Quick, name the last motorcycle manufactured in Denmark, if you said Nimbus, pat yourself on the back, and though they do have their followers, Nimbus hasn’t been building bikes since 1959. Uffe Lauge Jensen figured that was long enough and he decided to once again add Denmark to the list of countries turning out 2 wheelers. Easier said than done. Denmark didn’t have any laws or regulations in place for doing this, you could import bikes and sell them as a dealer but there was no procedure for manufacturing them. Well, it just happens Uffe Lauge Jensen is a bit stubborn, a good thing when you run into this sort of challenge. The end result of his determination is the first Danish type endorsement for a motorcycle since the Nimbus, an air cooled, Euro 3 certified motorcycle, produced in Denmark. Cool.
Jensen has built many custom motorcycles over the years, starting out long ago rebuilding a Nimbus, but he decided to take the next major step and begin manufacturing high end custom V-Twins for Danish and international buyers, with certifications in place that would allow the motorcycle to meet emission standards everywhere.
The bikes will certainly be luxury items with prices starting out over $90,000. In this economy, that’s a pretty high hurdle but if he managed to complete the process of getting type certification to begin production, he may just be persistent enough to keep the company moving forward. I’ll be rooting for him.
For the time being, the motorcycles will be built in a small workshop in Gedved near Horsens.
Thanks to both Kim and Flemming for the tip!
Link: Lauge Jensen
Chris says
So who actually makes the engines? The site doesn’t really shed any light on it, other than to say it’s a roughly 1800-cc V-twin built “in cooperation with one of the largest engine manufacturers”. My guess, based on that statement, would be S&S, since I doubt H-D would welcome the “competition” (a term I use very loosely here). Guess there isn’t any real reason he couldn’t be buying Japanese crate motors either, though…
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Todd8080 says
Call me a cynic, but the new Nimbus seems to the original Nimbus what the new Indian is to the original Indian: an apple labeled as an orange.
kneeslider says
Todd8080, That’s not a new Nimbus, it’s a Lauge Jensen, a totally new company. You might want to re-read the post and check out their website.
Lohmann says
A Danish newspaper article states the engine as an Ultima with the fuel injection developed by Lauge Jensen and a Californian expert.
The price stated by kneeslider seems to include Danish tax and registration. Without taxes price is something like $48.000 (based on their website), still not a bargain…
Personally I think the price is too high, and I don’t fancy choppers, but knowing the strict Danish authorities, I really do respect Lauge Jensen for getting the type endorsement.
Lauge Jensen supposedly invested close to $600.000 in the project!
Eddie says
Just what the world needs. Another harley clone chopper.
martin says
I am from denmark!
Nimbus was / is the greatest… this is just silly….
David says
If only they had made another crotch rocket clone
steve w. says
I can see where if this is already on the other side of the pond it may have it’s market. There is still a lot of money out there to buy toys but if someone really wants to be a company and exits for the long term then they need to figure out how to build motorcycles that are competitive in price to what we see as Production motorcycles. Until that happens they are just custom motorcycles in the market like all the rest of the so called clones. To be fair though I will say that there are some “clone” motorcycles that are better than what is made by many of the considered Production companies. You also see them everyday, someone has so much money stuck in a Production motorcycle trying to make it into a Custom but never getting there. I wish this new company luck as there have only be a couple that have had much success at this point.Now in retrospect, does any of this make any sense?
Jimmy says
big deal another over priced harley chopper clone! just what the world needs european version of the tuetels
John says
Why do you haters insist on commenting on bikes you don’t like? This guy obviously saw that there are enough people in Denmark to make this worth while and will make money while you will sit behind your computer screen and type away.
Hammerspur says
No bickering here… YES, yet another custom house cruiser/chopper, and YES it does seem an ill advised choice given the current business climes and seeming market saturation for products of this ilk.
BUT it does appear well made and clean as opposed to some of the pointless over-the-top licks featured on some bikes of this genre… although probably not sufficiently so to justify that price!
An updated rendition of the NIMBUS would definitely be more exciting but ONLY if circumstances (Danish manufacturing regulations… start-up costs?) didn’t require such a hefty admission fee to play.
Dennis says
It’s just Bang & Olufsen again, Danish, overpriced and offering nothing new, nothing original. Guys, it’s just another chromed up V-twin.
kneeslider says
The process he had to go through to get this type certified certainly took a lot of effort and considerable time. The economy changed and the introduction happened during a downturn, things happen. But that says a lot about the builder, too, he persevered when many would have given up after authorities told him it couldn’t be done.
With production status, he may also be able to change the bike into some other configuration if demand for this bike does not materialize. He has the really hard part out of the way.
