One of the nice things about buying a Janus Motorcycle is that none of this applies. We don’t charge assembly fees, destination fees, documentation fees, dealer prep fees, or dealer add-ons. In fact, we don’t have dealers. We sell directly to the people who ride our motorcycles, so the price you see is the price of the motorcycle.

The Price You See Is the Price You Pay

No dealer prep. No assembly fees. No documentation charges. Just honest pricing.

Surprise! Your Motorcycle Costs More Than the Price Tag. Ever notice how some motorcycles seem to gain weight before you buy them? Not physical weight—financial weight.

You spot the bike online. “$8,995!” Great! You tell your spouse. You rearrange the garage. You start shopping for a new helmet. Then you get to the dealership, where your motorcycle has somehow picked up an assembly fee, a destination fee, a documentation fee, a setup fee, a processing fee, and a handful of other charges that weren’t on the original price tag. If they could figure out how to charge you a “looked at the motorcycle too long” fee, some probably would.

The folks at the FTC have apparently noticed this, too. According to a recent RideApart article, many powersports dealers are concerned that regulators may start taking a much harder look at deceptive pricing practices and hidden fees. Good. Consumers deserve to know what something actually costs before they decide to buy it.

One of the nice things about buying a Janus Motorcycle is that none of this applies. We don’t charge assembly fees, destination fees, documentation fees, dealer prep fees, or dealer add-ons. In fact, we don’t have dealers. We sell directly to the people who ride our motorcycles, so the price you see is the price of the motorcycle. You’ll still pay whatever taxes, title, registration, or licensing fees your state requires because, let’s face it, the government has never been accused of leaving money on the table. But we don’t invent extra charges after you’ve already decided you want the bike.

That approach fits with everything else we believe. We spend an enormous amount of time trying to make our motorcycles simpler, lighter, easier to understand, and more enjoyable to ride. We eliminate unnecessary technology whenever we can. We focus on craftsmanship instead of complexity. Why would we make the buying experience more complicated than the motorcycle itself?

Buying a motorcycle shouldn’t feel like buying cable television service, where the advertised price bears only a passing resemblance to reality. Nor should it require the negotiating skills of a hostage negotiator. We think honesty is actually good business. Imagine that.

Selling direct also allows us to have a genuine relationship with every customer. We answer the phone. We answer emails. We build your motorcycle. We know who you are, and you know who we are. There isn’t a layer of middlemen standing between the people who build the motorcycle and the people who ride it. That’s not only more enjoyable—it also eliminates the need for pricing games designed to squeeze a few more dollars out of someone who’s already emotionally committed.

Maybe we’re old-fashioned. We certainly build motorcycles that way, with spoked wheels, analog gauges, and an emphasis on mechanical simplicity over electronic wizardry. It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that we think pricing ought to follow the same philosophy. Honest motorcycles deserve honest pricing.

Imagine buying a motorcycle where the price tag isn’t the opening bid. That’s how we think it ought to be, and we suspect if that idea appeals to you, you’ll probably like everything else about Janus, too.

-Mark Zweig

Ready to Talk Motorcycles?

Whether you’re just beginning your research or you’re ready to start a build, we’d be happy to help.

Browse our current inventory, configure your own Janus, or explore financing options. If you’d rather have a conversation, give us a call at (574) 538-1350. One of our sales consultants can answer your questions, help you compare models, and guide you through the build process.

After all, buying a motorcycle should be every bit as enjoyable as riding one.

The post The Price You See Is the Price You Pay appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.

And Why the Reisenduro Renaissance Matters

This is the second of a two-part discussion of the history of the off-road motorcycles, the scrambler, and Janus’ latest model, the Gryffin 450. To catch up on part one, click here!

Lucien Tilkens with an early Yamaha YZ using his rear suspension design

A Motorcycle Legacy of Adventure

Starting in the late 60’s Belgian engineering teacher, Lucien Tilkens, began experimenting with a new rear suspension design capable of handling the high power of a CZ400 belonging to a friend of his son. His solution was to triangulate the rear swing arm and connect it straight to the steering head with a long gas shock borrowed from a Citroën car. What he came up with was not only a more rigid chassis design (much like that of the earlier Vincent), but would prove to be far more significant: the accidental benefit of drastically increased suspension travel. At this time, the conventional paired rear shocks on racing motocross bikes had a maximum travel of around four inches. Tilkens’ design, however, allowed for almost double that travel with the possibility of even more. For a more detailed history of rear suspension and Tilkens’ development of the early monoshock rear suspension, see part two of our post on the Halcyon 450 rear suspension.

