Thursday, January 21, 2010

Imagine a super modern Royal Enfield

A Royal Enfield UCE motor is shown wrapped in an attractive super modernistic motorcycle in this Wakan concept by Oberdan Bezzi. You can read (in Italian) his description of the motorcycle he imagines on his blog, Motosketches.

Wakan, the creation of Frenchman Joel Domergue, is a very expensive (and powerful) motorcycle with an immense S&S V-twin. Domergue told Cycle World magazine that he wanted the Wakan to be like a 427 Shelby Cobra of the 1960s: a delicate European chassis around a brutish American engine.

Bezzi writes that he finds the Wakan beautiful, but a show-off. Like the Cobra, would you really drive it much? Around town?

So Bezzi turns the Wakan concept upside down; now it is a svelte European body enclosing a far less intimidating Royal Enfield 500cc single (the S&S V-twin is 1,600cc). The Wakan remains small and super light and the Royal Enfield UCE motor actually looks muscular in this setting. The delicate frame really shows the motor to advantage.

Bezzi imagines that the result would be more rideable and affordable. Wakan might use such a motorcycle to expand its range, he suggests.

Any of the hand-made Wakans would remain out of my price range. But, since we are exercising our imaginations, let me imagine that I could consider it.

No. The Royal Enfield UCE motor is already a big step into the present. If you remove the vintage-style bodywork of the Bullet, the past I like to cling to is gone.

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