By Loz Blain
Impractical? Sure! Vulgar? Most certainly. Unique? In every sense. This staggering custom motorcycle uses the biggest pair of hubless wheels we’ve ever seen, as well as placing the rider astride a snarling, 300-horsepower Rolls-Royce aircraft engine. Live in fear – of corners, if nothing else.
The TMC Dumont is the work of Brazilian ex-Formula One driver and champion motorcycle custom builder Tarso Marques. Its name is a tip of the hat to Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, who Brazilians believe got an airplane aloft before America’s Wright Brothers.
Hence the aircraft engine – a monstrous Continental flat six from the Rolls-Royce aircraft company that was lifted from a 60’s-era aircraft and polished within an inch of its life.
Three hundred horsepower (224 kW) is a heck of a lot for a motorcycle, and it’s even madder when you look at the bike’s signature feature: gargantuan, hubless 36-inch wheels that sit high enough to block the rider’s view, and connect to underslung swingarms by the flimsiest of connections.
(To see a video of this bizarre contraption on the road visit: https://newatlas.com/tmc-dumont-giant-hubless-rims/55471/)