The production Yamaha YZ250B frame and rear swing arm

Yamaha eventually purchased the rights to Tilken’s design and used it on their YZ250B in the 1973 season, famously winning the 250cc Motocross World Championship. What took everyone, including the riders and designers, time to figure out was that it was not merely the increased stiffness of the frame, but the long travel suspension that allowed the bike to go faster in the demanding motocross terrain. The performance improvement was so dramatic that within a matter of months, every major motocross maker was frantically working to figure out how to increase rear suspension travel and stay competitive. In 1975 Yamaha launched the YZ250, the first production motocross bike with a monoshock suspension. Over the next 5 years, all major manufacturers had shifted to variations of the monoshock design and suspension travel had increased to almost a foot on highly specialized machines designed only for motocross racing.

The 1983 SWM Jumbo 350 trials bike

At the same time, the various other kinds of off-road motorcycles started to become more and more purpose-built for their respective types of riding and competition. Perhaps the most extreme example being trials bikes that were paired down to literally nothing more than a lightweight engine, two wheels, and a handlebar. No need for a seat, lighting, or anything else! So too, street machines of the era began to focus on improved handling, power, speed, and comfort for the particular requirements of modern street and highway riding. The 1950’s and 60’s saw the birth of the cafe racer movement, a ground-up push to transform standard models into something more like the purpose-built road racers of the era. By the 1970’s the first production 750cc models (setting aside traditionally larger displacement marques like Harley-Davidson) started to become available. Improvements in metallurgy, suspension technology, tire compounds, aerodynamics; overwhelming competition from the Japanese “Big Four”; and even more significantly, the expansion of the modern highway, continued to push the power and speed of the typical production motorcycle well north of the once mythical 100 mph “ton”. These changing priorities and improvements were often made at the expense of weight, complexity, and more general, multi-purpose rambling.

From Dirt Races to Dual-Purpose Machines

The industry began to settle into distinct design and engineering parameters that favored the increasingly narrowly defined use cases of street or off-road use, to say nothing of the different sub-categories we have mentioned. The gap began to grow between increasingly large and fast road-going machines and smaller and more agile off-road bikes. For example, there really were no motorcycles available at the time that could comfortably accommodate modern highway riding while at the same time allowing for adventurous travel down gravel roads, up mountain trails, or indeed anything without pavement. To allow for this breadth of use, riders resorted to stripping down or otherwise modifying their machines which in turn limited their road-going capabilities.

The BMW R90s

“Gelände/Straße”

By the mid-to-late 1970’s German manufacturer BMW had a problem. Their offerings, while tried-and-true and with a reputation for reliable quality, were beginning to suffer from a lack of development. Meanwhile, the Japanese brands brought an overwhelming new pace and excitement to the market with a multitude of models aimed at all categories and niches of motorcycling. Their rapid development and ability to specialize meant a seemingly constant roll-out of new products at unbeatable prices, both for on-road and off-road use. Attempts had been made by BMW Motorrad in earlier decades to break into the off-road segment, however, pushed by market demand, overall focus had shifted towards high-speed road use. BMW’s conservative model approach and reliance on their air-cooled boxer engine left them increasingly out of touch with the market with falling sales figures.

1979 BMW ISDT press pack cover

Around this time, Laszlo Peres, a BMW test engineer and avid off-road rider began tinkering with his BMW’s to make them better able to perform off-road. Then, in 1978, German motor sport authorities introduced a new off-road class that would allow for engines with a capacity over 750cc to compete. Peres, along with two other BMW employees, working without an official development order, decided to build an off-road competition entry. The result was an 800cc boxer engined enduro weighing just 273 pounds. Peres went on to ride the prototype to the runner-up spot in the 1978 German championship and caught the attention of press as well as BMW leadership. With this success the brand continued development and went on the following year to win the championship title as well as a number of medals at that year’s ISDT.

The 1979 works BMW team for the FIM World Enduro Championship. (Left to Right) Rolf Witthöft, Laszlo Peres, Dietmar Beinhauer, Kurt Fischer, Herbert Schek, Richard Schalber

The Rise of Dual-Sport and Adventure Bikes

Still the 800cc boxer was no competition for a lightweight single when it came to technical off-road riding. Although the big boxer was campaigned in trials riding on a limited basis, it was simply too big for ideal use. However, with the revolutionary new K-series platform still several years down-the-road, new BMW management jumped at the opportunity to use their existing boxer engine and tubular chassis in a new way that could drum up excitement and sales. This decision would prove to be one of the best decisions ever made by BMW Motorrad. What they had stumbled on was the missing link in motorcycling left by the industry’s focus on specialization. BMW unveiled the new G/S 80 model at the IFMA show in Cologne in September 1980. The G/S in this designation stands for “Gelände/Straße” or country/road, perhaps more familiar to the English-speaking rider as “dual-sport.” Although the production model would be watered down a bit from the degree of off-road focus for enduro racing, the larger engine provided ample power for thrilling highway touring with luggage, while the off-road capabilities demonstrated in actual competition gave the bike a unique new ability off the main road. This new model would give birth to a new category of “reisenduro” motorcycles that would go on to dominate both on and off-road.

