Wasp Motorcycles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Motorcycle |
| Founded | 1964[1] |
| Founder | Robin Rhind-Tutt |
| Headquarters | Dunkeswell, Devon EX14 4RS, United Kingdom |
| Products | Motorcycle sidecars and frames |
| Website | Wasp Motorcycles |
Wasp Motorcycles is a British motorcycle and sidecar manufacturer that specialises in building competition solo and sidecar machines for motocross, trials and sidecar grasstrack,[2] as well as the Wasp 3 Wheel Freedom for disabled riders.[3]
Wasp first saw racing success in 1971, when it won the European Championship.[1] Wasp sidecars have been the winning chassis eight times in the FIM Sidecarcross European and World Championship.[4][5] In 1972, all of the top eight places in the European Championship were riding Wasp outfits.[6]
Wasp was founded in 1964 by engineer and off-road motorcyclist Robin 'Robbie' Rhind-Tutt,[6] who was originally employed by the Ministry of Defence as an engineering apprentice at Boscombe Down.[6][7] He designed and built a number of off-road motorcycle frames which he used in motocross competitions.[8] Other competitors were interested in Rhind-Tutt's frames and commissioned him to build specialist frames, so he decided to form Wasp Motorcycles Ltd. The company changed its name to Wasp Engineering Ltd in 1997,[9] but continues to trade under the name of Wasp Motorcycles.[10]
The company was based at Berwick St James, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, where Rhind-Tutt had been born and brought up.[1] Rhind-Tutt died in September 2019, aged 78.[11] Around that time the company was at Dinton, still in the Salisbury area;[12] in 2024 it opened on a business park at Dunkeswell, near Honiton, Devon.[citation needed]
A Wasp/BSA motocross sidecar outfit ridden by former world motocross champion Dave Bickers was used in the 1979 World War II film Escape to Athena, disguised to look like a German military BMW R75.[13]
Products
Wasp manufacture and modify sidecar motocross,[14] sidecar grasstrack ('side-car-cross'),[15] and solo motocross motorcycles.[16] They also produce motorcycle leading link suspension for sidecars[17] and fork conversion kits for road bikes to improve braking and handling, and they manufacture Métisse frames pioneered by Rickman Motorcycles.[6][10]