Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

FIRST RIDE Voxan 1000 Roadster ' 00 0'\ 0'\ ...... o . iue la Fran ce! Th at ' s been th e un anim ou s se n ti m e n t a mo ng m o torcycle ma n u fa ctu re r s the world over for the past half-century, and especially in Jap an. For alon e am on g the wo rld's top-five mainstr eam motorcycle markets, France has had no post-World Wa r II ind u st ry of its own produ cin g any thi ng larger than a 350cc Motobecane or 125cc Peugeot scooter, makin g it a top target for expo rters the world over. Sure, th e re ha ve been m ispl a ced a tte m p ts to bu ild big-engi ne d bikes u sing Citroen or Pe ugeot car engines, like the BFG Odysee, MF or Boccardo, and even quixotic efforts to wave the tricouleur in Superbike and GP racing with the Pernod twin, Siccardi triple or Fior four. But these have all come to nothing, leaving UHexagone as fertile ground for every foreign manufacturer of the kind of stvle-conscious roadster or mile-eating megabike that the huge French ma rket laps up. Until now . Because in an uncan ny rep lay of John Bloor's renaissance of the Triumph marque (thus single-handedly, be it noted , givi ng Britain back its bo rn-again bike ind ustry), 50-year-old French industrialist Jacques Gardette has used his busines s acumen and financial armory to crea te a new motorcycle marqu e, called Voxan. Like ELF, this is a neutral-sounding trad emark chosen for its un iversal pronunciation in a ny la ng uage - a nd after v isitin g th e 86000-sq ua re-foo t Voxan factory in Ga rdette's hom etown of Issoire, 25 miles south of Clerm ont Ferrand high in the Auvergn e pla teau of cen tra l France , to rid e the co m pa ny's prototype V-twi n 1000cc Road ster that's about to enter production in November, I saw the necessity of giv ing the bran d nam e intern ation al appeal. This is a very serious operation that's set in due course to carve a un iqu e slice of th e world 's bike market, w h ic h should no t be confused with so manv other essentially underfunded, smalivo lume Eu ropean marques, with or without the prestige of a glorio us past. The lack of any previous form is perhaps even a benefit for Voxan, for there are no expec tatio ns set to be confou nd ed , no baggage of histor y to be tra iled a lo n g b eh in d . Tha t apart, Ga rde tte' s Voxan tod ay is in exactly the sa me position as Blo or' s Triumph was ba ck in 1990. , Though th e tw o co m pa n ies ha ve a di ffere nt genesi s, there's the same sense of exciteme nt, the same feeling that, just maybe, somethi ng significa nt is in the process of bein g born. And th e sa me modular concept for developing a range of produ ct s u s in g a co m mo n d esign ba sis, here the prod u ct of th e top cre a tiv e team a s s embl ed by Ja cq u es Ga rde tte a f te r foun di ng Vo xan in .Decem ber 1995 wi th 4.5 million fran cs of his own money. (Right) More monster than the Monster, the Voxan takes the naked bike to a new level with its quiCk-revving, lour-valve-percylinder, 72-degree , 1000cc V-twin. (Below)The restrained styling is by Sacha lakic, the creator of the Bimota Mantra and several Boxer bike models. Production is s lated to begin this month with 80 bikes that will be delivered as demonstrators to French dealers. But, unlike Joh n Bloor , Ga rd ett e is a bi ke r fro m wa y ba ck , eve r s inc e h e owned a Kawasak i H1 trip le more than a quarte r-ce n tury a go : Today h e' s th e proud owner of a 916 Ducali - a reason for frustration as much as pleasure, he says, d ue to his chagrin that there was no co m pa ra b le French two-whee led product to consider buying. So from the can-do determination of so many self-made men came thf decisio n do some thing about this, reinforced by the ou tcome of a proper analysis of French and European bike markets and a financial feasibility stu dy, bot h of which said Voxan would be viable. Nex t, usi ng h is in fl ue nce as. th e owner of Bio d o rne, a wo rl d- lea ding med ical-equ ipm ent com pany loca ted in Issoire and speci alizi ng in artificial-kid ney mac hi nes, Gardette d rew on loca l contacts to bring other key players to the p a rty . Amon g th em w ere th e French nati on al AN VAR Research Agency, the Auvergne com mission seeking to attract new manufacturing