steely wrote:
£8,000-£10,000 for a 34hp (28 at the wheel?) bike? No thankyou! They're very pretty, but...
I'd be surprised if they ever get into production. Over the years, there have been many expensive, beautiful, fine-handling big singles (anyone remember the Dark Star from the seventies?), which only really make sense if you live in the mountains.
Nice try, but they'd be better using the engine from a Yam XT or a KTM single to give it some go.
I have spoken at some length over the last few months to Ellis, one of the guys behind the Mac Motorcycle project. They are very nice guys, and are certainly serious about this as a full on business. Xenophya design are well thought of in the trade and have done some high profile work for Yamaha and others in the past (they even designed some Buell race fairings for us a few years ago, but they never made it to production because demand was too low for the costs involved) I think the only thing that may put a spanner in the works for Mac will be the supply of engines.
If Buell decide that they don't want to play ball then they will be back to the drawing board with another engine (Yamaha XTZ660 or Honda FMX650 probably). It will be a shame if they can't get the motors, and Buell must have a few hundred of the things laying around unused that they don't need any more
The air cooled blast motor is much closer to the original concept than either of the Jap motors will be, so lets hope they can get the necessary parts from Buell.
As for the 34bhp thing...that is a basic Blast motor. 50+bhp is quite common from these units and 60+ has been achieved. There are a few blast engined flat trackers still doing the rounds at a good level in the US, so don't discount it. So long as the bike is light then Bhp isn't the 'be all and end all' that we have been led to believe over the years.
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