Langen Motorcycles – "a modern 2-stroke and much more"
By Ben Purvis
When you ask GBP £28,000 (approx. € 32k) plus VAT for a 250 cc twin, it's clear you're not aiming at the mass market - and in some ways that's the most fascinating aspect of new British brand Langen Motorcycles.
It is a company that wants a personal relationship with each and every customer rather than simply more and more sales - one-on-one customer service is part of the package.
Not that the firm's first offering isn't interesting in its own right. After all, the idea of a high-performance two-stroke street bike is as long forgotten as the millennium bug, and conventional wisdom would suggest it's a format that can't hope to achieve modern emissions targets.
Yet that is what Langen is offering, basing its handmade creation, simply called the Two Stroke, around a new V-twin from Italian firm Vins Motors.
Started by former Ferrari engineers, Vins' engine uses direct fuel injection to add petrol to the combustion chamber after the exhaust port has closed, preventing the usual 2-stroke problem of unburnt fuel escaping into the exhaust. It also has an additional injector that squirts oil into the crankcase, the ECU judging the perfect amount depending on revs and throttle opening.
Vins is hoping to achieve Euro 5 emissions standards with the engine eventually, but at the moment Langen is to use the UK's Single Vehicle Approval rules to individually register each bike. The first 100 bikes will be made like this, and be limited to UK customers, with a further 150 planned for international markets - if there is the demand and if the engine does get Euro 5 approval. This second run will also need a quieter exhaust and ABS, both lacking on the initial UK-spec models. Despite a mere 249.5 cc capacity, the engine manages 75 bhp and 33 lb-ft of torque, not hitting its red line until 14,500 rpm.
Langen is the brainchild of former CCM chief engineer Christofer Ratcliffe, so it's no surprise that the bike's tubular frame and handmade style bear some similarities to the CCM Spitfire models. However, the Langen is a much higher-spec machine, as befits its price. The frame is aluminium, not steel, and virtually every other metal part is CNC-machined from billet aluminium.
The result is a weight of 114 kg, although since every example will be tailored to its owner's desires, from colour to the position of the bars and pegs, there's likely to be some variation between individual machines. Öhlins forks and twin K-Tech shocks complete the spec, along with HEL brake calipers.