industry to this former coal-mining region - and Michelin. Bas ed in Cl ermont -Ferrand , th e Fren ch ind u s tria l g ia n t not o nly sa w Voxan as a u sefu l potential cus to me r, but also as a local enterp rise wo rth backing financiall y - hence the inves tmen t cash the tire colossu s has put into Voxan, without requ irin g eve n a sea t on th e board in return. Three short years later, Voxan is ready to star t production, wi th the first 80 bikes being buil t in Novem-. ber, for delivery as dem onst rators to the marque' s 65 deal ers throughout mainland Fran ce. Full-scale prod uction of the Sacha Lakic-styled naked Road ster will finally beg in in February after the development team had troubl e wi th the longterm reliabilitv (now rectified ) with the first iteration of the powerplant. With the extra time Voxan has been able to plan thoroughly for the Aprilias tyle p ro jec te d p roduction pro cess, which will see all components furnished by ou tside suppliers to Voxan's specifica tion, d eliv er ed to Issoire just in time for the firm to asse mble them into comple te bik es. However, unlike w ith Apri lia, this wi ll include the V-twin engines, all of whi ch wiII be built in-house. Still, Voxan will be ess en tia lly a n assem bly operation, not a ma nufac tu ring one. Voxan pla ns a to tal 1999 production of 1400 bikes sp rea d be tween the three di fferen t models - Cafe Racer and Scramber come next - fro m a workfor ce cu rrently numbering 60 and du e to rise to 80 by the end of next yea r. Gardett e says they can double or even triple production volu m e within th e exis ting flo or space of the form er Ducellier headl amp factory it occu pies. In fact, the company pl ans to thi s in 2000, when Voxan Vtwins .will be exported first to Britain, Germany and Italy , then to other mar- ke ts - in cl u d in g , in d ue co u rse, th e Un ited States and Japan . To crea te Voxan, Gardette has asse mbled a top- level management team, each with proven expertise in a key area . H ea d in g up the sa les and marketing -op era tio n is former World Endurance champion and works Yamaha 500cc GP star Marc Fontan, fresh from his achievemen t in buil ding up KTM Fra nce to its ma rket-leading status. Though by defini tio n a useful test rider himself, Fontan broug ht Joel Quelin w ith him from KTM to handl e test duties - bu t first they had to have a product to test. Firs t, the engi ne. While retainin g the sa me 98 x 66 mm di me nsio ns as th e Duca ti 996, Suzuki TL and Honda VTR twi ns , the liquid-cooled Voxan (develo ped with the help of the wo rldrenowned French race-car engine building indus try) carves its own course by ad opting the same com pact 72-d egree angle for its Nikasil cylinders as not only in m ot orcycle ' term s the o ld p u shrod Morini V-twi n of a decad e ago , but also the V-10 Peugeo t eng ine and especially the Renault F1 motor tha t took Damon Hill , Micha el Schu mache r a nd Jacque Vill e n e u ve to a successio n of world titles. Though infinitely more soph isticated and d esi gn ed to act as a fu lly stressed chassis member, the dry-sump Voxan engine has another feature in com mo n with that of neo-vi ntage Italian bikes: no bala nce shaft. Sodemo says that a V-twin of this angle is a better compromise, wi th red uced bulk and fewer secondary vibes than a 9O-degree motor. While vertically split like a Ducati or Suz uki, the Voxan engine differs in several areas: its chain-driven va lve gear wi th twin overhead camshafts and four valves per cyli nder (39.2mm inlets and 33.8mm exhausts, bot h bigger than those in Fogarty 's Wor ld Superbike champion 996); a very flat included valve angle of just 21 degrees (the TL Suz uki, its most ra d ical r iva l, ha s a 29-d egree va lve ang le , a nd th e 916 Du cali ' s is 40 d eg rees ); a pair o f tita n iu m co nrods sharing a com mo n crankp in; ultralightweight (300 gra ms eac h) Fl -type 10.5:1 slipper pistons; a six-speed gearbox with hydraulic wet clutch; and to beg in with at least, Soderno's own Sytel EFI. The product of th eir four-wheeled eng ine experience, this however turned out to give poor tractabili ty and bottomend performance in mot orcycl e u se, in s pite of the sea led ai rbox . It has since been repla ced for p rodu cti on b y th e

• Cover