In 1987, with the launch of the GS100, with the “S” in GS now standing for “sport”, the line (apart from the exception of the single cylinder “F”-series GS models) has continued to evolve into larger and heavier ADV bikes now at the 1,250cc mark. While it could be argued that these big ADV bikes are more at home on the highway than the single track, the GS still represents the benchmark for an entire category of riding that has breathed new life into the industry. In the years following the launch of the GS, most manufacturers got into the game with dual-sport or adventure lines from Triumph to Ducati and Honda to Moto Guzzi.

What Reisenduro Means

Reisenduro is another wonderful portmanteau combining the German “reise” for journey or travel with the romance language “duro” with its implications of tenacious endurance.

The author’s 1986 KLR650 (chassis #279) in its natural habitat

No story on the history of dual-sport motorcycles would be complete, however, without mention of that Jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none, the venerable Kawasaki KLR650. Where it could be argued that BMW stumbled into the dual-sport adventure category almost by mistake and from the heavier, road-going end of the spectrum, Kawasaki approached the problem very intentionally. Keeping in mind that the Japanese had dominated the 1970s with purpose-built machines in just about every category of riding, the origins of the KLR650 derive more from the off-road segment. The KLR began life in 1984 in 600cc form, but was revamped for its 1987 debut with an additional 50cc’s, electric start, liquid-cooling, and a total weight of 430 pounds. No dirt bike by any means, Kawasaki marketed the KLR as a “triple-sport” model capable of dirt, street, and highway use. Although this was mostly marketing hype, it is undeniable that the KLR was a machine capable of carrying a rider from gravel road to highway either on the way to and from work or while circumscribing the globe.

Why This Matters for Today’s Riders

Today’s adventure and scrambler-inspired motorcycles owe their lineage to these early Reisenduro machines. Where classic scramblers began as modified road bikes built for muddy trials and cross-terrain fun, reisenduro grew into purpose-built dual-sport and adventure machines capable of real utility for modern riders — whether on a weekend trail or a multi-day touring route.

Modern machines that draw from this heritage — including Janus’s own Gryffin 450 — connect us to that spirit of exploration, blending simplicity, versatility, and rugged character.

Janus Motorcycles and the Gryffin 450 — A Modern Interpretation

Whether we call this return to more well-rounded motorcycles a renaissance or a new category, the KLR with its big 650cc carbureted single-cylinder engine, wide aftermarket parts availability, and do-it-all credentials has become an icon for those motorcyclists who, as Arden Kysely, writing for Rider Magazine in 1989 said, “want to enjoy the country they’re riding through, not just blast through to check another route off the list”. In this sense then, we can recognize a motorcycle that returns motorcycling back to something that it had lost in its quest for specialization. My own love for the KLR650, of which I have owned two, has been a major influence on our philosophy at Janus and has carried through to the design and engineering of many aspects of the Janus model line. In this sense then, the new Gryffin 450 is the perfect platform for the rambler.

Design drawing for the 2017 Gryffin 250

It is for good reason that dual sport motorcycles now make up a huge segment of the market with a wide range of capabilities. From the more highway-oriented BMW GS1250 to the trail-ready Suzuki DR650, dual-sport riders are looking for adventure and are more interested in gathering experiences than in looking cool or going fast. This “reisenduro” category of motorcycles, like those old “clubman” models of the twenties, “scramblers” of the sixties, and the recently revived “street scrambler” category of the 2000’s, is a return to the thrilling reason we choose to ramble on these exposed, two-wheeled contraptions.

Janus engineer, Charlie Hansen-Reed, on the prototype Gryffin 450 following the footsteps of Laszlo Peres

As I have argued elsewhere, the technological drive for efficiency, comfort, and safety that has brought us heavier, faster, more comfortable, and feature-laden models is antithetical to the reason we chose to ride motorcycles in the first place. We ride to find a more direct means of interacting with the world around us and for the transformative experience that doing so has on us. We ride for adventure, for the things that happen to us along the way, not merely to arrive at our destination as quickly and comfortably as possible. Lighter weight, reliable motorcycles that invite rider interaction and provide access the greatest adventure are at the heart of what Janus seeks to offer. With the Gryffin 450, Janus now has a model designed squarely for this all-around category that fully embodies our philosophy of “rambling” and “reisenduro”.

