Herald Motor Company is looking to join the group of British motorcycles manufacturers with their all new retro roadster. The company being just three years old is planning to release their 400cc Chinese-engine powered motorcycle by the end of this year.
The company which is based in Cambridgeshire, England is currently importing complete Chinese bikes, which they then convert to their British-theme design of a modern retro roadster. However, the company is now designing their own frame, which will be built in the UK. Which means that the only borrowed part for them will be the engine.
“Being a British manufacturer has long been a dream of Herald’s MD,” explains Rob Croxall, Business Operations Manager. “We have been converting the 250cc for a while now and we want to up the British content. Eventually the plan is to build an entirely British bike, so producing our own frame is the first step towards achieving this goal.”
The motorcycle company is currently working on designing the aluminium frame and swingarm for the Chinese single-cylinder 400cc engine. “We have already sourced a Euro4-compliant engine from China, along with an ABS system, which we couldn’t find in the UK, but as many of the other components as possible will be British, including the seat and petrol tank,” said Peter Wickham, Herald’s Chief Engineer.
“The bike will be very light, which is why we decided to use air-cooling and not base it on the 450cc water-cooled Rottweiler prototype we showed at Motorcycle Live last year. Like the 250 it will be a platform bike, so we can give customers the option of customisation through items such as bars, tyres and seats, and it will have high specification suspension built by Racetek.”
Herald has set a target of releasing the new 400 at Motorcycle Live at the end of the year. The bike will go on sale in early 2017 at a competitive price.
Source - MCN
