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French Avinton bikes coming

One of the shortest books in the world must surely be the history of French motorcycle manufacturing with few notable entries from Peugeot, Sherco and Voxan.
Now there is a new chapter being added by Avinton Motorcycles who will start exporting their bikes to Australia, New Zealand, Asia and North America in mid 2014.
The new French motorcycle manufacture is the vision of company president Cédric Klein.
“As far as I’m concerned, motorcycles and mechanics seduced me at a very young age, and the flame never flickered. The passion continues to become stronger as the years go by. After a long period of pondering the direction of the motorcycle industry, I wanted to take my passion to another level, and finally created this line of devilishly sexy motorcycles,” Klein humbly states.

Avinton Roadster
Avinton Roadster

“Avinton will bring back the concept of the gentleman rider and even go further to sculpt the idea into a new type of motorcycle culture.”
The muscle bikes are visually and dynamically inspired by the late Carroll Shelby’s famous AC Cobra race cars from the compact body with a high power-to-weight ratio, right down to the GT stripes.
These gentlemen’s bikes are powered by a Keihin carby-fed 1647cc S&S V-twin engine with 90kW of power and 168Nm of torque, a five-speed Andrews gearbox and aluminium or carbonfibre where a lot of bikes use plastic.
“It breaks my heart to see plastic pieces replace those that were once made of metal,” says Klein.

Avinton Roadster and Race
Avinton Roadster and Race

“The idea of sacrificing quality in hopes of slashing prices takes away the motorcycle’s natural nobility, as if the object itself is no longer of importance.”
About 300 Avinton bikes a year are handmade by five craftsmen in the village of Sommières, near Montpellier, in the south of France.
So, although they may not weigh much, expect a hefty price tag ranging from about $40,000 to $65,000, plus duty and shipping costs.
There are three models, the Roadster muscle bike, the GT cafe racer and Race superbike with six different finishes; Collector, Vintage, Deluxe, Grand Sport, Super Snake and Cult.
Avinton allows customers to pick and choose from a range of expensive and exclusive options so that each bike is different.
All bikes come with a two-year parts and labour warranty.
Marketing manager Stéphane Devaux says they have received “a lot of requests” from Australia and New Zealand.
“But for the present time, we haven’t taken any order, because we have found an official importer for all the Asia/Pacific area (including Australia and New Zealand) and we prefer to wait for his official establishment to sell our bikes,” he says.
“These two countries should be open in just one year. He has to open before some other countries like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia.
“The Avinton Muscle-bikes should be available on the US market in less than one year because it’s a lot of job to find the different dealers and to organize a national launch.”

  1. It would be cool to see these bikes in Australia! By the way, Avinton is the new name for the bike manufacturer previously known as Wakan. Wakan didn’t do much to add to that short history of French bike manufacturing (which is still a lot longer than our own, eh?), so good luck to Avinton. I like the concept of these bikes, but as always it all comes down to pricing.

  2. So, what’s this short history of French motorcycles? Marques like Soyer, who in the early twenties had direct lubrication to bearings and cylinder walls on their two strokes (so…not a Suzuki invention, then) Dollar with V4 750cc bikes in the thirties, and of course Peugeot who provided the engine for the Norton twin that won the first Isle of Man TT in 1907. Motobecane built big V twins, and firms like Terrot were as big as BSA and Triumph from just after WW1 to the early sixties – taking on several failing smaller brands in the same way as BSA and AMC did.
    Proud companies like Monet-Goyon, Ultima, Gnome-Rhone, Magnat-Debon, Styl’son, Gillet-Herstal, SanSouPap, Moto-Confort, Hirondelle, Ravat, Labor, Derni, Française-Diamant, New-Map, VAP, Aiglon, Alcyon, Dresch, Jonghi, Grimpeur, Radior, René-Gillet, ….need I continue?

    However, the new Avintons are undoubtedly gorgeous – though bloody expensive as are the even more mechanically innovative Miduals ( http://www.midual.com/ ) …also from ‘La Belle France’. As andrew said….a few more than Oz. (but I’ll let them off for the Britten and the Carberry).
    Pictured is my brother’s unrestored, first kick starting, 1922 Soyer 250cc (one owner before him!)

  3. Beautiful. Pricey for what you are getting. To use the words “The idea of sacrificing quality in hopes of slashing prices takes away the motorcycle’s natural nobility, as if the object itself is no longer of importance.” is a bit of an overstatement.
    Demand will always affect the price. If you don’t have the manpower to build more than a few hundred bikes a year; someone has to pay right.

  4. Do you have a distributor in Australia yet…if so who and where are they located..would like to see these bikes up close instead of just pictures on the web….

  5. I like the look of the bike “but” if I were you I would kick the single pipe look to the curb.

  6. In my estimation there are no true French Motocycle manufacturers in existence anymore. Avinton doesn’t manufacture its own motorcycles it assembles fancy frames, wheels and gas tanks around an American S&S built V-Twin. It’s the same with the Janus motorcycle company of Indiana in the US. There they assemble a retro-mod styled motorcycle around a Chinese 250CC engine and say it’s made in America. It’s not it’s partially made in America. A true manufacturer builds a motorcycle from the ground up including its motor. It can buy its steel from another country and it electronics and rubber from outside of the country but then that’s all. When Avinton can sell a number of strong utilitarian bikes to the Gendarmes and the Police nationale or even the French military, then they can pat themselves on their shoulders and say “proudly made in France”!

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