Cycle News

MIDUAL TYPE 1 FIRST RIDE P82 tial blow-by lubrication problems, especially starting from cold with the tilted cylinders. It can also prevent possible starvation under braking and acceleration with its wet sump design and the longitu- dinal engine layout. The engine measures 100 x 66 mm for a capacity of 1036cc, and the one-piece 180-degree plain-bearing crankshaft runs on central plain main bearings and two outer ball bearings, with its bolted-up steel connecting rods carrying three-ring forged pis- tons delivering a 12:1 compres- sion ratio. A layshaft is mounted above the crank and driven directly off it, which in turn actuates the rear of the two trochoidal gerotor oil pumps, whose pinion then drives its forward companion. That layshaft also drives the two camchains operating the twin overhead camshafts per cylinder, fitted with hydraulic tensioners. These operate the four valves per cylinder – twin 36mm inlets set at a 21.5 degree included angle to the 31mm exhausts – via cylindri- cal tappets. Twin 54mm Magneti Marelli throttle bodies each incorporate a single 12-hole Marelli injector positioned south of the butterfly, although the engine manage- ment system's ECU isn't one of theirs, but a Walbro specially de- veloped for Midual. The separate stainless steel exhausts incorporate a balance pipe joining them beneath the engine, and each contains a cat- alyst inside the silencer, as well as a single lambda probe. The Midual has been homologated for the street in France as Euro 3 compliant, and Midy is confi- dent of eventually meeting Euro 4 requirements in due course. As such, the engine produces 107 horsepower at 7800 rpm at the crank, with maximum torque of 10mkg at 6000 rpm, but a very wide spread. This unique engine, for which Midy holds five global patents re- lating to its design, contains 520 component parts, each of which was designed in house, account- ing on its own for 15,000 hours of collective work by Midual's eight-person team, including Midy's wife Lise and his brother François. It's mounted in an equally inno- vative chassis that's the subject of two further international patents as the result of 7000 hours of development work, consisting of an immensely stiff cast aluminum double-wall monocoque frame sourced from an 185-pound raw casting that has been five-axis machined and manually polished down to the finished product weighing 53 pounds – a process taking hundreds of hours of care- ful craftsmanship, knowing that one slip could render it valueless. This incorporates the integral 3.6-gallon fuel tank – so it's a true monocoque. The frame also incorporates the subframe for the The 1036cc DOHC eight-valve flat- twin uses vertically-split crankcases, with its cylinders tilted forward by 25 degrees to provide space for the six-speed transmission.

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