Oberdan Bezzi seems to have a desire to repower motorcycles with Royal Enfield’s new engine. We saw his Bullet Sport last year where he put the single into a Honda design concept, this time he’s taken the 500cc single and fitted it into a Wakan in place of the S&S 1640cc V-Twin, the result is the Wakan 500 Superlight.
I really like the Wakan 1640 and Oberdan’s Photoshop skills are very high, the drawing looks good, everything fits together perfectly, but, … I think the 500 single is better suited to other duties. Interesting idea, though.
Link: Oberdan Bezzi
Related: Wakan 1640
AlwaysOnTwo says
Photoshop and cadcam renderings are barely interesting, no where near the same as shop-forged pieces of real machinery bearing the knuckle skin of someone’s fabrication effort. When it’s in steel let me know.
kneeslider says
It’s always gratifying to see the actual bike after the build, but these days, a lot of designs start on a computer screen to make sure all of the pieces will fit before the work begins. CAD drawings can be used to fabricate pieces for the build, too. Oberdan’s Photoshop work is just a way to explore ideas so we can see them instead of trying to imagine them.
Tin Man 2 says
Always on two, I share your views, Most of these designs never make it to steel. What they do is Devalue the actaul hands on builder, seldom does an actaul build “look” as good as one of these computer pictures. I think maybe the Computer generation puts more value on the idea than the reality. Yes the computer is a Tool, and as such is valuable, but its not a welder or grinder or a lathe. The Computer is an Electric Sketch Pad, Not reality.
taxman says
wow, some of you guys are pretty rough. personally i LIKE seeing ideas like this fleshed out on paper before it hits the pavement. my personal feeling is that taking the Wakan bike and putting a smaller engine in it is a great idea. but on seeing that engine in there i think it would look better with a different style small engine. just think if the builder who had this idea skipped this step and went ahead and plopped it in there only to find out no one liked it. now he’s got a bike he’s put time and energy into, and probably a bit of money, and it’s wasted. this is a way to test out how much people like the idea, look, character of the bike without the physical, and monetary investment. if it gets some good feedback then you go ahead and build it.
just my thoughts. i think the picture is very cool, and i like smaller engined bikes.
bblix says
taxman has it right. renderings are the quickest, fastest way to find out an idea is no good (or if an idea is GREAT). Sure, there is a big hurdle to leap from the screen to the road, but understand there is a big step simply putting the idea out there for review too.
I happen to be a product design engineer, so I deal with the transformation from sketch to real every day. It’s almost always easier to start with a target (like the rendering above) than it is to face a blank screen. Reality may force a design to deviate, but the end result is typically much more cohesive than it would be otherwise.
raducu says
Is there any hope left for the fact that we will ever see, touch and eventualy be able to purchase a sigle cylinder sport bike? Who remembers KTM RC4, Cagiva Mito500 or even Subaru sport bikes projects knows that non of these will come real any time soon not to mention the sexier air cooled single cylinder concepts. I´m becomng more and more skeptic about this and I think combustion engine will be obsolite before the prodction of such a wonerful sport bike
Paulinator says
My daughter does things with photo shop and paint that truly amaze me. I cannot dispute the creative content of computer imaging. Just watch Avitar.
As a designer I render a vision of what has to be built. The benefit of computer imaging is obvious – especially when I am trying to present my vision to others.
As a fabricator I build to that vision. I certainly get another level of appreciation when viewing projects that short-circuit the process and evolve directly from the craftsman’s mind (like that crazy V12 Honda!!!).
I suspect that this rendering has a scale issue with the engine.
vmaxshogun says
i actually like the idea an think it would be a fun bike for backroad commuting.
consider that the 1640 Wakan weighs 390#’s, with the RE engine in it and the resultant drop in weight and the fact that it would come off above the CG you would have a bike that has the same HP as a Ninja 250R but 30#’s ft. of torque instead of 13.
similarly it might be 350#’s or under instead of the Ninja’s 376#’s.