The Gryffin 450 prototype in testing winter 2024

Key Takeaways — Scramblers, Reisenduro, and Adventure

• Scramblers started as road bikes modified for off-road fun and endurance. Return of the Cafe Racers
• Reisenduro represents a later evolution — blending touring comfort with genuine off-road capability. Janus Motorcycles
• Dual-sport and adventure bikes grew from this lineage and dominate modern rugged motorcycle use. Janus Motorcycles
• Janus Motorcycles continues this spirit by creating bikes like the Gryffin 450 that honor heritage while embracing simple, joyful exploration.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a scrambler and a dual-sport motorcycle?

A scrambler is typically a road bike modified for light off-road use, while a dual-sport (or Reisenduro) is designed from the ground up to handle both paved and unpaved terrain. Janus Motorcycles

Why is the BMW G/S considered important?

The BMW G/S from the early 1980s is considered one of the first true Reisenduro machines, combining touring comfort with impressive off-road capability. Janus Motorcycles

How does this history relate to Janus Motorcycles?

Modern Janus models like the Gryffin 450 draw inspiration from these dual-purpose roots, offering riders a versatile motorcycle with heritage influence and contemporary engineering. Janus Motorcycles

The post What Is a Scrambler Motorcycle? The Reisenduro Renaissance & Legacy of Off-Road Classics Part 2— Janus Motorcycles appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.

A lot of modern consumers believe that engine size is directly proportional to value. In this view the biggest engine should be the most expensive and the smallest the cheapest (we’ve been hearing this argument since we launched our handmade 50cc two stroke over a decade ago). Comment threads on articles about Janus (like the recent piece featuring our new Gryffin 450 on BikeEXIF are great illustrations of this.

For the most part, I can see and appreciate the point. If power is how we choose to measure a bike’s value (or how we’ve been told to measure it), then those with less power should be budget bikes. Many rider’s primary goal with their motorcycles is to go fast (or be able to go fast), to ride in extreme comfort, to have the latest technology, or to achieve a particular look. How well their motorcycle fits these metrics is a relatively straightforward means of establishing its value. Popular YouTuber, Yammie Noob, did a hilarious video on Janus last year that sums up this argument perfectly. Check out his video if you want a gloss of the major criticisms of our models.

The problem with this argument isn’t with the logic, it’s with the underlying assumption. Is bigger or faster or more technologically avant garde necessarily better when it comes to a motorcycle? It’s hard to deny the validity of this approach these days when it comes to planes, trains, and the practical automobile. However, I argue that for the purposes of distilling the sensation of riding a motorcycle, bigger or faster or more advanced is, in fact, not better. The real question that we have to ask is, “why do we ride motorcycles in the first place?” What inspires us to sally forth on two wheels into modern traffic, or onto rutted trails, both full of looming hazards and the very real risk of serious injury or death (as the owners manuals are keen to remind us)? It certainly wouldn’t make sense to claim that it’s safety, efficiency, or comfort.

Perhaps for some who regularly take their motorcycles above the proverbial “ton” (100mph), there is a need for considerable power and speed. For others, armrests and a cupholders, whips, programable ride modes, skulls, carbon fiber, or 8-inch wide rear tires are a necessity. Yet again, however, I argue that all these artifacts are at a certain remove—are a paler version of the vivid, visceral sensation that calls to us to don helmet and gloves and lose ourselves in the sensation of simply riding a motorcycle. Motorcycles have a strange power because they are one of the few machines that we can engage with as humans and which can provide transformational experiences.

To the consternation of many, we have spared no expense in making low-displacement, slow motorcycles that have an extraordinary level of fit, finish, quality, and reliability that we feel they deserve. We do so because we believe that that elusive and transformative experience of piloting ourselves through the world, with full power over our movements and responsibility for our actions, is one of the best sensations available to us. This is what we believe the motorcycle was made for. This is the purpose of the motorcycle. It certainly isn’t to get you to your job safely and on time.

Small, reliable (yes they are bullet-proof), easy-to-maintain engines with incredible parts availability that are perfectly suited to our kind of riding form the Janus power plant. Add to that the details of hand-formed fenders, exhausts, hand formed aluminum fuel tanks, hand-made chassis, hand pinstriping, handmade leather seats and luggage, top-of-the-line instrumentation, brakes, wheels, exhaust, etc., and you have a line of motorcycles that we believe live up to the transformative experience that the motorcycle is uniquely able to provide.

If viewed in this light, the specifications of the typical Janus model will describe a motorcycle whose specifications are built, not around abstract conceptions of speed or power—features we believe are tangential to the real experience of riding—but rather those which we believe are at it’s core and which serve to heighten it. What engine will reliably allow us to explore every revolution per minute of its capability and offer straightforward and simple maintenance? What materials are the most beautiful, appropriate for their task, and long lasting? What designs are the most timeless and best channel this ineffable experience of riding? And what level of craftsmanship, refinement, and detail is demanded of a machine capable of transporting us into such proximity with existence?

