Janus is the most recent small scale motorcycle company from Goshen, Indiana in U.S.A., that have developed their first bike this year and will start production by end of 2013. This company was started by custom bike, performance parts and tools builder David Biek and his partner, classical architect, Richard Worsham. Their first motorcycle is a small, light, very maneuverable city bike called the Halcyon. It has a 50 cc, 10 HP, 2-stroke engine, designed and manufactured in Spain, a six-speed gearbox and a very stylish old school design that takes inspiration from record breaker’s from the 1920’s and 1930’s.
The Janus Halcyon is completely hand crafted with most of the components built in their workshop and surrounding leather and metal workers. The philosophy on which the founders started the company is that they wanted a completely new class of city bikes for young men and women to give them freedom of commuting with easy handling, a nippy drive, very simple uncomplicated engineering, with a design that made a statement and did not have the typical ‘Biker’ image.
The founders of Janus wanted their products to be extremely exclusive with extreme attention to detail with hand crafted high quality feel. They did not want their bikes to be copies of any particular bike or be a representation of a particular era, but products based on the simple, uncomplicated design philosophies of the bikes of the past that also lays the foundations for the future.
Along with simplicity and exclusive attention to detail from the long gone era, the bike boasts all the modern conveniences. The engine is a modern liquid-cooled unit and can be easily ungraded to produce almost double the power. It has low beam / high beam lights, turn indicators, speedometers and mirrors. Also it has both kick and electric start, and oil injection system and it does a top speed of about 90 km/hr. The Halcyon is completely road legal, has a proper VIN number, comes with proper registration and other documents and can be used on any city or highway roads (expect a few restricted freeways).
The cost of a fully specked Janus Halcyon is about Rs. 2,65,000/- and the base model is about Rs. 1,95,000/-. Though these bikes seem pretty expensive, they are highly exclusive and provide an experience of riding like no other bike. Also this may bring a new era in production bikes that are as highly exclusively built as custom bikes and have a design that is truly beautiful. The company has two more products in development, a 1960’s British inspired model and a 1970’s Grande Prix inspired bike.