"In case you hadn't noticed, there's a lot to be said for the simple joy of racing a motorbike around an oval dirt track. While the noble sport of speedway may be the root of these things, the shale is "
Zaeta: Street Trackers with chops…
Need a bike that's good for potholed lanes, dual carriageway squirts and cool blasts around town? The answer might come from Zaeta
Artwork By Maxwell Paternoster, pics from El Solitario
There’s something perennially appealing about the street/tracker setup. And none so appealing as the Zaeta.
And El Solitario MC recently blogged about a very special creation that hones the sit-up-and-beg format of dirt track racing perfectly.
Zaeta is the brainchild of Paolo Chiala. He tells it like it is. “Zaeta was born in the seventies when, in Valpolicella, I used to ride around a field with a cherry tree in the middle on Piaggio Ciao moped, trying to drift the back wheel,” he says. “The joy of precarious balance is a primitive one and is linked to some of the earliest challenges of youth as far back as a child’s first steps. Then, in December 2008, a meeting with Graziano Rossi gave the project the spark of life. We spoke of a lightweight bike that could be drifted through both left and right turns and be used for training MotoGP riders. I was talking about a light, simple bike that could be ridden on the dirt or the road.”
The result was Zaeta. Beautiful, stripped down Short Track bikes that are road legal and very desirable – especially if you inhabit the rural corners of the planet.
If you’re the sort of rider who like to use their bike rather than simply look at it, it’s difficult not to see an adaptable bike like this to be bang-on. It can be ridden on the rough lanes and potholed byways of the world. Proper commuter thrills, these too – if you live in any sort of smoke. But rest assured these bikes will roar and reach like the best of them when you get out onto that dual carriageway.
Sure, your average enduro machine from someone like KTM or any of the mainstream Japanese manufacturers would do an awesome job – but they’re too purposeful in a way – and too covered in racing stickers and stripes and logos – all the paraphernalia of the off-road racing scene, to catch a proper stylish dash.
El Solitario are unveiling their own custom Zaeta at the Wheels and Waves/Sideburn magazine event in beautiful San Sebastien on June 6.
It’s going to be a proper do.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
