page 25 2013 Tommi Ahvala Feature Interview
After the K-roo you then started riding the Fantic section which was black prototype?
Yes the prototype worked really good. Unfortunately the production bike wasn’t nearly as good as the custom bike I had built. Everything worked really good actually. At the beginning of 97 they developed the aluminium framed bike and I remember the first test we did with it I jumped down a step which was a little less than 2 feet tall and the bike got about an inch and a half longer so the frame was stretching. The designer said “it’s only an inch and a half, that should be ok”. I sad “that if I five on these steps in an event I will add about 10 inches by the end of the day, so what do we do then? “ha ha ha. To make it stronger they built it heavier and heavier and it wasn’t that good and at the same time the company was running out of money and I think Fabio wasn’t getting paid, the usual story so he didn’t come to the first world round and I remember we broke our foot pegs and actually the Lampkins gave up an old set. A lot of guys pitched in and gave me handlebars, levers, but of course I felt that this wasn’t the way to go so then I started to look for alternatives. Luckily Honda France and Honda Europe were kind enough to put some kind of deal together to help me out with Montesa , that why I started to ride the French Championship. I got the bike and help from them as well, so it still worked well
Yes the prototype worked really good. Unfortunately the production bike wasn’t nearly as good as the custom bike I had built. Everything worked really good actually. At the beginning of 97 they developed the aluminium framed bike and I remember the first test we did with it I jumped down a step which was a little less than 2 feet tall and the bike got about an inch and a half longer so the frame was stretching. The designer said “it’s only an inch and a half, that should be ok”. I sad “that if I five on these steps in an event I will add about 10 inches by the end of the day, so what do we do then? “ha ha ha. To make it stronger they built it heavier and heavier and it wasn’t that good and at the same time the company was running out of money and I think Fabio wasn’t getting paid, the usual story so he didn’t come to the first world round and I remember we broke our foot pegs and actually the Lampkins gave up an old set. A lot of guys pitched in and gave me handlebars, levers, but of course I felt that this wasn’t the way to go so then I started to look for alternatives. Luckily Honda France and Honda Europe were kind enough to put some kind of deal together to help me out with Montesa , that why I started to ride the French Championship. I got the bike and help from them as well, so it still worked well
Tommi's late 1994 Fantic section
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
This machine is in very good condition.
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
Tommi's bike had a carbon fibre seat unit for greater strength whereas the standard bike would have a plastic one.
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
The early days of the LED clocks on trials bikes. They rarely lasted more than 2 trials :)
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM