International co-operation

When Alan Arnott saw Swedish MX superstar Bill Nilsson’s Czechoslovakian ESO motor slipped in a British Metisse chassis, it sparked a desire in him to own one. He tells the tale of the build.

It’s a good-looking motorcycle.
It’s a good-looking motorcycle.

Have you ever had an itch you just had to scratch? Well, the ESO is one of mine. It probably started in 1964. I had seen photographs of the production ESO bikes but not really taken much notice as, to me, they looked ungainly and out of proportion. Then I saw the pictures of Bill Nilsson’s latest creation, the unit ESO Metisse. Here was a powerful, full size 500cc four-stroke machine with a really compact power unit that tipped the scales at around 260-270lb. I knew that I would have to build one sometime and in the late 1990s a number of engine parts became available and I was hooked. The build started in the winter of 2014 and was completed just before the Off-Road Show at Telford in 2016.

Read more in the Autumn issue of CDB

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