Watch This Guy Build A Bike Around A KTM LC4 Engine

No, he doesn’t find a compatible frame, he makes one from scratch.

17:53

Earl Davidson

By: Earl Davidson

Oct 23, 2022 at 2:11pm ET

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We’ve covered all sorts of motorcycle builds that range from the absolutely beautiful, to the absolutely nuts. So here’s a build that is somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Make it Extreme on YouTube makes a little build series that revolves around a KTM LC4 engine.

For those in the know, the LC4 motor’s essentially half of the legendary LC8 V-Twin family of motors found in the KTM Super Dukes. I’m not entirely sure what generation LC4 this is, or what bike Make it Extreme took it from, but it looks to be an older-gen motor judging by its old-school “LC4” logo on its crankcase covers. Perhaps it's from a KTM 620 series model characterized by its blacked-out covers and silver lettering.

That would mean that the engine has a displacement of 609ccs, a carburetor, and just one piston doing all the work. When it was new, it would have made about 55 horsepower, though it seems and sounds like the engine has seen better days in the video.

The engine is interesting, but it’s the way that Make it Extreme fabricates an entire frame around it that makes the video an interesting watch. It’s not a totally neat build if I’m being honest, but it’s certainly interesting. The first part of the video followed the frame around the engine, but the second episode covers the bike.

What do you think?

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Everything comes together quite well with masterful fabrication and welding. It’s really weird to see that this bike is dark-sided. Perhaps it was the only tire that Make it Extreme had at the time, and it looks like it was from some sort of lawnmower, forklift, or something that wasn’t meant to be a two-wheeler.

Still, the bike comes together and he even rides it around. Nothing too extreme was done in the test ride, but it runs, it rolls, and it rides.