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Introduction
The
challenge of getting info on the
history of Martek is that the
company only existed for a short
period and only few information
is available. Most of the
information you'll find here is
based on rumours. and what can
be found on the World Wide Web
(and that isn't much).
Many different
pieces are put together in
chronicle order. If you have any
further information please let
me know and I will add it to
this brief history of Martek
Performance. Some of the history
is related to my own Martek.
I also want to
thank my friend Butze from
Germany and Gavin (former
employee at Spondon) who made this story
possible.
The short history
of Martek Performance
Today the only modification you can make
to motorcycles is by adding some
standard accessories to make it
better. Most motorcycles nowadays are that
good that if you would make other changes,
it will only make it worse. The
special frames are almost only for
good looks but not for getting a
better handling. In the mid nineties
a very popular frames with tubes were
made in Derby. The welding and
finishing was from an extraordinary
quality and came from a company in
Derby (Mid England): Spondon). The
special frames from Spondon were
called Monsterframes.
Mark Walker worked
as a welder in a company who made
steel chopper frames. But that was
not his cup of tea and wanted to
make frames that would go around the
corner. He also
discovered the possibilities with
building special frames, like Spondon. He also
wanted a part of fame and fortune
and founded his own company: Martek
Performance. It was founded in
august 1995 in Cleethorpes (UK). He
started the company with his
right-hand man Toddy and Alan Wills
(the moneyman). The designs were more
radical than those from Spondon.
With a wide interest from the press
and publishing articles in
several motorcyclemagazines and showing the
frames on shows give Martek fame in
framebuilding. One of the first
known articles was in the magazin
Streetfighters in August 1996.
The image below shows the logo from
Martek. If you'll look at it closely
you'll notice that it almost seems
like a kid drew it on a computer
(the thickness of the lines in "Martek"
is different, the angle of "Martek"
and "Performance" is different et
cetera). Luckely they were better in
building motorcycleframes..... or
weren't hey........
The design and technical challenges
Martek has only
made frames of aluminium. (Spondon
also made non-aluminium frames). The
material that was first used for the frames
was 6082 T6. Later they used the
same alloy as Spondon did: 7020. This alloy is
also used in transport (Airplanes)
and other heavy structures which
must be lightweight. The most
common design of these frames is a
trellis format, similar to Ducati
and MV Agusta. The
geometry of the frames were taken
from the Honda CBR900 and later from
the Honda CBR1000XX. They simply
took the measurements of a Blade
without checking if these geometries
were any good for their design.
Originally the frame was build to
hold a Suzuki GS1000 engine. But by
the time the frame was ready to
sell/build, Suzuki had introduced
the first GSXR-1100. Bad luck, but
the solution was "simple". They decided to make some changes to
the frames, so
they could build a Martek-frame with
a GSXR-1100 engine. Because the
geometry of the engine is different
between the GS en GSXR engine, the
first Martek frames had problems
with the chain. The front sprocket
is mounted lower in a GSXR engine
and therefore the chain dragged over
the swingarm in the first try-out frames. In
the beginning they changed the size
of the front and rear sprockets the
prevent this problem. Later they
made a change to the frame itself
and rearranged the place of the
engine in the frame..
Because they took
the geometry of a Honda CBR900 they
also used the spring and fork of the
CBR900. The problem was that the
weight of the whole motorcycle was
different and the spring and frontfork were not build to cope
with these differences. But the
unfortunate owners had to deal with
that issue themselves. Another
issue was the quality of the
frames they made. You could get the
idea that it was depending on the
day it was build. The cap over the
front sprocket did not fit always
without changing it and the rear
mounting of the engine also needed
some adjustments before the engine
would fit. The rear spring also had
to move to the right in the first
frames or else it would touch the swingarm. The spring was mounted
oblique.
But in the end
they cope with all the issues and
the newer frames have a very good
handling. The most eye-catching
differences between the first frames
and the ones that were made later
are the fitting in the front of
the engine and the design of the subframe. Further changes are also
the bending of the tubes (more
bended tubes, less straight) and the
swingarm.
Below you can see
one of the first frames build by
Martek.
I think
the most well-know Martek is the
Katana Turbo Martek in bright
neon-yellow and metallic blue.
