Fritz W. Egli, (born June 30, 1937 in Zurich) is a former Swiss motorcycle racer. He is known as a motorcycle frame specialist, and engine tuner.
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Egli founded his motorcycle speed shop in 1965 and one of his first vehicles included a Vincent Black Shadow,[1] with what was to become his signature large diameter central tube which won a 1968 motorcycle hill climb championship. He went on to become famous for his frame designs for the large Japanese motorcycle engines of the 1970 years, especially the Honda CB750 Four and the first big four-stroke motorcycles of Kawasaki. Today, he builds frame for the Yamaha V-Max and others.[2] One of his most legendary motorcycles, the MRD1, was based on the Kawasaki Z900, powered by turbocharging and nitrous oxide injection with a power of over 180 hp and a theoretical top speed of 297 mph. He went on to develop a 1,360 Kawasaki turbo-charge engined motorcycles with enough power for) over 400 mph.[3]
Egli took the Japanese engines, enhanced them and increased their power, then he built them into their own frame designs.[4] The main backbone pipe of his designs are about 12 cm in diameter and they use straight pipes exclusively, a design taken from the Vincent motorcycle. Egli motorcycles have a devoted community that come together at annual meetings.
Today Fritz Egli is a well-known importer of the Indian Royal Enfield motorcycles from Madras in India[5] which he also revised and improves to create the ultimate "Egli Super Bullet". The basis for this bike was an Egli central tube frame, constructed from nickel-plated chromium-molybdenum steel, and an engine completely redesigned with a longer stroke crankshaft (105 mm), special main bearings, dry clutch, timing belt primary drive. 36 mm Keihin flat-slide carburettors were added to provide an output of 40 hp (30 kW) from a 624 cc engine fed via an electric pump.[6]