What do you get when you cross Mad Max, MacGyver and Bear Grylls? A Frenchman named Emile Leray, apparently. According to reports, this ingenious francophile became stranded in the Sahara desert, but escaped death by turning his broken down car into a motorbike.
Emile reportedly found himself cast away in the deserts of Northwest Africa after an ill-advised detour. His Citroen 2CV — not the most desert-worthy of vehicles — soon became stricken after breaking a frame rail and suspension swing arm, leaving the man in a hot, sandy, potentially deadly situation.
Rather than doing what most people would have in his shoes (freak out, walk around aimlessly and die) Emile got down to work, disassembling the busted 2CV and reassembling the bits that worked until he ended up with the most awesome dirt bike the world has ever witnessed.
According to the story, which is all in French, Emile was able to escape the desert on his Frankenstein bike, but upon being discovered by the military, he was made to pay a fine for having a vehicle that was unroadworthy and which no longer matched the description of its original registration.
Lizards aside, there are no credible witnesses to Emile’s feat, so we may have to take this epic tale with a pinch of salt. However, pictures of his Mad Max-inspired creation were apparently published in a past issue of 2CV magazine. Your guess is as good as ours as to whether they’re authentic, but they certainly do seem to depict some sort of Frankenbike that used to be a small car. And a half naked man in the desert.
You can read the full story, translated from French by our overlords at Google, by hitting this link. Pictures of the bike and Emile can be seen below. Let us know you believe a word of this most wonderful of taies in the comments below or on our Facebook page.
Source: Hack A Day
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