Is it everyone’s cup of tea? No. We could have made S&S powered heavy, faster bikes with the same or inferior levels of fit and finish and easily charged a lot more by the modern market’s standards. We get it. After all, we live right in HD’s backyard. There are a lot of great options out there if you want to have a cheap bike, or go fast, or have the latest technology, or be more efficient/comfortable, or make a lot of noise, etc.

In the meantime, tell me, why do you ride? What is it about these strange, two-wheeled machines that can’t even stay upright without our the rider’s careful balance and engagement? What draws you back to riding your motorcycle? What do you think? Are Janus motorcycles overpriced for what goes into them and what you will get out of them? What would you do with one if you had one? Have you visited our website? Check out our YouTube library of how we hand build them, read about the awesome history of the engines we have selected, or of course you could just give us flack in the comments!

-Richard Worsham

The post Why Rambling Makes People’s Heads Explode appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.

Get 50% off options and add-ons on any new motorcycle order!

That’s the deal!

Get everything you possibly can on a 450? Save $1800. Wow!
Get everything you possibly can on 250? Save $2000+. Wow again!

Cannot be combined with any other offer. Does not apply to custom colors, custom graphics, custom requests, or any forthcoming options.

Ends at midnight, 11/30/23. See individual savings and place your deposit on our CONFIGURATOR. Or call to place an order! We’re happy to help.

The post 2023 Janus Motorcycles Black Friday Special appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.

Step 1: Configure your vehicle and checkout

Choose your vehicle and options on the Janus Motorcycles website, and hit the checkout button. Depending on your state of registration, you will be taken to our Ekho Dealer Checkout page.

And, voila! You’re done! For more information or to learn more about our partnership with Ekho Dealer, check out Ekho Dealer’s FAQ page or contact them at support@ekhodealer.com

The post How to purchase, finance, register, and insure your Janus bike 100% online in the U.S. appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.

Stay tuned as we expand upon this series with more topics and deep dives into what makes Janus unique.

If you’ve missed the other videos in this series, check out the playlist below to watch them all.

The post The Bulletproof 250 | Why Janus Part 4 appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.

Of all the bikes I’ve owned over the last 53 years—that’s 300 plus—three of my top 10 motorcycles are 250s. The truth is that for 90-95 percent of the riding I do (or will ever do) at this point, a good-running 250 does everything I want it to do.

The first of these 250s I want to talk about was my 1975 Kawasaki S1C. I bought it from a guy named Dave Stanowski for $450 in 1977. It was so beautiful—it was love at first sight for me in its two-tone blue with white stripe color scheme—and three zoomie pipes! For those who don’t know, these bikes were oil-injected, three-cylinder two-strokes, with 28-30 horsepower and absolutely no torque below about 6000 rpm. But once it came on the pipe, it was a little screamer, and would get up to 90-95 mph. That thing had to be run hard all of the time or it would foul plugs, so of course, as a 19 year old male, I obliged!

I made the mistake of trading this bike off to my best friend, Scott, who really wanted it. He gave me a ‘72 Triumph Trophy Trail 250 that looked nearly new, along with an army green, 1960 V8-powered 4-door Studebaker Lark for it. While the Studebaker turned out to be a decent car, that Triumph holds the title of the single worst motorcycle I have ever owned. Thanks to its Lucas Electrics (the singular reason the British got into the habit of drinking their beer warm), it was notoriously unreliable. Sometimes, it would one-kick start right off the bat, and other times you could drag it from a rope behind a truck and it wouldn’t do a thing. Plus, the headlight fell out, and I had to tape a flashlight to the handlebars to ride at night. I found the best use for it was as ballast in the bed of the matching red-orange ‘65 Chevy pickup I had at that time so I could drive it in the winter. Eventually, I sold it for $65.

Another of my favorite bikes was my white and orange 1975 Yamaha RD250. This two-stroke twin had a front disc brake and a 6-speed transmission with no more than 1000 miles on it. I got it in the late 90s as part of a five-2bike package I bought sight-unseen from a guy in Iowa who took them in on trade for a racing car he sold. After I got it running perfectly with a little recommissioning, the next thing I did was take off the chrome front fender and toss it in the garbage. Then I pulled the pipes and put on a set of black expansion chambers from Moto Carrera. I bought a small bullet fairing for it and a new fiberglass front fender, and had them painted to match the tank. Then I put on some new rear shocks, steel footpegs, superbike bars, and new dunlops. What a fun bike! There’s nothing like riding a multi-cylinder two stroke with chambers on it. The smells and sounds, along with a two-stroke powerband are addicting. I loved that bike, but when I sold my business to a private equity firm in 2004 and decided to move from Boston to Fayetteville, Arkansas, I sold all of my bikes—including that RD250–except for an almost new orange Goldwing and an FZR1000 that I owned. And when the guy I sold the RD to came to pick it up, he had on a set of all white vintage leathers with a matching all white full-coverage helmet.

