Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125890
• Big mufflers with tiny outleU keep things qu iet as th ey cool th e rotary 's ex haust. • The vibrat io n-free rota ry sounds, and even looks, like a jet engine. The 11.8 inch disc ~ith hydraulic caliper performed adm irably . Big rotary powerplant looks futuristic. Exhaust pipe glows red hot. • I / / / "I and a mile-per-hour speedometer rather than the kilometer version mounted on our test bike. Let's go riding. One touch of the starter button, with throttle off, and the rotary comes to life. Sitting still and blipping the engine you get the same gyro movement as a BMW. As you pull off in t he first of six available gears you im mediately notice the smoothness of t he Wankel. In our case, it felt so smooth that we turned the engine past the 6,400 rpm redline without realizing it. No complaint from the Wankel,just a later complaint from Doug, who informed us that while it'll pull all the way to heaven , excessive rotor tip wear is the price one pays for not observing the redli ne , Up through the gears and through so me start-stop, right and left hand turn maneuvers emphasized the smoothness and response of the engine and the overall good handling of the 350 pound machine. The low cent er of gravity and t he resulting han d ling became obvious ben din g in to a fast sweeper . Ca rryi ng the load are I S" ti res (3.00-front an d 3.25 rear) with Cerian i forks and Marzocchi rear shocks. T he shocks fea t ure five position adjustment. With Doug following on a Z- I, we headed for a nearby interstate highway an d before we knew it Doug pulled alo ngside and p o in t ed to his .sp eed o. "S O - SO," T he Hercules felt like it was cruising at 60. Not being familiar with a Kilometer speedometer, we would have been instant bait for the local Smokey. Aiding in the lack of attention to high speed is the "overdrive" sixth gear. While we didn't push the bike above SO, Hercules claims an apparently non-op ti mistic 93 m ph to-end, Just as effortless as the acceleration and cruising is the braking.T he Wankel 2000 provides instant stopping through an Il.S inch diameter hydraulic disc up front and a T" diameter hub brake in the rear. \\'e made numerous "panic" stops and noticed no fading in either brake. Hercules claims 43 miles per gallon and according to Doug's records of his trip from Columbus to Atlanta, he got 40 to 45 mpg at 70 and 75 mph. (H e made the run in II hours and swears he was running SO mph at times , but we won't tell anyone.) With a tank capacity of 4 1/2 gallons, the Wankel 2000 wi ll enable you to pass many a gas station o n a t rip . T he twin exhaust p ipes have heat shields t hat run the full length of th e mufflers. Riding the bike at night points out the neccessity of the shields as the header pipes actually glow when the engine is ridden for an extended period of time at speed. The obviously high engi ne temperature doesn't appear to affect engine performance and actually serves as a foot warmer due to the air cooling setup. Air enters the large fan at the front of the engine and is forced over the head and exits just behind the base of the head, right where your feet are. Instant heater. Our only major bitch about the Hercules 2000 came to a head when we gassed u p. Ala a two-stroke one must mix gas and oil. and unlike most two -s t r o k e street bikes of the mid-seventies the Hercules doesn't have an oil injection system. Sachs is currently developing an injection system and we're told that they expect to have it operative in the near future. What does it sound like? That's the question we were most often asked afte r we told people we had ridden the Hercules Wankel. Well, for starters it doesn't go hm mmmmm. In fact it sounds very much like a twin cylinder t w o -s tr o k e when idling and while moving down the road at about 5500 rpm it sounds like a very quiet jet engi ne . T he j et so und comes from th e cooling fan an d le ts yo u know tha t you're on a bike powered by so mething other than a conventional engine. If you want to be the first person on yo ur block to have a He rcules Wankel you better have a pocketfull of greenbacks . The price of this West German engi neering marvel will be just un der $2,000 and the first handful sho uld reach our shores in January. Is the p rice too hig h? We don't think so . For your money you'll receive a un ique mo t orcycle that is at home rid,ing arou nd town; twisting down a country road or touring across the country o n interstate highways. Paint the tank silver, add a cafe ra cer fa iring. . .Gawd! I can hear those ne ck s snapping now. • Spec ificat ions Engine .. SACHS Wankel-Motor Tvpe KC 27 Horsepower 32 at 6000 rpm Torque . . .•... . .. 24.5 It .llb s. at 4500 rpm Vo lume per chamber 294cc Compression ratio Mixture ratio of fuel Carb uret ion Maximum speed Acceleration Gear box Ignition syst em 8.5 : 1 1:25 Bi ng 32mm .93 mph 0-66 mp h in 7 sec. 6-speed tran smission Bosch tra nsistor Elect rical svstem ... .. . . . . • .. •.. . 12 volt Fuel consumption Fuel ca pacit y Front suspension Rea r suspension . Air cleaner 43 mpg 4 .49 gal. Cerian i te lescopic fo rk s 5 way adjustab le Marzocch i shock absorb ers Micro nic filt er (paper) Fro nt tire . . ..• • .. .. . .... . . . . . .300 x 18 Rear ti re 325 x 18 Brakes Pro nt -Hvd raunc d isc b rake Hear-fu ll width alumin um b rake hub Dry weight Maximu m load 350 lbs. : . . . •.... . • 800 lbs. Instruments . 120 mp h speedometer • 8000 rpm tachometer-etect ron fcally controlled . high beam indica tor. t urn signal indicator. neutral light . 35