Would you do 35mph on this thing!?

i wouldn't...that's a beauty build, but the front-end is way outta whack for easy-ridin' (in my opinion)
 
looks good for a bike show but not as a get around town fast machine to me.
 
As a show bike it's all well and good, but in practical terms that engine is wasted on that frame. Those kind of front-ends aren't safe for anything beyond walking speeds.
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:cool:Thanks for sharing this info. i was considering this bike. i like motored bikes where my feet can easily touch ground, like mopeds and motorcycles. in fact, my shoes end up as secondary brakes.:eek:
 
The easiest way to see what is useful is to compare to motorcycles.
People have been hot-rodding motorcycles for ~100 years now, and pretty much everything has been tried. The stuff you see done today is done because it works, and nobody puts that sort of fork setup on a street-use motorcycle.
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If you want to build a bicycle with a really-low front end, what you can do is go with a single-sided control arm & remote steering.
Here's one bicycle with it:
http://bikerodnkustom4.homestead.com/gallery355.html
Here's a motorcycle with it:
http://www.bikernet.com/bikebarn/PageViewer.asp?PageID=933

....ideally you want the pivot point's axis to be centered within the front tire's contact patch, just like a conventional forks' head tube axis would be. To accomplish that, the best way is to use a specially-made dished front wheel that's offest enough to allow the pivot point to ride laterally centered within the wheel.

The 1993-1996 Yamaha GTS1000 used a single-sided front end, although the motorcycle copied regular proportions overall:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_GTS1000
http://images.google.com/images?num=30&hl=en&c2coff=1&safe=off&q=Yamaha+GTS1000&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

There was also a GP racebike that had this setup for a year or two but I cannot remember the name or find any photos; I think it was a Yamaha too.

For bicycles (which go a lot slower than motorcycles) you can use a regular bicycle front wheel and either tilt the wheel away from the control arm, tilt the steering axis inwards at the bottom (so that it points towards the tire's contact patch) or a bit of both. This is not absolutely perfect but it is close enough to be safe to ride at bicycle speeds.
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WTF? those pedals would hit the ground, how could it possibly even move?
 
the text assoicated with the picture says the guy can adjust the front end so the bike will sit that low for shows. I'm assuming that adjusting it the other way would make it rideable!
 
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