Another American V-Twin

ANOTHER AMERICAN V-TWIN

AMERICAN have to be MOTORCYCLES powered by V-Twin engines, right? And their styling has to be nostalgia-oriented, right?

The good folks at Harley-Davidson would agree, and so, apparently, would the parties behind the various schemes to revitalize the fabled Indian motorcycle. But Glen Laivins, senior associate at Next World Design Inc., in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, isn’t so sure.

Laivins and company buy into the V-Twin concept, but recently decided to challenge the notion that American motorcycle styling has to be nostalgic.

The result of Next World’s challenge is a styling exercise called the Apache American VTwin. It is a concept that Laivins and his partners arrived at after reasoning that “American styling will erode as foreign competitors imitate it and incorporate their advanced technologies. It will be necessary to have a balance of advanced American design...to retain the V-Twin that is our heritage.”

For the Apache, Next World decided to use some of the same technologies it called for in its KTM Rim Rider concept bike (see Cycle World, February, 1993). One of the most obvious of these is Franco Sbarro’s rimless wheel, employed front and rear. The bike also would use a hydraulic two-wheel-drive system, electronic “fly-by-wire” steering, leaf springs, electronic noise cancellation, anti-lock brakes, an overhead-cam V-Twin with ceramic pistons and an automatic transmission, and would rely on what Laivins calls “smooth lines, modularity and a native-American styling theme-the Apache has the qualities óf wild horses, an Indian headdress.”

As yet, the Apache exists only as a non-runner, but Laivins hopes that will change. The bike, he says, was “created to put a spark into the motorcycle industry.”

Whether that spark will combust into a production machine that carries some of the Apache’s advanced themes remains to be seen. In any case, Laivins says, the Apache has generated tremendous amounts of interest-from would-be

manufacturers, and from enthusiasts looking for photos and posters. -Jon F. Thompson