Levis Is Back In The Game With A V6 Cafe Racer, Production Starts 2018
They used to be one of England’s leading marques in the 1900s until they disappeared (or ‘ghosted’, in colloquial terms) from the industry just after the Second World War and they have not resurfaced since.
No, not the one where you buy your jeans at. The one that manufactures motorcycles.
Lucky for you, we are the bearer of good news.
Levis (pronounced ‘Le-Viss’), not to be confused with ‘Le-Vize’ the clothing brand, is returning to the motorcycling scene with a new and improved V10 cruiser-turned V6 café racer. They are currently in the advanced prototyping stage with a goal to start production as early as next year, along with full Euro 4 homologation. It is currently priced at £52,000 which is about SGD82,981 with only six bikes to be produced in the beginning. Ultimately, though, they are aiming to produce 52 units the second year. And while the launch is next year, they have started taking orders here - levismotorcyclecompany.
The Birmingham-based firm started with two-stroke models way back in 1911, one of which was a 247cc machine that it won the Lightweight 250 class within the 1920 Isle of Man TT Junior race and another in 1922 before adopting the slogan, “The Master Two Stroke”.But their two-stroke models were not the only ones to experience success. The four-stroke motorcycles they built in 1928 onwards also won championships. Two such notable models was a 346 cc with a slide valve single was ridden by Percy Hunt and a Levis OHV 598cc bike steered by Bob Foster in various trials and motocrosses. The last we saw of the British motorcycle manufacturer was in 1946 before they vanished into thin air and our minds wiped of any memory of them. Until now, that is.
We heard the news earlier this year that automotive designer Phil Bevan acquired the Levis name as well as the rights to the Connaught V10 engine. With Steve Kirks as Head of Design, they managed to turn the very first bike of the classic brand into a rejuvenated V6 café racer.
Bevan said he was inspired to make a motorbike after realizing that they had a two-liter V10 engine that was only 13 inches across the cylinder head. Now, it is a 1200cc V6 engine.
Its modular shape allows it to be changed to create a V-twin, V4, V6, V8, and V19 with a narrow 22-degree V-angle that enables single block construction while the plates in its block are interchangeable to a wet-stump two-stroke or a two-stroke diesel. To adjust the character of the delivery, the block can be altered along with the pistons and con-rods.
With its 130bhp and 140ftlb of torque, Bevan said that it will be “lively to say the least”.
Most of it was made in-house: the Hossack-style front-end made out of billet aluminium, wheels, gearbox, swingarm, and even the ECU, ABS and traction control systems were all made by the Levis team.