"Big Foot" of course was the worlds first largest pick up monster truck, so naturally a monster bike should be called "Big Toe" 

Big Toe was built by Swedish Engineer Tom Wiberg. Pictured below standing next to his creation.

Big Toe is powered by a 1975 V12  5.3 Litre E Type Jaguar engine.

This single overhead cam engine has 2 valves per cylinder and  produces 300 HP, while  45mm twin choke Weber carburetors combined with a bespoke stainless muffler system deals with the exhaust and all this gets the bike which weighs 1645Kg's up to 100 kph.. about 62 mph.

The Jaguar V12 engine takes up a lot of space underneath the riders seat. Visible in this photo too is the  huge fan needed to help the engine cool. There are also 3 oil coolers and 2 water coolers keeping temperatures as low as possible .

The bike is 15 foot 6ins long, 7 foot 6ins  high and 4 foot wide.

The overall bike looks impressive except for the big stabilizers that remind me of my first bike as a baby boy.

The big stabilizers at the rear of the bike however are there ( not surprisingly ) to stop the bike from falling over, not only would the rider be in for a six foot drop to the ground with 1.5 tons  of bike coming down on him but it would need a forklift truck to get it back on its two wheels again. These stabilizers can be raised at the press of a button if the owner dares !

I would like to see this bike ridden without them altogether though, if things got bad maybe an ejector seat would be the answer :)

Some Technical Points.

The bike is hydraulically driven as opposed to a chain or prop shaft drive. The front wheels are also hydraulically steered and the photo below shows the steering arms in close detail.

The bike is fitted with hydro-pneumatic suspension that gives a smooth ride on this behemoth and a Kenwood 500 Watt, 10 inch Bass, quadraphonic speaker system plus CD-changer is also  incorporated for extra comfort !

The "dashboard" on Big Toe is fully computerised and utilises an electronic box from a wood processing machine, this handles all the hydraulics also a remote control is connected to all the functions.

The Firestone 18-4-43 tyres are the biggest ever fitted to a bike. two hydraulic transmission pumps are used to operate the bikes steering and another two for the suspension and stabilizers.

The Project

Tom Wiberg started the project to build the bike in 1992 when he started off by constructing the wheels, by 1993 he had made the rear frame assembly along with the successful fitting of the rear wheel hub onto the hydraulic arms.

By November 1993 most of the frame work was complete and into 1994 the big tyres were finally made with rounded off  edges just like the tyres on a normal sized bike. By September 1994 the frame and engine were ready along with many of the hydraulic parts. Reference to the gearbox Tom Says this: " I had to build many of the parts for the transmission myself....The gearbox is made from a solid block of aluminium."

By June 1996 the second hand Jaguar V12 engine to be fitted was fully restored and finally installed into the bikes huge frame, and by November 1996 the bike was ready for its first trial. 

Tom remarked that all went well with the initial test, the engine ran smoothly and all of the hydraulics worked properly, it was a success ! Work continued and  from 1996 onwards the fibre glass shell was constructed and the bike was eventually finished with nice neat paint job in 1998 after a total of 3000 man hours.