That brings me to the last of my favorite 250s—my current bike—an olive green, gold-pinstriped Janus Halcyon 250 with a brown leather seat and battery box. I wanted one for a couple years before I finally pulled the trigger and ordered one in my spec. Besides the way it looks like it came out of the 1920s—and the fact that I feel like T.E. Lawrence when I ride it—a couple other things I really enjoy about this bike are its ultra light weight and its ergonomics. It’s super comfortable for me and doesn’t cramp me up like a lot of other bigger bikes have. I don’t like being jammed up against the tank when I ride a motorcycle!

Recently, I installed an aftermarket pipe and tweaked the carb a little, and then took my stock “buckhorn” handlebars and flipped them upside down—something that I probably won’t leave like that forever but really gives the bike an early 20th century board tracker feel. The factory bars work surprisingly well in that position, and I think the resulting weight distribution change really works with the Janus leading link front end.

Another one of the best aspects of the Janus is its reliability. My bike is more than two and half years old and still has its original battery that I have never had to charge. That just doesn’t happen on a motorcycle for me! Ethanol-free fuel is available less than a mile from my house so it always gets that. And talk about attention! I can’t ride it anywhere without people asking me what it is and where it came from. It happened to me today at lunch. Of course, that gives me a chance to tell the Janus story and how each bike is built to order and hand-assembled on a stand by a single individual—something people cannot believe when they hear the price is as low as it is. There just isn’t anything you can buy in the way of a motorcycle today that looks like a Janus and has the quality of materials and craftsmanship. And I know if I ever get too old to ride it, it will look good drained of its fuel and parked in the library of our Victorian-era house. I’m getting a little tired of the ‘66 Benelli 250 we have sitting in there now—and a new Black with gold pinstripes Janus Halcyon 450 sure would be a nice upgrade for my daily rider!

The post A Good-Running 250 appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.

While our sales and marketing team are happy to let people call our bikes whatever they wish (I can’t complain either if they enjoy them), for some reason I’ve always been uncomfortable with the term “retro”. I have a special appreciation of vintage vehicles, especially from the early 20th century and love studying their history and the way they seem to have a life of their own. As a child, I sketched designs for cars and motorcycles based on the lines of the vintage automobiles, airplanes, boats, and motorcycles that fascinated me in books and at vintage events. Yet this appreciation wasn’t simply because they were old.

The Halcyon 450 in Black with Gold and red pinstriping.

I believe there is more to the story than that simple nostalgia or a superior interplay between form and function can explain this fascination with “old” designs. What made me appreciate these vehicles was that they represented something beyond practicality. Even in their own era, these masterpieces of craftsmanship and ingenuity were engaged in an endeavor with a uniquely human appeal: the desire for auto-locomotion, the innate human urge to move ourselves when and where we want to go.

Practicality and boredom go hand in hand. Remarkable vehicles with the ability to excite our imagination cannot by their nature be boring (or wholly practical), and typically require significant involvement and skill to operate. They offer, not simply the ability to move us from one place to another, but the thrilling sensation of doing so according to our whims and under our own command. Life is overspecified and determinate enough as it is. It is only natural to find value in some level of exposure and a certain requirement of skill, just as it is to yearn for unexpected discovery and the thrill of mastering a challenge.  

Think of a Bentley 4-1/2, a Bugatti Type 35, a Brough Superior SS100 Pendine, a Vincent Black Shadow, or even the more mass produced vehicles that somehow maintained a unique and enriching character in the face of efficiency like my first car, the ever-so-much fun air-cooled VW Beetle. Like a wooden boat, these are objects that require attention and engagement, rewarding us with their sounds, smells, vibrations, and interaction, almost as though they have a life of their own. In fact, to ignore any of these mechanical communications can spell disaster.

The Bentley 4-1/2 that took 3rd at the 1929 24 Hours of Le Mans.

It is not then merely the aesthetics of these iconic machines that sets them apart as objects of  inspiration and imitation. These are mechanical contraptions capable of transforming their rider or driver into a “pilot”. By pilot, I mean the opposite of a passenger in a train or airplane, hustled along in a queue, a slave to a larger, bureaucratic hierarchy. A pilot must have a level of knowledge, skill, and daring, not only to operate the machine, but to encounter the world on their own terms and schedule. To be a pilot in this sense is to take full responsibility for one’s actions and to revel in an experience of freedom from the constraints of practicality and conformity that is rarely available today. 

