I officially present: the Nicholson 500 Pro-Link.
ABOUT THE ORIGINAL BIKE:
This is a Nicholson 500. Built by Nicholson Racing Products around 1984. This particular frame was personally fabricated by the owner, Nick Nicholson, for a local friend, owner of House of Buggies, Jim Bradfield. It was originally outfitted with a Big Red tank with the words “REAL BIG RED” painted on the side. It used a 1982 185S rear fender and seat. Its original configuration included the tubular “no link” Nicholson swingarm with FOX clicker shock and an 82 250R front end. A traditional Nicholson “500” exhaust header and mid pipe were fabbed up for its original configuration and topped off with a clamp on Supertrapp. It looked similar to the bike pictured below, aside from the tank. The bike pictured below belonged to Mark Weixeldorfer.
Jim Bradfield eventually sold the bike to a former Nicholson Racing Products employee, Arnie Shay. Arnie further modified the frame to accept a 1986 Honda 250R ATC swingarm, shock, and front end. Arnie fabricated a rear shock mount utilizing one of the original shock mounts for support. He also modified the pivot points of the frame to support the 250R swingarm pivot bolt and added suspension leverage. To clear the new shock mount, custom straight pipes were merged into an open megaphone. This exhaust was fabricated out of small diameter stainless tubing. Man… was it LOUD.