History

In 2002, STRIKE began producing pistons to suit the Yamaha KT100S and ARC SPEC100 in the highly competitive controlled classes of bitumen racing. Initially standard piston size increments (0.05mm) between 52.00 and 53.00 mm were manufactured, but the need for fine incremental piston sizes was recognised and pistons are now available in 0.01mm increments, greatly extending the life of a cylinder. This gives the engine builder the rare situation of being able to hone a cylinder and then order a piston to suit, rather than vice versa.

With time, the pistons were then used in the more open classes of racing in dirt and speedway and a range of big bore pistons were created, with sizes up to 55 mm. This created a wave of new possibilities and many custom pistons are now produced to suit exacting specifications required by the engine builder. Examples of these include: high ring land, dykes ring, custom indexed anti rotation pin and surface finish options.

In 2004 another piston was released to suit the Yamaha KT100J engine as used in bitumen and dirt racing, with AKA sizes ranging from 50.0 to 51.00 mm. This piston is also available in the 0.01 increments. Big bore versions were also made available with applications in certain speedway classes and also the Yamaha MT110 stationary engine that is sometimes used in the hire kart applications.

With the general recognition by the AKA of the benefits of clutches, particularly eliminating the hassle of push starting a direct drive kart, STRIKE developed a simple dry centrifugal clutch for the Yamaha KT100J engine. Production of this began in mid 2005.

In late 2006, STRIKE released a clutch for the KT100S short shaft engine. This was initially only available with a 10T sprocket. A few years later a 9T version was released as well as a version to suit the long shaft crankshaft.

In April 2007, STRIKE relocated to a larger premises in the industrial area of Wangara, in the northern suburbs of Perth. This provided room for a much needed expansion to accomodate more production equipment in conjunction with closer proximity to suppliers and other services.

In 2010 a lightweight aluminium brake disc rotor was released. This came in Ø 190, 195, 200 and 205 with a width of 12mm. This ws designed to fit on a common carrier with location diameter 100mm and 6xM6 mounting holes on 114mm PCD. Typically a Ø 200mm disc weighed 440gm compared to a regular iron disc of 970gm.

When the AKA commenced consideration of replacement engines around 2011, STRIKE developed and tesed and alternative cylinder for the very popular J engine. This featured a CNC machined iron liner that was shrunk in to the precision cast aluminium cylinder. A couple of these were tested by many engine builders across the country, all indicating the very close parity between them. This would have been available at a total cost of around $650 inc piston and ring. As such, it would (and could still) overcome the greatest issue associated with the J engine, the lack of power parity due to the compromised quality of the factory cylinder. STRIKE presented this to the AKA NKC. However the NKC rejected the concept calling it, derogatively, "a band aid fix". With the demise of the NKC in 2013 and the introduction of the board type structure, the topic of a "new" engine was put on hold until such time as the board had created the relavent committees so that such matters could be reassessed. In the meantime, STRIKE resubmitted the concept to the board as something to be considered for the future. As part of the submission, a petition of around 450 signatures in support of the STRIKE J cylinder was included.

With the KF and KZ classes gaining popularity, STRIKE became the Australian distributor for the Italian made Meteor Pistons and commenced delivery of these in early 2013. Subsequently piston for the IAME Leopard and Rotax Max were added to the range, these being initially homologated for use in AIDKA racing.