It has been argued that the modern “retro” movement is the result, not of an existing or nascent style, but of the category-creating vision of designers and brands such as Triumph with their reincarnated Bonneville model of 2001. In this vision, it was a spontaneous idea on the part of designers or an organic, cyclical return to a previous era that fostered the “retro” fashion. 

Yet I think the stronger argument is that the “retro” design trend has been an attempt to answer a desire for something different, something that found the modern riding/driving experience to be lacking. During the period leading up to the new Bonneville, new VW Beetle, new Mini, and the regrettable PT Cruiser, HHR, Camero, etc. the motorcycle (and car) market had by gradual degrees reached a point of stagnation.

The 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser

A common theme among the moto-journalists I have been privileged to meet and work with is that by the 1990’s, the motorcycle market had reached a point of saturation when it came to speed, power, comfort, and efficiency. The performance differences between one model year and the next and one marque and its competitor had been reduced to infinitesimal differences like 2mph or some other metric that even these experienced journalists were unable to feel. Maybe Eddie Lawson could appreciate it, but even for the expert critic or the average consumer they were writing for, the only difference was a less and less obvious “perceived value“ in having certain technical features or performance figures that couldn’t even be felt by the rider. 

Or on the practical end, vehicles had become so quiet, safe, and devoid of character, that they had entirely lost the thrill that older, more visceral machines had in spades. The problem is that the automotive and powersports industry has forgotten why people ride or drive in the first place. The business model, design, manufacturing process, marketing, and driving experience of the modern vehicle has come to place all its focus on maximization of efficiency to the extent that the primary concern with the experience of driving is to make it as unremarkable as possible.

The minimalist leading-link front end of the Janus Halcyon 250.

What is the difference between a self-driving car and a train in terms of our experience? Convenience and nothing more. In both instances we are merely passengers whose primary expectations are of comfort and punctuality. The sounds, smells, vibrations, and interactions of a real vintage machine would be entirely unacceptable flaws in the modern automotive industrial expectation. This is why dressing up a modern car in “retro” bodywork fails to answer its own challenge. It is a trend and nothing more.

What we were trying to do at Janus Motorcycles is to create vehicles that are more than “retro”. We seek to build vehicles that, while amply capable of the tasks of modern transportation and the entirely reasonable expectations of reliability and comfort, deliver what “retro” models never can: the transformational experience of piloting a machine, of the direct connection of the mind, throttle, clutch, shifter, and handlebars. Our lightweight, approachable machines seek to distill this experience of the “pilot” to the everyday opportunity of the modern rider by honing in on the visceral, immediate sensation of riding.

Your’s truly with a very special Brough Superior SS100 in Jay Leno’s garage.

We are not interested in recreating a bygone era whose reality is probably nothing like our rosy-tinted vision of today. What we are trying to do is create a machine that offers the experience, companionship, and genuine thrill that the greatest automobiles and motorcycles of the past one hundred years have been able to deliver. To do so, we have to start by throwing the mass-manufactured, efficient, practical attitude of the modern automotive industry out the window. We seek to craft remarkable machines from scratch, from the very concept and ride experience though to the design and aesthetics, and then all the way to the manufacturing process. 

All of the parts we make, which is everything but specialty proprietary parts like engine, shocks, and lighting are made within about 25 miles of our shop, in many cases by Amish craftsmen using WWII-era equipment running off the power grid. We make our own chassis components and fenders; paint all our own pinstriping, the list goes on. All this goes into making a bike that seeks, not to feed our nostalgia for a bygone era, but to defy the modern preoccupation with specifications, efficiency, and practicality that has dominated the market for decades.

Sir Alec Issigonis standing next to the first Mini and a new 1965 Morris Mini Minor Deluxe.

Our goal is to take advantage of our lightweight, agile brand to do what modern OEMs simply cannot afford (or imagine): to build transformative vehicles that hone in on the impractical reason we choose to ride a motorcycle in the first place.

Yes, if you want to get from point A to point B as efficiently and comfortably as possible, buy a Tesla, or if you want a modern car with “retro” looks and modern bland efficiency, buy a new Mini. Remember, however, that the inventor of the original Mini Cooper, the great designer Sir Alec Issigonis, refused to allow radios in his cars as he believed that they detracted from the driving experience. But who rides a motorcycle, at least here in the States, for purely practical reasons, really? We argue that the answer is no one.

The post What is “Retro”? appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.

Instead, they applied the old premise of the last 30+ years of powersports marketing to a new brand that is designing a new category of iconic, approachable motorcycles that REJECT the powersports industrial complex’s premise that the value of a motorcycle should be the sum of its:

• Top speed
• Rated horsepower
• Tech gadgetry
• …and resulting weight

Instead of pursuing this “big bike lie”, a Janus motorcycle bypasses these distractions to distill the best of motorcycling: a simple, immediate riding experience built around a highly customizable, handmade motorcycle using easy-to-maintain, bulletproof components.

