Categories: Features

‘Flying Sikh’ A custom build based on the legendary RD350

The Yamaha RD 350, every motorcyclists 2 stroke wet dream. The RD 350 still gives a tough time to the new age motorcycles in terms of performance. Now image this monstrous engine placed in a chassis that’s light and is more stable and sturdy then its existing one. Sounds exciting doesn’t it?

That is exactly what Aseem Singh Pawar has done. A graduate from Institute of design Pune, with a dream to build his custom motorcycle.

Aseem and his two friends from the same institute, Sounak and Tejas shared intense love for motorcycles. Their conversations gave birth to their group name the ‘Inline3’. They pondered on the idea of building their first bike based on the KTM duke 200. Codenamed ‘Flying Sikh’ a symbol of their Indian roots a tribute to the famous athlete Milkha singh.

Flying sikh

But as graduation came to an end destiny called, as Sounak joined General Motors and Tejas continued his internship in Pune. Aseem, disappointed but not disheartened set out to achieve the dream all by himself.

After a year of agony, blood and sweat and tremendous support from his parents Aseem pulled off the project the ‘Flying Sikh’ single handedly.
Based on a U.S. RD 350 and a modified KTM trellis frame, The Flying Sikh started breathing on 24th of July 2015.

When we saw the bike, we were awestruck and had to get in touch with Aseem. It is by far the most well finished bike we’ve seen in a while. It has a whole list of performance parts added as well to complement its beauty. Following are some of them.

  1. US barrels (std size)
    2. Silicon coated Performance pistons
    3. Performance Crank Rods
    4. High performance Clutch
    5. Hydraulic Clutch
    6. VForce 3 Reed valve
    7. VM32 Carburetors
    8. k&n Filters
    9. DG Head
    10. CNC milled Clip ons
    11. Jim Lomas SS Expansions
    12. MZB Ignition (now called Powerdynamo)

The bikini fairing, the Single retro headlight and clip-ons gives the bike an exceptional cafe racer look. The body panels and the fairing is designed and built from scratch. The seating is aggressive and is meant for solo riding. The instrument cluster is old-school and retro. What does draw our attentions is the well-crafted exhaust with expansion chambers. Overall the bike has a mix of retro and futuristic look and we are quite impressed with the design and build.

 A wicked looking exhaust

We are awaiting more images from Aseem and hopefully we’ll ride and review the bike aswell.
While Aseem eagerly waits for his friends Tejas & Sounak to collaborate with him once again to complete the inline3 dream team, we wish him good luck and happy building.

Preparing the chassis
Tank
Fuel tank fabricated
Fuel tank ready & painted
Exhaust expansion chamber
Bare bones
Resting on a paddock stand
Rear three quarter view
Unique body panels
No rear tyre hugger, no fender, no pillion seat
Round shaped headlamp placed in a unique semi fairing
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Published by
Paarth Powale