Goofy handlebars are a must for the serious.
 

Weird.
tiny little tires too.

Anyone know what size motor they run?

^ The sport bikes, the motards or Quasimodo?

I notice that the rider is wearing some very large shoulder pads. I wonder if it's due to some upper body injury and having the bars like that is the only way he can reach the bars.

OK. I did a bit of digging. The bike is from the asphalt speedway Autorace racing program in Japan that is used for gambling.

Most of them use twin cylinder 600cc AR600 race motors built by Yamaha specifically for the track.

The riders are hidden from view and separated from their bikes until the start of a race. They race in virtual silence while the spectators wait to see how much cash they've won or lost!!! Autorace can trace its origins back to speedway and dirt track racing, but racing on dirt was banned in the 60s when the authorities took control of Autorace. The bikes can also use 600cc Suzuki SEAR engines (Suzuki Engine Auto Race) and the riders resemble dayglo Samurai Warriors.


Cheers, SB

I'm use to seeing the rider lean trying to keep the bike upright. These riders and leaning the bike and trying to keep themselves upright, weird!

I knew about the silent Japanese type bike racing but never seen the ape-hanger/clip-on combo.

Check out the heat affected zone on the bars in this clip. It does look like they go down to the chopper shop and pick up some ape-hanger and put the heat to them.

weird and cool all at the same time.

Looks like fun, first thing I noticed was the hockey pads (by the looks of it) on the rider... The bar setup gave him a much more upright riding position, he looked like he was sitting on a comfy chair when he was passing the gixxers

Ok that looks fun...