It’s been almost seven years since we first wrote about Wakan Motorcycles and the Wakan 1640, a French V-Twin sport bike, designed around an S&S 1640 and wrapped in a minimal frame, the idea was to emulate the AC Cobra, installing a big American powerplant in a small and light European chassis. I thought it looked great, as did many of you, though as a few years passed and the short run of prototypes remained the only units produced, it began to appear that another motorcycle brand would be stillborn. They were looking for investors with the aim of building them here in the USA, they even showed up at an S&S bike show to generate a bit of interest, but they left empty handed and Wakan seemed to disappear.
Well, they didn’t disappear, they’ve come back as Avinton Motorcycles, rebadged with a new logo, but pretty much the same bike we saw when the Wakan first appeared. Current specs show 120 horsepower and 120 foot pounds with a wet weight of 430 pounds. Primary drive is Kevlar belt, final drive is chain. The air intake above the false tank is still there, the fuel is carried below the seat. It still lo
