Wakan Motorcycles

click to enlarge & look at the cool gas cap filler

Joel Domergue is the man behind Wakan motorcycles. For those unaware, France has been a major contributor of beautiful, highly engineered motorcycles in distant and recent history.

(two good examples include: The French Dollar in the 30's with a narrow-angle v4 mounted longitudinally and the current, ultra-cool roadsters from Voxan.)

Mr. Domergue continues this excellence with a bike that combines hot rod torque & sportbike handling. The styling also accomplishes the very difficult task of combining older, proven looks with original, modern touches.













Wakan holds a patent for the airbox design.

Joel's previous motorcycle company has an admirable distinction of being the only European motorcycle manufacturer to be re-branded by one of the Big Four in Japan ! So, not only will you get hot rod looks and performance, but you will get solid quality and reliability. S&S provides the torquey motor....another nod to quality.

From the Wakan website, "Produced in France, many of these motorcycles (Joel's first company) were actually re-branded by one of the big-four Japanese manufacturers and sold as their own product under their own name in Japan, an exploit which no other European manufacturer has ever achieved."










Smart, low center of gravity for the fuel tank (see white tank behind the rear cylinder)

Aah, yes, Joel goes racing, too. Very nice megaphone ("crank the music up")

all of these photos can be enlarged by clicking on the picture and then clicking on the icon that will appear in the lower right corner.

Ducati 999 chassis & Big Twin

an American mutt

The fact that Ducati still uses steel frames at all levels of their bikes is killer. The trellis frame looks great & best of all functions very well, even with 260 hp in the MotoGP bike. I also have a strong interest in air-cooled, big torque engines.....enter the aftermarket, American big twin.

The picture assumes 2 considerable engineering challenges are handled:

• short, compact drivetrain
• bottom half of the engine is machined to include an engine mount at the crux of the "v", similar to the engine mount of the "L" desmo engine.

I can just hear some of the Ducatisti scoffing at this project. Aah, hell, that makes it even better.

I ran out of time with the free Photoshop trial offer, so I haven't finished the following yet:

1. front fender
2. front cylinder header should wrap around to the left-side and underneath the frame gusset, keeping the right side of the engine free of "clutter"
3. fuel tank is sketchy, I know. I sliced & diced the aluminum tank and tail section of Robert Stefano's bitchin' Ducati '969' custom to come up with that tank. See Acme Rocketbike for other great sport customs. http://www.acmerocketbike.com/
4. exhaust silencers are not complete, but the location is about where I would like them, one on either side of the rear tire.

Unanswered questions:

• will the 45 degree twin work as a stressed member even with the new engine mount? I would hope so with the traditional mount at the heads and at the swingarm pivot.
• re-work swingarm to accommodate right-side drive
• too top-heavy with oil tank at the base of fuel tank?