You can also see the difference
between the older and new
frames. Some details about the
engine: Crankshaft is modified,
Carrillo cranks, MTC-pistons,
Highflow oilpump und has
1260ccm. It has 42-er carbs with
turbo-charger and Mr. Turbo
exhaust pipe. Futhermore a
Earls-oilcooler gives it enough
cooling, Dyna 2000 ignition
coils and can be modified
depending on the turbo-pressure.
The first
frames were welded by
Mark. After a while, the real welding
professional Keith from Spondon was added to the team in
1997. Because Keith is a
perfectionist the welding was
much better from that moment on
and also the frames were the
same (from geometry point of
view). The first frame that was
made by Keith is my own frame.
(originally with the wrong angle
of the frontfork). The fuel tanks were
always made by The Tankshop (and
later also by Spondon). It is
also told that Martek teamed up
with Steelheart. An example is
the TL Martek project:
Below you'll find
some pictures from the new style
frame of Martek (welded by
Keith):
Other parts by Martek
Martek not
only made frames but also
swingarms. They were manly
2 types of swingarms or
modified swingarms from a
Honda VFR to give it a
unique design. Later they
also made Spondon-like
single-sided swingarms. Only
the brace was below the swingarm. Much later Martek
only used swingarms made by
Spondon. In the images below
you'll get an impression of
the swingarms build by
Martek.
(only swingarm)
A brief
history through the years
1995
In the next
images you'll see some marketing
material:
1996
1997
1998
In 1998
Lenis wanted to get a lot of
Martek's on the road in Germany.
To get some publicity Lenis got
an article in a custom magazin
Bikers News in 1998. Below you'll
find the article that was
published. The frame on the
pictures is my frame. You can
also see the old angle of the
frontfork. They changed that
later for better handling. After
the first presentations they removed al the bits and
pieces they have used. The frame
itself was left for several
years on the ceiling at Lenis.
In 2002 the former owner of my
Martek made a deal with Lenis to
make a "cheap" special
streetfighter. It was presented
in that form at Fighterama in
2002. In the picture below the
article from Bikers News you can
see how it was presented the
first time (black with polished
fueltank).
After building
some Monsterframes (my guess is
eight or so) they build a
frame for a CBR1100XX in 1998.
There was only one frame build.
In the UK there are some rumours
that there is yet another frame
like this (never seen though).
The frame
was old to Germany to someone
who had no taste at all:
But luckily in
2008 they sold the frame to
Felix an he made a very
beautiful streetfighter:
Another
project done in these years.....
Projekt
V-Max Martek
2003
But in
2003 Martek went bankrupt. The company
was sold to Alan Wills and
named it "Dragtubes...in the
Martek-house" or "Trick
Tubes". If this company
still exists is unknown but
probably it is bankrupt too. The
reason why Martek went bankrupt
was due to the employees who
worked for themselves and also
the management did like to spend
money one expensive boats and
cars instead of investing it in
research an further development.
It's a bloody shame!
The last
information is that Mark has
worked at Castrol Honda and has
later started another company
(not motorcycle-related). He
also does make tailor made
frames but it takes ages to get
them finished and the advise is
not to pay him when delivered.
Keith (the welder) is said that
he worked for Kenny Roberts.
In the time they
went bankrupt, there were 5 or 6
contracts with Lenis in Germany
to build frames. Keith went to
Martek with those contracts to
Spondon to get the frames
delivered to them. One frame
they build from one of the first
Monsterframes welded by Keith.
This is my frame now.
Lenis in
Ennepetal (Germany) wanted to
sell the frames in Germany and
other countries. He got TUV
on the Martek frames (I have a
copy of this report). But this
company also doesn't exist
anymore. Thomas Leniger (owner
of Lenis) has started a new
business in Ennepetal under the
name LE Zweiradtechniek and
repairs bicycles, mopeds and
motorcycles. When he had the
dealership Lenis had a lot of
problems to get his frames and
had to wait up to one and a half
year for one single frame!
It is not sure but
the estimation is that there are
approximately 35 Martek-frames build and
that's why it is a very exclusive motorcycleframe.
2009
I found Mark in
the UK, the founder of Martek. He
claims the story written above does
not have all the rights facts. I
asked him to give me his side of the
story. That was no problem, but . .
. . I'm still waiting for months
now. (I've send him several mails
and he always reply's he will get
back to me)
Future
Gavin from Gia
Engeneering has recently (2009) made
a Martek look-a-like called the G-Tek.
It really looks good and it seems it
is also in very good quality. So if
someone is looking for a Martek
look-a-like, then it is still
possible to get your own (although
it isn't original):
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