A Superbike Like No Other

A SUPERBIKE LIKE NO OTHER

SUPERCHARGED, FUEL INJECTED AND IRREPLACEABLE, WITH MORE HORSEPOWER THAN A ZX-11

SUPERBIKES ARE NOT SUBTLE. THIS ONE certainly is not. It exists because its owner, Fresno, California-based collector Paul Watts, asked a highly skilled and respected German engineer to build, with no regard to cost, the ultimate motorcycle.

The engineer involved, none other than Friedei Münch, complied. The result was this bike. It is a Horex-Titan, the third of five such bikes built by Münch before a stroke, suffered in 1991, forced him into semi-retirement. Each of the five is individual to the point of idiosyncrasy; this one may be the most desirable of the lot. It almost certainly is the most elaborate and the most powerful.

Münch is the man who hand-built Mammut motorcycles around air-cooled NSU car engines. The Titan’s crankcase is from that air-cooled Four, and its oil-cooled head is derived from a liquid-cooled NSU K70 engine. Its crankshaft and cylinder block are custom-built, and provide a bore and stroke of 86.5 x 76.0mm for a displacement of 1786cc. The engine gets its estimated 160

horsepower partly from being fuel injected, and partly from the supercharger it wears, one of three such units built by Felix Wankel, father of the rotary engine. Watts says it is the only Wankel-built supercharger on any motorcycle, but he acknowledges that there is at least one non-Wankel-built copy gracing the induction tract of another Titan.

But there is no other Titan like this one. Watts commissioned Münch to build it in 1981, but his connection to Münch dates to 1969, when he bought a new Mammut. “At that time, the Mammut was the most exotic, the highest quality motorcycle in the world,” Watts says, “and also the most expensive.” It was, that is, until 1978, when Watts saw a photo of the first Titan. He had to have one, he says, so he arranged to visit Münch at the latter’s workshop outside Frankfurt. During that visit, the pair conspired upon the design for Titan number three.

Building the bike, Watts says, “Took a lot longer than we imagined. Friedel works by himself, makes all his own patterns, and builds nearly all the bike by himself. Throughout, you see the track of one man’s hand. I went over to see him every year or so, and I wrote to him a lot. Finally in 1986 the bike was completed.”

So pleased was Münch with the result, Watts recalls, that “We rented a hall and had a big coming-out party for the bike, which Friedel firmly believed to be the pinnacle of his work.”

But just because the bike finally was complete didn’t mean it was ready to ride. The worst of its teething problems involved the fuel-injection system. Searching for a solution, Watts shipped the bike to Perry Bushong at BMW of Fort Worth. Bushong himself is a Mammut owner, and, after flying Münch to Fort Worth to help, sorted out most of the fuel-injection system’s problems. The few glitches that remained were banished by a

local Fresno tuner.

“The bike now runs well,” says Watts, “though it’s a bit radical for street use. It makes a whine and a roar that does get attention. It’s like a cross between a dragster and an Indy-car. You sit tall in the saddle, and you handle it with extreme respect. There’s a lot of power, and at 720 pounds, there’s also a lot of weight, so you either give it respect or you get into trouble.”

Watts isn’t one to get into trouble. He has ridden the bike very little. When we saw it, it showed 310 kilometers-about 193 miles-on its odometer.

“The Titan is jewelry,” says Watts, “It’s totally irreplaceable. Thousands of dollars in intricate castings and bodywork would be wrecked if it were to fall off its stand. I don’t want to take a chance on hurting it. It’s too rare to expose to the perils of the street. I’d rather ride something cheap and replaceable.”

Watts politely declines to name the amount he has invested in his Titan. He says only, “Lots, lots of money. I’ve got a whore’s fortune in it.” Not that he cares. “I’m glad I’ve got it,” he says, “there’s nothing else like it in the world. It’s just a fine thing to look at.”

It certainly is that, from its highly complex and detailed engine and its thick, rich paint to the Münch autograph scrawled on the left sidecover. It’s every inch a Superbike. It never was supposed to be subtle. -Jon F. Thompson