Greg’s had a busy weekend, sculpting this masterpiece in the medium of vegetables. Impressive as it is, we’ll be sticking to clay in future!

A true racer. Super Sic, you will be missed.

The Rieju RS3 125 is out now. It is the culmination of a lot of blood, sweat (tried clay modelling in a Barcelona summer?) and tears but judging by the first reviews the results were worth it…

“The Rieju RS3 125LC looks drop-dead gorgeous through the impressionable eyes of a seventeen year-old. Through slightly more jaundiced eyes (mine) it look pretty good, too. A beautifully fabricated alloy swingarm, upside down forks, radial front caliper and lightweight alloy wheels aren’t the sort of spec’ that you’d expect on a learner bike. In terms of specification the Rieju knocks the opposition into a cocked Arai.”
-Visordown

“If this bike had been about when I was 16 I would happily have sold my parents for it.”
- MCN

Auto India February 2011

Congratulations to Royal Enfield who have been awarded the ‘Best Brand (2 wheelers)’ in Auto India’s annual awards, for the 3rd time in a row. Royal Enfield also climbed 7 places from last year’s 9th position to this year’s 2nd position for ‘Best Styling’.

Auto India February 2011

The team at Royal Enfield have been working very hard on all aspects of the business so it’s great to see them getting recognition for their efforts and exciting to be working with a company moving forward at great pace.

Looking forward to a first place next year…

Last week we made a trip down to Harris Performance in Hertford to see progress on the Mac Spud prototype. Our first chance to see it first hand ‘in the metal’ was worth waiting for. The chaps at Harris have done an excellent job interpreting the drawings and the size and proportions are spot on.

There are still a few issues to be resolved but progress is being made and Spud should be making a visit back to Xenophya Towers soon for some bodywork.

For details on the build so far check Motorcycle News on Wednesday 15th September.
Thanks to Ellis Pitt (Mac Motorcycles) and Dan Aspel (MCN) for the photos.

From November 10-15, in Hall 6 stand L18 of the Milano Fiera, this third-generation Rieju RS model will be shown to the public for the first time. Rieju has developed this completely new ‘ground up design’ working in close collaboration with Xenophya Design and PTW engineering services consultancy, ArianeTech Ingeniería.

An evolution of the original RS concept, the new RS3 combines sport bike technology with comfort and versatility aimed squarely at the youth market.

These images give a glimpse into the design process; including design studies and sketches, photos from the clay model construction process and CAD images.

Aimed at the small capacity sports bike segment the RS3 it is an important ‘flagship’ model for Rieju.

Working closely with the team at ArianeTech the designers at Xenophya worked on ‘Juliet’, as the model was known internally, sketching loose concepts, subsequently applying those ideas to the concurrently developing package.

“We didn’t have too much of a design brief; but our core intention was to have a MotoGP inspired design language – pure, simple and direct. There is certainly some GP8 and M1 influence in the sketches. We also spent a lot of time looking at light weight historical racing 125s and 250s.” says Mark Wells. “We wanted the design to have a layered feel and to reveal surface details and visual interest, as you looked closer. There are subtle ‘character lines’ in the surfaces which give the appearance sheet material stretched over a structure. The silhouette of a classic racer interplays with the volumetric forms of a contemporary sports bike.

The design team then went straight from this 2D development into a full scale clay model. This was created by hand over a 6 week period, then digitized and developed digitally.  “We make a clay model because it’s much better to see the design develop in three dimensions. You feel the form more tangibly with a physical clay model than you can in CAD. The model emerges from the clay as the design develops, it’s a bit like a camera coming into focus.” says Mark Wells. “You start by getting basic volumes and proportions correct then as the model progresses the image becomes more distinct and clear as lines and surface language are refined. The first aspect to any design that we register are its proportions and clay allows us to develop this in a natural manner; with clay you get craftsmanship and the human-hand touch.”

Once the clay model was signed off Scan data was re-surfaced using a number of modelling software packages to produce high quality NURBS surfaces with smooth transitions and curvature. Throughout the process the industrial design team at Xenophya continued to liaise with the Design Engineers at ArianeTech to ensure smooth transition from concept to production.

Ellis has collaborated with the team at Xenophya for the past 9 months to design a small range of lightweight, air-cooled singles using the 500cc Buell ‘Blast’ motor in a tubular backbone frame.

Ellis explains “Between us we’d designed, modified, built and ridden all sorts of motorcycles over the last 30 years and thought it was time to produce a motorcycle that reflected our philosophy. Our influences have been diverse and we’ve made unusual connections between genres of motorcycles such as choppers, Italian singles from the 1950s, flat-trackers and competition specials. What underpins Mac Motorcycles’ philosophy though is the belief that the riding experience and the stories that go with motorcycle journeys seem to have been hijacked by technology and plastic.”

There are 4 different models ; ‘Spud’, for dossing about on, ‘Ruby’, the motorcycle equivalent of ‘the girl-next-door’, ‘Peashooter’, for squirting to your favourite pub and gassing with your mates and the ‘Roarer’, a modern-day dinosaur-chaser! The company initially plans to produce a few hundred bikes in small batches increasing production as appropriate.

During the last recession, Ellis, a product designer by background, grew his family’s business into a successful furniture manufacturing business before selling it in 1995. Since then he has combined work as a business adviser with design thinking, frequently developing successful products through a number of UK high street retailers.

Based in the small English town of Upton-Upon-Severn in Worcestershire, Mac Motorcycles plan to market this unique new range of motorcycles throughout the world. Bikes will be made in small batches for markets in the UK, North America and Japan, with customers in France and Australia in-mind too. Depending on your preferred specification and tuning options, you could expect to buy any one of these bikes for between £ 8k – £ 10k.

Ellis explains “We would welcome comments and enquiries from your readers and we’ll be happy to keep you posted as we start building a little more of Great Britain’s motorcycle history.”

Additional information is contained in the company’s new web site at
www.mac-motorcycles.com

The TTXGP is the world’s first ‘Clean Emission Grand Prix’, to be held as part of TT week at the Isle of Man in June 2009. The TTXGP provides an exciting showcase for innovators in racing and emerging clean emission technology to compete and demonstrate the potential that these new technologies have to offer.

Experienced motorsports Engineers; Evo Design Solutions approached Xenophya for help with styling and obtaining press exposure. Illustrations were produced to generate interest in the project as well as demonstrate the potential of the innovative ‘clam shell’ monocoque chassis. The monocoque, developed by Peter Williams in conjunction with Lotus, is coupled with an evolution of the Yamaha GTS1000 double wishbone suspension. This offers a platform that is incredibly stiff yet should also prove stable around the course, vital for the confidence of 2007 ManxGP winner Olie Linsdell who will ride the EV-0RR around the legendary island and fully intends to be the first name on the TTXGP Trophy.

With just under 100 days to go until race day, there’s a lot to do but we very much look forward to seeing this exciting bike progress. TTXGP could be the forerunner to motorsport in the future and Xenophya Design are proud to be involved from the beginning.

More information on the EV-0RR including Xenophya’s illustrations are available in this weeks Motorcycle News. For more details on the TTXGP click here.