Welcome to tornado developments

Tornado Development was started by Trajan Grobler (TG) in 1991 originally as a Fitment and Tuning Centre for Yoshimura Equipment that was imported by TD Agencies.

TD Agencies (Trajan Grobler and Dirk Du Plooy) today is the oldest Yoshimura Distributors in the world. Trajan Grobler originally traded under the name TG Services as a tribute to his mentor Trevor van Rooyen (TVR Services) where Trajan learnt Dyno tuning, engine building, gas flowing and other skills.

The business soon developed into building its own motorcycle, a replica of the Yoshimura Tornado of the late 1980’s. We build and sold around 14 Tornado bikes which were based around the first oil cooled Suzuki GSXR 750 and 1100. Trajan scoured the world for parts, a Seat from Europe, fairing from Japan, tank from the UK, – these parts were then made locally. We also build the first 1400 Hyabusa’s and 1600 Hyabusa’s in South Africa, 12 x 1400’s and 3 x 1600 were build. We also build 3 Yoshi X1 Hyabusa’s.

The TL 1000’s became an incredible successful race bike in the hands of “Noel Haarhoff” and “Steward Mcloud” in the late 1990’s, the development on this twin resulted in the Suzuki TL 1000’s winning both “Battle of the Twins” and “Superbike Championships” in the same year in South Africa. Beating the Ducati, GSXR’s,CBR’s and ZX9’s.

Whilst development of the TL went ahead we also developed our own range of Tornado suspension right here in South Africa, it started out as a rear shock for the Tornado TL 1000’s race bike to replace the stock rotary damper, rear shock and the front suspension was re-valve and re sprung with Race Tech and or OHLINS components. The offset was changed to stabilize the TL chassis as we running
a 21° steering angle. Trajan also became involved in tuning the whole Suzuki GSXR 600 Super Sport bike for the Mcloud brothers using Yoshimura parts. Brett Mcloud won the SA National Title in the 1998 and Steward in 2000.

All this involvement on race preparation, engine building, turning a suspension work made Trajan a much sought after person in the local Motorcycle World.

In 2007 Trajan was injured in a racing accident and became wheelchair bound. A Lot of our clients sold their Superbikes and became Cruiser Riders. We developed a range of Cruiser exhaust Systems and a whole range of parts for notably the Suzuki Boulevard VZR1800 R or M109R as it has become known. In around 2008 Trajan started riding a Yamaha R1 that had been modified so a paraplegic could ride it. Look under Project Bikes for various modification to bikes for handicapped riders. The business has expanded further making custom exhaust systems, our own range of brake discs, cruiser and other bike screens, as well as a range of machined, fabricated and other special parts.