Ok, thought I'd share an experience you guys might find interesting.

I was working the Bountiful, Utah parade for the Sheriff's office last year while riding my DS650 Baja and this guy on some wild-looking one-off motorcycle stopped over to chat with me. He said it was a special bike built for the Secret Service. It kinda looked weird is all I knew. Had some BMW appearance to it, but it was just different than anything I've seen with no badges (brand name) on it. He said that Harley Davidson had sent it to him to test it and send them back his thoughts... I started thinking that this guy was a little bit "off his rocker" at this point. Then he pointed to my DS650 and said "how do you like that, I designed it." I said, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... I like it a lot... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img] Thinking to myself, this guy really is <u>WACKED!</u>. So I had to confront him, I couldn't take it anymore than a few minutes... I said, what do you mean you designed it? He said, Yes, I designed it for Bombardier, they asked for 3 plans for 3 different versions, and I designed 3 different versions of the bike and they decided to build that one there, which I thought was their least likely to build version of the bike because I thought it was too big... All I could do is just kinda try to decide if this dude had just escaped from the mental hospital, or if he was straight up. I was very sceptical, and I was analyzing him to the hilt as our long conversation went on, I finally decided that <u>HE REALLY DID DESIGN THE DS650!</u> I was talking to Frank White that owns and is the top engineer for ATK motorcycles. www.atkusa.com Wow, interesting conversation! This guy wasn't wacked at all, he was telling the truth totally, and what an interesting life he's got. Here's a pic of Frank White Frank engineers for BMW, Harley, Bombardier, and many, MANY other manufacturers that you'd never even think of... and he builds bikes specifically for law enforcement like the Secret Service, FBI, Police, Sheriff, etc. etc. etc... His facility is right next to where I was that day in Bountiful, UT in the neighboring city of Centerville, UT. He flipped me a business card and said I could stop by his facility anytime and check things out. I've still not done that, but I'd still love to. Frank says he engineers the same engine that the DS650 has in it, into many other bikes, usually special application bikes like for the Secret Service etc. for reliability and other reasons. Check out the ATK site, that new 700cc bike is pretty cool. Frank is a cool dude... it's not every day someone talking to you says, "Hey, like that bike? I designed it." I'm impressed. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Scott Willis
Ogden, UT

 

If you browse the ATK site, you'll see this article with a better pic of Frank that I should have posted on the original post.

Here is the article --&gt; ATK article from their site

Scott

 

Ya I met frank about 2 years ago, DemonDs and I were feeding him some new Ideas on a couple of machines he was prototyping. I've been to his facility ( ATK) and seen some very interesting machines and motors. He asked me not to make any of the specifics common knowledge here and I've respected his request. He's a good guy to know. He test some of his machines at the dunes.

 

On the cover of the March 1990 Dirt wheels is a picture of a Project quad that Dirt wheels says is theirs but they got the rolling chasis plus a rotax electric start engine (605) from ATK, provided the people to make all the extra little pieces, assemble it and test it. Dirt wheeels rounded up an axle and brakes, tires and wheels.
All that and you get a bike that is the original prototype of the DS. I saved this magazine for that article and that bike is the reason I ordered one of the first DS's.
I'm sure this concept was kicking around in peoples minds at ATK for a while. I always wondered about the connection to the DS with ATK and I knew they used Rotax engines so your story fits the pieces together. I'd love to go to their shop.