Scotduke says
There are a lot of tuning and performance parts for the stock RE engine. A guy I know has a Delorto 40mm carb on his 500 and he’s saving up for a big bore 600+ kit. There is a 700cc kit but while the torque is improved it doesn’t rev as well, pretty much as you’d expect. There are also flowed heads with bigger valves on the market (he has one but hasn’t fitted it yet – no point until his motor has the rebore) and different exhaust/muffler systems to replace the restrictive stock item. In the 60s one guy was racing flat track with an RE500 that used a Chevrolet piston and the bike won races – in a museum now. The look of this bike is right and there’s a shelf full of performance parts to make it that bit quicker.
Rick says
Surprised not to see a buell blast engine in it, isn’t buell hacking the latest fad? Perhaps I”ll go down to my [photo]shop and use File->Weld to install one…
frozen prairie says
Did Bezzi properly match the scale of all the pieces in that rendering? The engine looks too big to me, more like a 1000cc single.
Fred M. says
Modern sport bike chassis. Air cooled old-school engine. Yeah, ask Erik Buell how well that idea flies — and he was getting over 100hp at the crankshaft.
I own a Buell XB12Ss Lightning Long as well as a Buell 1125CR — both are enjoyable bikes. I am considering getting a Royal Enfield Classic C5. But for totally different kinds of riding.
Wuwei says
I think there is a small but enthusiastic market for single-cylinder road bikes, as witnessed by the apparent success of the Royal Enfields and the new Suzuki 250. And the many folks who tour on things like KLR 650s or BMW 800s. I personally would be more interested in a single-cylinder engine in a UJM platform. Keep it really clean and simple, but not deliberately old school. In other words, yes to fi, disk brakes, 17″ wheels, and probably water cooling. Minimal plastic.
Paulinator says
Put the Musket engine in it….Duhhh?
todd says
I’d want to buy one of these. I’d hope that the rest of the chassis was scaled down appropriately for the engine. I don’t think that those massive tires/rims benefit the bike in any way. Considering you may never see 100 mph or wheelies the forks could lose some mass (i.e. weight), the brakes could be smaller, and certainly the swing arm could be half its girth. All this would add up to a much lighter / less expensive bike. It would make more sense to add it along side the 1640 just like the Ninja 250 does not use the ZX10R chassis or components – or associated costs.
I understand this is one of the few leaps of imagination a person would have to take when looking at this type of rendering. Being a design engineer myself, not everyone appreciates hand sketches. Either a client expects something flashier (to justify the expense) or the design house can not rationalize the time and effort involved in a hand sketch this early in the stage. Photoshop is a first step, concept sketches are next, design renderings follow, then engineering models to be sure it all fits, an initial works-like and separate looks-like prototype is constructed, and finally (if all goes well) a pre-production sample is fired up. You need to start at the easy point and work your way into it.
-todd
Fred M. says
Clarification:
I’m very cool with the idea of a sporting single — just not with the Royal Enfield engine. There are a lot of very good, modern, high performance singles that would work great in an application like this one. For example, the KTM engines used in their enduro bikes would be superb for a modern sport bike. Light, powerful, refined — just the ticket.
FREEMAN says
I like it. The world needs more light singles.
Mark Braunschweig says
Using The bonneville motor would be the right amount power and weight along with the looks.
TR says
photoshop. i love the possibilities of things that will never happen. they keep me awake at night.
joe says
Nice looking bike, would also look good with a new air cooled Triumph Bonneville engine slotted in .
nortley says
Even though the engine and chassis don’t match at all, it looks good. I suppose if one of the Italian factories unearthed a stash of their old air cooled singles, they might come up with something similar.
laverda says
I think it looks great. The Bullet engine is probably in the same “stoneage” level of mechanical sophistication as the Harley clone and probably weighs much less. This would make it a much better proportioned machine.
Joe says
ok so yea, you might lose some weight by moving from a 1600cc engine to a 500cc engine, but how much of that do you gain back by having to add a frame? one of the coolest parts of the original wakan is that the engine IS the frame. I think thats part of why its able to be only 40 pounds more than a ninja 250, with an engine thats 6 times the displacement. The wakan is an extraordinary bike. This is an ordinary hackjob of a bike. No offense to the skills of the artist, I just feel like he’s throwing a mini cooper engine into a dodge viper and calling it cool…
Tin Man 2 says
Laverda, Yah, Stone age engines like the Harley, And the Corvette that kicks exotic butt all over the world. Electronic Fuel Injestion and Ignition control, Hydralic valve lifters and Stone age reliability. Real stone age stuff.
