On November the 3rd 2006 I went to Germany to the Fighterama streetfightershow. The weather horrible due to heavy rain and it was cold. Not that I really cared. I had a great time there, but the real excitement was what I had next on the agenda: buying the Martek owned by Thomas. Thomas is the guy who bought the Martek of Lenis in 2002.

I first saw the Martek for sale on the German Fighters-forum. Because one of my dreams was to build and own a Spondon (or look-a-like) frame. I contacted Thomas who sold it pretty cheap (I think he didn't really know or cared what kind of unique frame he had). In the beginning I was a bit sceptical. But after exchanging more info and photos by mail I decided to take a look at the Martek. A week before Fighterama I took a tripe to Ennepetal in Germany. After taking a good look at the Martek, I went home with a big impression and a smile from ear to ear. After taking some days to think about (it was still a lot of money for me) my girlfriend encouraged me to buy the Martek. She knew such a streetfighter was my dream and saw the twinkling in my eyes.. Because the Fighterama was upcoming in the next days I combined the two "events".

My frame was the first delivered from Martek in the UK to Germany to Lenis. It was used in the beginning on Fighterama as a rolling chassis (only wheels and engine, no electric et cetera). The frame was than stored on the attic and stayed there for a few years. The previous owner wanted to build a streetfighter and had good contacts with Lenis. Because the whole streetfighters was meant to be cheap, they toke the "old" Martek frame. Lenis build it complete with mostly standard parts and a LKM engine from a crashed GSXR-1100.

It then was shown on several shows like Fighterama in 2002:

It got a LKM-engine GSXR-1250 (from a crash-bike), Remus muffler, and lot's of original parts from a GSXR1100. (front-fork, wheels, breaks). The footpegs are from Lenis. The indicators at the handlebar were no original Kellermann but cheap imitation. It was a low-budget streetfighter. The former owner stated to me that that was the intention when they build this Martek.

Because the geometry was not optimal, they modified the stem and rewelded for better handling before it officially saw the roads. In the beginning the Martek had a bad handling when going fast.

It originally had a black seat and headlight, silver wheels and front fork. Later the owner had all the black part painted blue. He also got the clutch-cover and sprocket-cover chromed.

When I bought it the former owner made some other modifications:
 

The first challenge I had to cope with were the RDW (Dutch authority) to get a Dutch licence plate. At the first check-up there were some problems. The first was that the enginenumber was not the same as was registered in the German papers. Second problem was that it was to loud. But both problems were solved at the second check (they investigated the enginenumber but in the end there were no problems with that). My luck was that there is no low in the Netherlands who forbids to have another engine in your motorcycle. And the noise was not that big of a deal and after some minor mods the dB's made were at legal levels.