Give him credit for what he’s accomplished. If you’re not a fan of this style of bike, fine, others like them a lot. Every time I see someone building, creating, producing and doing, I cheer them on. He’s a “doer.” I wish him much success.
Tin Man 2 says
Nice effort, Not my cup of tea, but Id think a Dane with the resources would love to own a home built Custom. People may not realize the big jump it takes to go from backyard builder to a manufacturer.
Jimmy says
It’s not that I’m not a fan of this type of bike, I love anything with two wheel’s. What he has done is assemble basically a kit motorcycle that anyone with basic skills and imagination can build. Esentially he is riding the coat-tails of others that created this type of bike from hand made piece’s,not catalog part’s anybody can buy and eighter assemble themselves or have someone else do that for them. As far as certifying it goes,give him credit? OK but why, what else would he do with it. Oh ya trailer it around and look at it.That’s all it’s going to see anyway at that price.
steve w. says
Oh yeah I forgot to mention that even though many don’t like these type bike the wife and I have rolled up (ride double) 90,000 miles on my 2 customs since 2003. So much for custom bikes not being rideable.
coho says
Calling it a clone because it’s not a Harley is I think, a very American view. Harley makes a big point of the “made here” part and that’s all fine and good, but HD didn’t invent the V-twin or the custom. If this bike was in the US it would be just another chopper, but in Denmark it’s “made here” and a Harley isn’t.
BILL says
WOW..another high priced V-Twin knock off just like every other one.. what a concept! guess its a good thing for us the foreign companies are not any more technoligicly advanced than we are.
C.P.T.L. says
I’m with Paul on this one: when I first checked out the photos and read the post, I thought, ‘we’ve all seen this bike before; nothing special,’ followed immediately by, ‘but good for Jensen, he’s got his motorcycle company and he’s building bikes.’
And he’ll certainly have a market for it or any other. Just as we tout ‘Buy American,’ there will be plenty of Denmarkers?, Denmarkians?, citizens-of-Denmark proud to buy a ‘home grown’ machine.
TruthScreamer says
Regarding Dennis’s comments above comparing this bike to Denmark’s high end sound systems producer Bang & Olufsen: your analogy makes no sense. Saying B&O, like this bike, offers “nothing new, nothing original” is the opposite reality of this cutting edge design firm’s products, with many examples literally being placed in modern art museums. I do agree that it’s clearly just another chromed up v-twin though, but anyone familiar with modern design would wish this bike would have been the B&O equivalent! That would have been a great challenge for something fresh to have been created.
kim says
A new Nimbus style motorcycle would have been great, but preferably built along the lines of the late Indian Four. The Nimbus was an engineer’s bike (but miraculously still came out looking ok), where function almost always won over form, while the Indian Four with art deco style fenders was a designer’s delight.
Imagine softail suspension, Telelever front end, a 100 bhp 2-litre straight four stuffed with electronic everything, those large fenders, modern lights that will burn holes in the back of cars, and an exhaust system somehow engineered to sound like a muffled V8. Add to this shaft drive and automatic transmission. Ok, in the end the only connection to Nimbus will be the four cylinders placed in the appropriate direction, the shaft, the name and the country of origin.
But of course it won’t cost a mere $90K.
davidabl says
To really be true to Danish spirit it should be more like a resurrected Nimbus…
and look a lot more like the Pollock bike from yesterday…but with some form of
front fender to deeal with Danish wet weather.
Boog says
Oh, Please…
davidabl says
Most danish design is very,very simple with the cleanest lines possible.
And very functional. Tthe Nimbus was more or less in this spirit, given it’s early 20th
century origins. The Lauge Jensen doesn’t look very “Danish” to me.
Maybe they should have begun with a Rotax mill instead of the S&S…
Todd8080 says
Paul, my apologies for misreading the article, but it does read like a Nimbus revival.
Coho, my definition of a Harley clone: If its motor is a V-twin that will bolt right into a stock Harley frame with no modifications, then it’s a Harley clone.
Paulinator says
I’m not into this genre of motocycles but this bike does appear well executed and of high quality. I had the pleasure of seeing a clean restored Nimbus recently. All kinds of interesting period technology and design detail. Lauge Jensen missed an “in your face” opportunity to develop a local icon into a bold new product that would stand aside from the dated and diluted American Chopper formula. I anxiously await what they do for their follow-up product.
Sabine says
I’f you check out Lauge Jensens website you’ll understand that, with the few resources this company had this is really a huge thing to accomplish. For Denmark this is special because we’ve never been really good at designing in this department, finally we’re going to see something else than our furniture from the 1950’s and 60’s.
And by the way; different buyers have already ordered over 1500 examples of this bike and the company started the 21th. of september 2009, i think that’s pretty decent.
mike says
Were do I rent a motorcycle in danmark