MARK says
Maybe in a chopper.
Rob says
Very nice looking bike. This maybe just a design drawing however it comes from the makers of Wakan not some Photoshop addict with nothing better to do. These people build bikes.
AlwaysOnTwo says
Paul, my sincere regards for informing me of the current state of motorcycle design efforts vis-a-vie Photoshop and CadCam prior to actual steel fabrication. I, like most of your readers, have been living in a cave for the past 20 years and currently can only access the internet via tin can and string.
Photoshop, however, is not the evolutionary replacement for steel-on-pavement, regardless of the obvious advantage of “seeing†before “creatingâ€.
Specifically, Photoshop creations are nothing more than gross and imaginary possibilities, not necessarily close to anything to actual fabrication reality. Avatar is a great visual experience, but my butt has to fly on real steel to get the thrill.
Let’s get serious.
I imported a few jpg’s to Autodesk 3D (yeah, I know how to use this stuff) and established just a couple of known dimensions from the Royal Enfield site. Graphed it in cm, not inches. I likewise from Mssr. Bezzi’s official site for this “creation†captured his renderings.
Let me sum it up quickly.
Nonsense.
There are dimensional markers on the engine case and head from both sites, there are dimensional markers of the exhaust pipe diameter, there are dimensional markers for the triple trees as compared to all others, etc., etc,
They don’t come close.
The image presented as the Wakan 500 Superlight simply could not be built to even slightly resemble the image presented.
Kudos to Mssr. Bezzi’s Photoshop skills, Zero Credits for something that could never be real.
The most egregious error, and draw, is the illusion of the power plant being larger than life in a stuffed frame configuration. It ain’t real.
For your efforts in bringing interesting “stuff†to the motorcycle community you have my appreciation. But to journalistically endorse a farse by the innuendo that someone has great Photoshop skills is somehow the equivalent of an actual creation??? You can Photoshop Angelina Jolie’s leg to a penguin, but the bird still won’t fly.
kneeslider says
@AlwaysOnTwo: So, the short version would be, “his measurements are off, it won’t work.” Correct?
“Autodesk 3D (yeah, I know how to use this stuff)”
If you would like to show us your Autodesk 3D work where you made the size comparison, let me know. Thanks.
I never would have guessed Photoshop could distort reality.
smithmotorwheel says
I just tried essentially the same thing as AlwaysOnTwo, (not with Autodesk 3D?, though), and it looks like a pretty good fit to me.
I may be biased since I’m an industrial design engineer, but I think the naysayers are missing the point of Mr. Bezzi’s work. I believe he wanted to see what an attractive single would look like in the Wakan frame. Now, if a person would just happen to have all the parts lying around to build this, then I could maybe see the argument for making it ‘real’ instead of creating something electronically first. Otherwise, this is how you find out if it’s even worth attempting to engineer a swap like this.
I’m a decent mechanic, and a passable welder and machinist. So, I spend a fair amount of time in the shop. But, I wouldn’t dream of beginning a fabrication project without at least having a rudimentary sketch of what I’m going to build first. It saves parts and time.
I enjoy the CAD renderings and PhotoShop creations on The Kneeslider and don’t want to see them end. For people that don’t agree, try to think of them as “measuring twice and cutting once” on a much higher level.
Bob says
Geez… photoshop is just an elaborate sketch. I like seeing designer’s scribbles and often those aren’t dimensionally accurate and are more aspirational.
That said, I think it makes more sense to make a single out of the S&S motor: custom bottom end and a third party transmission.
Erick says
yeah, it looks like the measurement is off if it using the existing wakan body with existing RE engine. but why not? maybe we can scale down the body a bit and put a beet of muscle on the engine.
I personally a fan of the original wakan design, would like to build one as soon as i have a v engine on my hand.
one more thing, why is everyone is into single cylinder? i’m so sick of it, in fact i would trade all four that i have for a nice v engine whether its HD or Motto Guzzi. But it’s just me on the other side of the world.
laverda says
Tin Man 2
I always wondered if I waited long enough if Harley would offer some real technological breakthrough and I guess they finally did: Electronic Fuel Injestion and Hydralic lifters. Wow! I don’t think anybody else has that. Maybe now they won’t be so slow.