You saw it here first. This is the cool new concept bike from Dutch company Super Motor co.
The Super Sport 125 and the Super Sport 250. Can't wait to ride this little thing! The bike in the pictures is the 250.
Developing a bike in China; The story of Lucky Punk...
Building a bike in china. How hard can it be. A production prototype. Eat your hart out. 1 1/2 half years ago I did a photoshop mock up of a bike we envisioned. Vintage trials kind of looks, but basically a super motard 'avant la lettre'. Light weight and ample power. It ended up with a weight of 101 KG and a power of 27 BHP. Not too bad though. Of course these figures are non compliant to any type approval.
Lets go back to the first sentence and the second. China is a nightmare to work in. The language barrier is one to take in account but the mentality is one to ignore. Stupidity and idiocy galore. How do you get things done. Well you don't. Kafka's paradise. Finding brushes and rollers to make a seat base out of fibreglass weave and epoxy took us half a day. We've built this bike in 4 weeks. And that we got it finished in time for the Canton fair, where we were to present this bike to the international motorcycle trade, was a miracle.
Since we've been producing and selling a cub based bike for the last 4 years now we thought we knew how things are done in the far east. But we didn't. Since our dependency of our cub based model was too risky we decided to move on and do a proper city slacker motorcycle with hill climb aspirations. A mover and a shaker. Literally and figuraly speaking. The first engine supplied to us was wrong and came without balance shaft. The vibrations were so intense that it was no fun to ride if you had any fake teeth. You would have lost them after a minute or so.
Always liked the concept of a Super Motard. But never got round liking the way it looked. The basis of this production prototype is a so called dragon bone frame ( pressed steel back bone) which is widely available in China. To keep the bike as clean as possible ( I've never actually seen a production bike this clean) we used a 12V 4.5 Ah Li-ion battery the size of a pack of cigarettes which is stowed under the seat with the rest of the electric necessities.
Most difficult on this build was the fabrication of the exhaust. The factory that was going to do this pipe was provided by us with CAD drawings of the complete system. But once we got there and did the first fitment it was all off. Do not know why the Chinese do not stick to the drawings. In the end it took us 2 days to get it right. Accompanied by lots of swearing and a bucket load of incomprehension. But the result was spot on. It is a matter of getting on the same page asap.
We are friends for life though with the people of the paint factory. Unbelievably skilled and the only ones we encountered that did have a sense of perfection. They let us mix our own color by hand. They gave the tank extra rub downs till they were happy with the result. We changed the color several times, no problem. Great and easy to work with, taken in account we could not understand each other. Communication with hands and feet.
The last hurdle was shipping the bike to the fair from Chongqing to Guangzhou. We arranged to ship the bike by air. The days to follow were to become one the of the most stressful in my life. The courier lost the bike. For 3 full days we were unaware where the bike was. We were about to miss the Fair all together. Upon our own physical arrival in Guangzhou the bike was still missing. And even at 5 in the afternoon, the day before the fair, the bike was still lost. Finally a few minutes later we've got a call the bike was found We picked it up at 4 in morning the day at the cargo facility of the airport and assembled the bike on the parking lot in front of the fair.
So we made it. The bike rolled into the Fair complex just after nine and found a spot on the booth of Yinxiang Motors ( the factory that produces our cub based bikes). The next few days we drew a lot of attention with the bike. Lots of the Chinese did not understand our bike and told us off about it. FOB price too high bla bla bla. Too expensive to build... etc etc. Happily we met some like minded enthusiasts from around the world. Now after the fair we have a line up of 5 distributors from around the world to work with. So was it worth the stress, agony and total insanity? Yes it was.
As we speak we are working very hard to ready the bike for production. And of course put it through its paces during testing. We plan to launch the Super sport 125/250 in Q1 of 2015 with an indicative consumer price of 2500, - (125 cc) and 3000,- euro (250 cc).
Our very special thanks go to: Ben Part, Jaap Volkers, Lennard Schuurmans, Billy Bai (Motorhead group), Kay Lan, David McMullen, Vivianne Zhu & Ryan Teng( Yinxiang group), Jackie Lu ( J. Juan Group), Rush Logistics (Chengdu).
Super Sport specifications:
Engine: CBNN 125 CC/ 223 CC SOHC single cylinder
Power: 12 BHP/ 26 BHP Torque: 11 NM/ 22 NM
Chassis: Dragon bone Super Motor Company
Rims: Aluminium front 2.15-19, rear 2.50 -18
Hubs: Cast aluminium
Brake discs: front 280 mm/ rear 190 mm
Brake calipers: J. Juan, double piston front/ single piston rear
Tires prototype: Dunlop K70 3.50-19 front & 4.00-18 rear
Tires production: Duro HF 308 3.50-19 front & 4.00-18 rear
Exhaust: Super motor Company
Front forks: Yaoyong
Rear shock absorbers: Sokon/ Fast ace
Speedometer: Koso digital
Battery: 12 V li-Ion 4.5 Ah
Fuel system prototype: Koso 30 mm flat slide Fuel system production: Electronic fuel injection
Fuel tank: Aluminium
Fenders : Aluminium
Headlight: Rinder
Taillight: Super Motor Company/ Rinder
Indicators: Bar end type, Super Motor Company/ Rinder
Consumer Pricing: 125 CC from 2500,- euro, 250 CC from 3000,- euro
Super Motor Co.