Think about it. Why do we choose to ride a motorcycle?

• To be unconstrained
• To enjoy the journey
• To express ourselves

We’re not trying to create a faster, cheaper horse… We’re trying to do the exact opposite. We’re consciously creating the highest quality motorcycle designed specifically to address the reason we choose to ride a motorcycle in the first place.

How do we do that?

• We build each unique motorcycle to each unique customer’s specifications, from by hand in our northern Indiana hometown using simple, easy-to-maintain, bulletproof components.
• We chose to build lightweight, nimble, lower-powered motorcycles because they provide the ability to actually use all of the machine’s potential in our everyday riding.
• Rather than focusing on the latest technology and convenience, we build simple machines whose purpose is to augment the immediate, visceral sensation of riding.
• We have a dedicated and growing following of owners and riders who understand exactly what we are building and who give us constant input on how to do it better.

What does this all mean?

• It means that rambling is controversial!
• It means we’re starting to strike a nerve!
• It means that a significant number of people feel passionately about what we’re doing!
• It means that we just reached 1.22 million motorcyclists and motorcycle fans on YouTube that may never have heard of Janus!

The post Fellow Ramblers! We need to talk about “The Big Bike Lie” appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.

Time & Logistics:

• A Janus Motorcycle is a fun getaway that starts IMMEDIATELY once you leave your driveway. No need to trailer your stuff, drive several hours, or fly to get a “getaway”.
• A Janus Motorcycle is easy to park and store—it doesn’t require another garage stall or a storage unit!
• Scratch the itch in just a couple minutes a day! Or simply take the long way home from work, and have a 20 minute joyride built into your commute.

Money:

• A Janus is hand-built by artisan motorcycle builders, and is built to last. It is the antithesis of planned obsolescence, and it’s something you can pass to your kids or grandkids!
• Compared with the cost of upkeep, storage, and transportation of other pastimes like boating, 4x4s, big motorcycles, classic cars, etc., a one-time purchase of a lightweight, classic, heirloom motorcycle is affordable and manageable.
• The generous warranty and simple upkeep and maintenance requirements ensure you won’t be signing up for an expensive maintenance and service schedule.
• There are no hidden fees with a Janus—kit your bike, pay for shipping (or pickup), and pay sales tax and registration. No hidden market adjustments, markups, doc fees, title fees, assembly fees, destination fees… it adds up!
• A Janus is a good use of our money. Because they have such a unique design and are hand built one at a time, they don’t depreciate like a normal new motorcycle would. In fact, the original Janus models built ten years ago are now worth thousands more than they originally cost!

Safety:

• He/she wouldn’t care if you bought an electric bike—yet a Janus is safer than an electric bike. A Janus has better brakes, better lighting, and handles better at speed than any electric bike. Not to mention moving at the speed of traffic versus being slower than traffic makes you less likely to be hit by another vehicle!
• A Janus is lighter than any other comparable size motorcycle you could buy. Because of their light weight, a Janus is easier to move around when parked than other bikes. It is easier to pick up if it falls over. It us easier to handle when ridden at low speeds. And the brakes on a Janus don’t have to work as hard as they do on a heavier bike.
• A Janus is not overpowered. The Janus 250s have only 14 horsepower! They won’t go out of control under acceleration as easily as a bike that tends to spin its wheel or wheelie. That low power won’t upset balance of the bike. You have the ability to control it easily, which makes it safer.
• A Janus motorcycle has bright lighting and optional LED lighting for better visibility from other vehicles.
• Promise to always wear appropriate clothing when riding your Janus. Get a good helmet, wear long pants and boots, leather gloves, and get a really good jacket—even one with body armor if you like—and wear it every time you ride the bike. Many motorcycle injuries can be mitigated with appropriate safety gear and a good helmet. An investment in a good helmet and armored jacket is good insurance!

Romance:

• Many Janus riders get his and hers bikes, take the safety course together, and ride together! It is SO COOL to see a couple ride up to a date night on their own motorcycles, and its a fun, new activity they can work on together!
• Never ride my motorcycle after consuming alcohol. Let’s have a glass of wine together when we’re back from our adventures! Safety is sexy!
• Say, “If you let me get a Janus, you can get ______.” This frequently works but can get expensive!

And last but not least (just to repeat ourselves)… the best way to convince a spouse is to buy one for them too!

Check out Mark and Terry’s story below—they were searching for something meaningful and new in their lives together after a loss, and learned to ride together!

The post Convince your Spouse or Partner to say “YES” to a Janus Motorcycle! appeared first on Janus Motorcycles.