FEATURE – 2021 Langen Two Stroke

Words: Mike Ryan

Photos: Langen Motorcycles

If you’re of a certain age and remember lusting after a Suzuki RGV250, Kawasaki KR1-S or Yamaha TZR250 in your youth, you’ll be pleased – and perhaps surprised – to hear that the two-stroke road bike is back. Well, sort of…

This past September, British startup company Langen Motorcycles announced they were going into production with a 250cc two-stroke for the road, not a kid-sized dirt bike or track-only competition machine.

The disclaimer is that Langen’s creation will be limited to the UK - for now.

Maranello Magic

So, how have Langen managed to bring the once mighty two-stroke motorcycle back to the road, especially in a new millennium environment where emissions regulations are getting ever more stringent? The short answer is that modern two-stroke technology is a lot more efficient and a lot less polluting than it was a few decades ago.

Yes, the two-stroke in the Langen creation still burns oil, but modern fuel injection, ECU-controlled oil injection and electronic exhaust valves ensure cleaner and greener operation.

While Langen Motorcycles is British, the heart of their debut model, simply dubbed ‘Two Stroke,’ is Italian.

The engine was developed by Maranello-based company Vins Motors. Given their location, it should come as no surprise that Vins was born from a cadre of former Ferrari engineers.

Vins’ two-stroke R&D started five years ago, aimed at reducing the emissions problems, like excess oil burning and unburnt fuel reaching the exhausts, that have characterised two-strokes in the past, as well as the inconvenience of having to pre-mix fuel.

The major outcome of Vins's research was the application of fuel- and oil-injection, where the petrol is injected into the combustion chamber in the same way as a modern four-stroke, while a separate injector supplies oil for lubrication. With each set of injectors linked via an ECU, delivery is adjusted depending on engine rpm, so excess oil burning, for example, is kept to a minimum, especially at low revs.

The tech does take some getting your head around, and old-time two-stroke fettlers will no doubt understand it better than the rest of us, but the outcome is an engine that has markedly reduced emissions without impacting performance.

Vins applied these learnings to create a 90-degree v-twin of 250cc capacity, where the injectors and carbon fibre reed valves nestle in the channel of the vee. Producing 75hp (60kW) and 33lb/ft (45Nm), with a redline of 14,500rpm, the engine was first offered by VIns in their own ‘Duecinquanta’ (250) model, a sportsbike with a carbon fibre frame and headstock, carbon fibre bodywork and wheels, cassette-type gearbox and other exotic goodies.

Being motorsport-focussed, Vins hadn’t really considered broadening the applications of their engine technology beyond a top-end sportsbike. It was down to Langen’s Christofer Ratcliffe to take the Vins two-stroke and give it a more road-friendly application.

Takin’ it to the Street

Ratcliffe founded Langen Motorcycles in 2019, after serving a decade as chief design engineer with British motorcycle manufacturer CCM.

According to Ratcliffe, Langen Motorcycles was established with the aim of producing motorcycles that offer the “simplicity and purity of days gone by”. Choosing a classically-inspired café racer as the launch model Two Stroke certainly fulfills that brief.

“My dream has always been to create a small piece of British motorcycling history. To be able to launch this special motorcycle under a completely new brand really is a dream come true,” said Ratcliffe.

Langen isn’t aiming to be a volume manufacturer. Rather, the goal is to be a boutique brand, producing small numbers of specifically themed and styled bikes to suit a limited market.

“The aim is to continue to push boundaries and create more interesting bikes, which we hope will really please people,” Ratcliffe added.

Production of the Two Stroke will initially be limited to 100 units for the UK, with each one hand-built to order. While there will be common base elements, Langen will work with each customer to personalize the bike to their taste and requirements.

Those common elements include the two-stroke engine, of course, as well as a trellis-style aluminium tube frame and swingarm, and carbon fibre bodywork. The frame tubes Langen use are 1.5-inch aerospace-spec aluminium, CNC machined and bonded, with various brackets and other parts CNC-machined from billet aluminium, too.

Surprisingly, there are no castings for any parts produced in-house, but Langen do hand-lay all the carbon fibre bodywork themselves, which includes the fuel tank, bellypan, seat/tail unit and headlight bowl.

Thanks to the extensive use of aluminium and carbon fibre, listed weight of the Two Stroke is just 114kg sans fuel, meaning power-to-weight is 0.52kW/kg.

Bought-in components include Öhlins forks, Brembo brake discs and an Acewell speedo, but Langen deliberately chose British brands where possible, so there are Hel Performance calipers, K-Tech rear shocks and Dunlop tyres in the standard specification.

The made-to-order nature of the Two Stroke means a selection of these components can be swapped or upgraded as per customer request, with variations also available in the paint and anodized finishes, as well as more substantial things like bodywork modifications. Langen says they can also modify the bike’s ergonomics to suit individual needs. Of course, the more a customer deviates from the Two Stroke’s standard spec, the more it adds to the price of a unit that starts at a substantial £28,000 (AU$50,000 approx.).

Café Style

The choice of a café racer for the Two Stroke’s aesthetics is as much a case of pandering to the popularity of that style of bike as it is a reflection of Ratcliffe’s personal passion for the exploits of the ‘Ton Up Boys’ from the 1950s and ‘60s.

Seen in profile, the café racer styling is obvious, but the exhaust system’s expansion chambers and two-exit exhaust harks back to two-stroke GP bikes of the past, too.

Typical café racer features, like the clip-on bars, rearsets, ducktail, wire spoke wheels and an old-style circular headlight, have been modernized with carbon fibre finishes, LED lighting and heavy use of anodization.

The instrument pod features a digital and analogue tacho display, the rear shocks are modern remote reservoir rear units and the 320mm dual front brake discs are gripped by meaty calipers.

There’s no ABS, which is unusual on any modern road bike, but this is a quirk of the laws that permit the Two Stroke to be sold in the UK.

Known as Single Vehicle Approval, the law allows small-volume vehicles like the Two Stroke to be road-registered without ABS or the need to meet the same Euro5 emissions rules and noise regulations as vehicles sold in large volume. Should Langen expand production, or move into Europe and other overseas markets, Euro5 compliance, a lower decibel limit and ABS would become mandatory.

While Ratcliffe is only focussed on the UK market at present, he has been working on addressing these issues and Vins are working on a Euro5-compliant engine, too, so if the demand is there, so is the capability to meet those requirements.

Concours Response

The Two Stroke made its official public debut at the Salon Prive concours this past September and the response was overwhelming. Within a few weeks of the event, more than a third of Two Stroke production had been pre-ordered.

But like everyone else, Langen has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. UK production is assured, with the first customer units to be delivered by mid-2021, but expansion beyond the British Isles now seems less certain, and early plans to offer 150 units outside the UK may now be scaled back or abandoned altogether.

That means if we Aussies want to hear that specific metallic zing of a two-stroke and get a whiff of that unmistakable smell, we’ll have to head to a junior MX gathering or historic race meet. Either that or purchase a classic two stroker of our own – there’s plenty of them to be found in JUST BIKES!