I completely redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up, and in the end, I decided to keep it for myself.” And you wouldn’t be giving it away either if you knew just how much money and how many hours Ant has invested to get his Framer up to this standard. The bike was originally purchased online and had been raced in the UK; it was ratty, but it had at its heart a thumping Rotax engine sitting in a “Knight Racing ultra-light frame that came from a Pro AMA racer in the USA.” That frame is all 1.2mm chromoly, and decades of racing take their toll, so Ant made the right repairs, reinforced the lower rails, and hit it with some black powder coat.
The swingarm, however, was beyond the point of repair, so Ant grabbed some aluminium extrusions from Metmachex Swingarms and set about crafting his own. “It runs needle roller bearings in the pivot and an eccentric adjuster rather than the old slotted adjuster.” It’s a stunning piece of kit, and serious elbow grease was put in with all of the welds blended and hand-filed for an ultra-smooth finish, topped with a tactical grey Cerakote finish. That same protective coating is also applied to a host of absolutely stunning one-off billet machined parts that truly take this bike to the next level.
It’s not often we say this, but just those engine mounts alone are worth the price of admission, and give you an idea as to why a bike of this quality can’t just be slapped together on a TV timeframe. The foot control brackets, rear brake lever, shifter arm, G2 quick turn throttle housing, and the machined triples are all finished in the same Cerakote. Ant spent hours getting those clamps picture-perfect and then dropped through them a set of “Ohlins Retro 43 right-side-up forks with some rad billet alloy fork protectors made by another mate of mine, Leftie143 from Sudo Cycles.” The same man made the stunning carbon chain and sprocket covers, and the rear is finished off with a set of Ohlins shocks, a Galfer brake disc, and a Brembo caliper swinging on a custom mount.
To power his party, Ant sent the Rotax engine to Gary at Sportax Racing for a full rebuild, using only the best parts, including a new Omega billet piston, which helps punch the capacity out to 640cc. The cylinder head has been given the works by Racetechnics before Gary stuffed in an 865 cam for the right balance of mid-range power for coming off the turns and top-end for thundering down the straight. To fuel the fire, a big 44mm Mikuni carb goes on, and the exhaust is all stainless and handmade by Geoff at Co-Built Fabrication. Ant even went to the trouble of converting the clutch to hydraulic, which someone mistakenly told him couldn’t be done; wrong! And now he’s got 60bhp to play with, thank you very much.
The Framer looks bloody beautiful too, and having made an alloy tank from scratch, his fellow TV host Helen Stanley has done a stunning job of giving it a wicked hand-painted finish. For the seat, it’s easy to go off the shelf, but FT racing has you sliding all over the tank, which isn’t safe for the crown jewels. So, with a Pilates class worth of yoga mats, Ant built an alloy base and then began shaping and glueing six layers of Bikram’s best, until he had the perfect saddle. The beautiful custom seat was upholstered by Sam Trigg at Air-Cooled Upholstery and bolts down with the same bolt that secures the tank; genius! Under the seat, there is a custom battery box and a clever little mudflap to keep the worst of the crap off the engine.
All FT racers need number boards, but unsurprisingly, Ant decided to take a route of his own choosing. He had just the right bits of carbon fibre for the job too, having pinched them off an ex-Ken Block Ford Fiesta Rally car. To make them work and get the shape into the panels, the carbon is riveted to alloy sheet and then carefully bent to suit. It looks brilliant, but let’s see what the scrutineers have to say about their under-leg location; spoilsports. A set of Jared Mees bars serve as controls, with products from Renthal and Magura adding to their function.
Rounding out the build is a beautiful set of two-tone Alpina 19-inch rims, wrapped in quality Dunlop DT3 rubber. The Partridge Design masterpiece is now definitely James Haydon worthy, but Ant isn’t letting it go anywhere, as he’ll be throwing his leg over and racing this bad boy in anger. But as we wish him the best of luck on the oval of dreams, we absolutely will not be saying, ‘break a leg’!
[ Partridge Design | Photography by Shane Obenson ]