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/126041
J I Sea rch.for "the . .... • • • .. I . . i Great American Motor.cycle .~ 0.. < .. RokoD: ;1 dream in New Hampshire By Boyd Reynolds No other location could be more conducive to the 'p ro d u ct ion of an A merican motorcycle than --the one ch o s e n by Rokon, Inc. Cradled in the realm of Yankee tradition and the birthplace of our . American heritage, Keene , New Hampshire is steeped in the quaint atmosphere of a sleep y New England city nestled in the rol ling foothills of the Whit e Mountains. Rokon is New England from the rustic weathered shingles on the outside to the friendly greeting extended by sales coordin ator Doug Duncan and production manager Ron Brown when I made what was my second visit to Rokon in three years. . 10 The big'yell ow autornatrc had been on the market for only a short ti m e when I was th ere ' las t time, so I was very i n t e r es t e d to see how th ey had progressed during th is period. One .o f m y primary interests was the peri od when Rokon op erated unde r federal bankruptcy Ch apter Eleven. I w as in terest ed in why and how th ey had again become a solvent functi o nin g manufacturer. It 'took only four months for Rokon to get out of Chapte r Eleven, an unfortunate . procedure that was a product of the declin ing m o t o rcycle market. There were n o m ajo r manage ment shake u p s, mergers , etc. , just hard work b y dedicated people and some ' new market ing ideas. These new ideas no t only invo lved progre ssive a d va nce me n ts to the au tomatic co m pe titio n motorcy cle , but to the old " Trail Breaker,"now called a mototractor, The mototractor has received such favorable ac cl a i m in the foreign a g ric u lt u r a l m arket that Rokon e s tim ates they will have a year's production orders in by the end of the first quarter. As in the motorcycle lin e , . they produce th ree models. The Ranger and the Scout h ave a full line of ' accessori es that ut ilize the veh icle ' s vers itility co upled to a power take-off from th e 134cc Chrysler single cy linder two-stroke engine. .Next to th e power take-off is a selector for three gear ra t ios , mu ch .Ii k e our automatic transmission ' automobiles , that give the vehicle a range from 10 mph top speed to 40 mph top speed . This gives the former full versitjlity to haul a load to the fields and return at reasonable travel speeds. "'_ .. - ., . The ac cessories in clude a gen er at or cap ab le of running ligh ts , power drills and saws , a sp ra ye r , trailer, post hole d igger , fi re p ump, seeder and spreaders. . The Pioneer model, mad e primarily for the forest service also has multiple use . One example is in t he re-seeding of forest lands. One m an on a mo t o tract or can d o in one day what would normally take tw o men five days. Advancements in the mo totract ors h ave b ee n just as ra pid from the old "Trail Break er " as th ey have b een fro m t he ' 0 Id yellow m o t o rcycle to th e curren t RT·I , RT ·II motorcycles. Since inception in 1967 as a Delaw ar e Corp o ra tion , then mo ved to Keene in 1969, Rokon h as ut ilized the industrial product co ncep t. Motorcy cles came in 19 74 an d to day the mar ket ing of b o th products is m uch be tter oriented to th e specific mar ket for which it is intende d th at it was at first . Design ed speci fically as a co mp et it io n m o to rcycle, R o kon has p iled up an incred ible win reco rd of 5 0 other G o l d Me d als and awards. Production facilities under .Ron Brown are well oriented to a q ualit y prod uct , individ ually asse m bled b y .h an d by craftsmen. P arts universal to all models not o nly ease th e producti o n pro cess t o meet or der demands, b u t ma ke it co nsiderab ly easier on th e dealer who is st ocking p arts. A p rogram of pro cessed raw pro d ucts gives Rokon some manufacturing p re-planning and shows a substantial b ackup to their prosperous st ature. S ome p ro d ucts have been redesigned to ob ta in m axim um ver satility in production. Rokon is also en deavoring to bring all m a nu fac t ure under th eir co n tro l, b ut it . is not en tirely possible as th ey use the Sachs engi ne : To so me extent, they . d i s as se mb le th e engine to pe r fe cj, p erson al concepts th at m ake th e ROKon sui table to me e t th e desired res ult. In an swer t o th e question o f a stree t bike , I received a d efinite nega tive reply as R ok on fe els they sho uld n o t attem pt to co m pe te ' with th e Japanese p roducts. T hey a re buildin g a com petitio n m ach ine an d th is is th eir en deavor. We d iscu ssed a fo ur-s tro ke Rokon at length an d Doug made it clear that they h ave experimented no t only with a four-stroke engine , but with a Wankel engine. Some of the product ion crew have p u t together a flat tracker, that has turned in some startling results. Now they have one available on the market. Ron h as been building an automatic road racer in his own time and his drawings of the finished product ar e quite impressive. " • We talked about Rokon's dealer policy and their reaction to the rider's desires. Rokon has made a concerted effort to so licit reaction fr om "the gu y riding in the seat · what do you need in a motorcycle ?"Extensive questionnaires have been sen t out and the returned reports carefully scrutinized and filed in loose leaf binders. Examination of some of th ese made some interesting reading and I co uld see where there exists a one-to-one id ea concept ' retu rn to the manufacturer. Dealers or com pet iti o n riders can re ceive all the assistance necessary to assis t them in product knowledge and preparation so that their Rokon will perform in a winning fashion. Two years ago the Rokon was a very expensive motorcycle at over $ 1, 6 0 0 in