Inside Langen Motorcycles

British motorcycle manufacturing is on the rise, and leading the charge among small-batch builders is Wigan-based Langen Motorcycles, with its £33,600 Two Stroke café racer.

The company was founded by Christofer Ratcliffe, who left his job as Chief Design Engineer at CCM to pour his life into the project, selling his family’s cottage and car to get it off the ground.

“I was pimping myself out doing other engineering projects just for cash to buy a CAD package,” he laughs. “It paid the bills while we were developing our fun stuff.” One such project was R&D for a prototype modular battery system, supported by three government innovation grants.

But the hard work paid off, and the first prototype was unveiled at the 2020 Salon Privé. At the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Jenny Tinmouth became the first person outside the company to ride it.

The machine’s provenance is as interesting as its elaborate form. The engine came first – originally a furious 95bhp GP race engine designed by a former Ferrari engineer, it caught Ratcliffe’s eye at EICMA six years ago.

“I just saw the bike in the corner and thought ‘this is the best thing at the show’. I was admiring what they’d managed to do with the two-stroke engine to bring it to the modern day – the fuel injection coupled with the two-stroke lubrication, it was just something really clever,” he says.

So followed a speculative and somewhat romantic letter, detailing Ratcliffe’s family history – his father had worked on the CCM two-stroke race bikes – and his own automotive experience. It hit the spot with designer Vincenzo Mattia, who granted Langen the exclusive agreement to use the 250cc 90° vee in Europe. Through careful management of the patented fuel injection and ECU-controlled lubrication system, the thoroughbred v-twin was moulded into a DVSA-compliant road-going powertrain, with ample torque on tap and a peak of 76hp in the powerband (9,500-11,700 rpm). And Langen’s small team set about building the bike around it, throwing out the motorcycle manufacturer’s rulebook in favour of innovation.

“The main drive was getting everything as simple and pure, intuitive and lightweight as possible,” Ratcliffe says. As a result, the Two Stroke weighs just 120kg, with a power-to-weight ratio of in excess of 600hp per tonne.

For components that weren’t produced inhouse, Langen looked to UK-based manufacturers. “Everything is custom to this bike, apart from the tyres.” Ratcliffe proudly says.

For style, the team drew influence from past machines, from the lines of classic Vincents to the trellis frame of the Ducati Monster. It worked, and more than three-quarters of the 100 models are now sold, with deliveries forecast from November. Some are going to the USA, while a handful are reserved for Japan, where Langen has just appointed a distributor, ahead of showcasing the bike at March’s Tokyo Motorcycle Show. Then, Langen will release a retrofittable race pack for the fleet.

When all 100 are gone, so too may be the chance of riders getting their hands on a Langen two-stroke. While Ratcliffe hopes to build another, he’s painfully aware that changing legislation may prevent it. Currently, their efforts are on a larger capacity four-stroke, in a ‘completely different style’. It will share much with the Two Stroke, Ratcliffe promises. “It will be much lighter than any competitor – perhaps two-thirds of the weight – and it will be manufactured in the UK.”

“It will again be all about the connection to the rider and the dynamic performance of the bike. It will be exciting, hopefully beautiful and adorned with very nice components and materials – much like the Two Stroke is now. It will be built initially in limited numbers as a UK version, but then we will create an unlimited version for international markets.”

It is one of three new models in Langen’s five-year plan. Future machines may well be electric, or powered by synthetic fuels, Ratcliffe concludes, “But in the meantime we’re going to make as many fun combustion bikes as possible.”