Bikes Trip: I TRAVEL TO CHECK MY DREAMS

Gerard de Nerval was right, the personal accomplishment often with a beginning that there was no warning and a sum of coincidences equally hard to conjure that provide . The trip…

Yet there journey and trip. The first type is the one that is best known. We decide to go, we go to a place and it comes back. Basic. The second, he is much rarer but so deep that the most difficult is to put the right words without distorting the thoughts acquired at the time. I want of course talking about the journey of the human adventures.

 

Dear reader, I take you today in this kind of trip. A journey of passion or passion for the human adventure. Choose the option that suits you, a deep breath and remember when you were a kid. You know? When you pass a window of a dealership where stands the machine that makes us shine eyes, that which we say decades later “this was the one I wanted to have when I was little.” Then time passes. Pocket permits. First fiancée. First Premier P.V. accident. First mate disappeared. First all.

It turns it to thirty brooms and one day, entering a dealership on a Saturday afternoon, we see a kid watching a machine on a platform but something has changed. We should be happy to see in the mirror of time and yet there was something missing. We do not know what. Then you understand. Years passed, the urge is still there of course, but passion, her, may be a little breathless. But sometimes it takes very little and this is after a few clicks on the internet I discovered Avinton.

What is it? A French motorcycle brand. The idea is simple but effective, bringing talent in various fields and put them at the service of a cause: to create a motorcycle. Simple yes, but really beautiful on a human level.

By reading their website, I was immersed in another world. That of a small workshop where seems to be some atmosphere I thought was totally gone. At the end of my reading, I told myself, I wanted something …

Visit the assembly hall:

The decision was made, and it is with a secret hope of rediscovering what seemed to have disappeared long ago that I visited in the south of the France, in Sommières in the Gard, visit the assembly shop. A visit to another world, a sense of visit, a visit to pure emotions.

When I arrived there I was struck by the simplicity of the place. Far from all the usual frills of big brands is frank and sober.

Arrival. Tightening hands and pass the front door. There, I get a first slap. She was there; Ass facing the rising sun. Without a word, she swung you an impression of fawn. She seemed proud and powerful. I risk a look and bypasses. I then found, by far, facing his face. A fine mine and harmonious flanks. Light reflections on the indentations of his body. A shapely curves on the rear diving. The kind of thing we hope for a long time and, when you find yourself at the time of take action, something blocks us. I dare not approach it right away. Step aside. Intimidation or respect? He who knows the answer speaks!

Then? Do not say a word? Okay, I continue.

The lobby is prolonged. Making contact with the team over coffee and then I invited into the inner sanctum: the assembly shop.

Everything is stored in a manner very neat. The scheme is also simple. Coins are received from the various craftsmen and then pass the assembly. There, each element is first inspected and assembled. One by one. No robot, no automation. None of that here. Only time and thoroughness. You have to understand something very important: here you can not build a motorcycle not. Here, it is shaped, one feels, one student and gives it to its future owner who may also, if he wishes, follow step by step the evolution of his project and come and see his future being mounting. We’re really in another world and that’s what it feels good!

An example can summarize: On a model being assembled, each nut was aligned opposite each screw to the exact balance to where it had to be mounted on the bike. When told that, everything has been said. As everything is handmade, everything is possible, as the personification of the paintings, installation of a particular subject or modification of a particular room. Everything can be examined according to the wishes of each. Clearly, we come up with a project, we discuss, it is working and, after a few months, we see his dream become reality.

Another example: the engines are Smith and Smith (S) known in the world of custom. But then, this engine has been specially designed to Avinton. A V-twin engine (for the couple) but with a square section (bore equal to the race) for power. The result is an extraordinary boiler ready to put you into orbit and without falter. Furthermore each engine received from S & S is well removed from Avinton to be inspected and, if it is perfect and consistent, only then it is mounted on the bike. Brough Superior would not have done better.

But back to the real engine of the plant; I am talking here of the human adventure. Why? Because in my view, such a project is not viable without it. Motorcycles are indeed assembled with bolts but what cements, it is this skill set to put the final object service.

Here, several languages ​​are spoken around the coffee. Sometimes French, sometimes in English or German. It is in the mix of genres that have it can find the most unexpected results. And the result is up to the expectation. But turn to more concrete things: testing

Her name ROADSTER

Back to the lobby. This time I can not go back. I need to approach it. After all, it is also somewhat a matter of honor. I learn his first name: Roadster.

What struck me is the general appearance of the beast: racy, typed, but off a fine impression of power and balance. I asked her permission to go. She did not respond and let me take her handlebars. Ignition on, starter who embarks on a sound shy then suddenly we hear a noise low, you feel vibrations, resonance is felt. We then see that the engine is slowing. The beautiful willingly allows us his back available but we indicated in his deep voice he’ll have it accepts us.

A ride on the surrounding roads. So how to say … this bike speaks to us. Yes, I know you’ll think I smoked the carpet. Yet it’s true. This bike speaks to us. It works the way: The view for beauty; touch … for the heat we feel against her leg up this is also taken as a defect in some tests but I have found it very useful. We know when the engine is up to temperature .. . for the vibrations that seem to rise, with delicacy, from the bottom of the belly of the beast; Finally hearing, with the hoarse sound of the engine but also the “click” on the opening and closing the intake valve of air located above the false tank, a few tens of centimeters from snout.

The plumage is related to the song. The lean angle seem easy. I say appears because I do not dare to rush. This is not any machine I have in my hands. So as not to go tickle its limits. The accuracy is nevertheless feels that is appropriate with a mass transfer more intuitive. It gives you confidence but it is respect that hinders … which slows it less strong elsewhere. It is equipped with a four-disk system. And there, I can tell you that a simple fingertip pressure is enough to stick his head in the visor. Metal tamed by two phalanges and dreams put into orbit by rotating the wrist. Here.

Well some time to take a little hand and then I turn the thing a bit more grip. There, it is a slap. It grows, it blows, pulls it and we feel that the horse snorts. He raring to go but his jumper is not too reckless. Already, he has made him a strong impression for a few seconds. Then, after releasing the handle, I realize a detail that will convince me definitively on this engine: I accelerated only half …

Back at the factory:

Articulation and smile. Not a beatific smile no, but something deeper. A sort of cross between the pride of having tamed a wild animal but knowing that it was very tame compared to what he is capable of giving. Finally, the beast had accepted me. Oh, no doubt it will take me even to try hard to tame it completely. It always warns but never bites. It is exceptional and she knows it. Still, she no longer speaks to me with that haughty air. She will not crush me but with me to something else. Companion travel and journeys. Inaccessible and docile. Wild and playful. Paradox whizzing by in a haze that comes from living despite many years to use the roads ….

There was discussion around another coffee. We are talking. They are only a handful. There’s almost nothing left and settled in a region where the economic situation is difficult. They trusted to many local craftsmen (eg Journet facilities for welding different parts like swing arm … or Ferris Son who makes the stool), but also to manufacturers whose reputation is to do as, among others, Beringer, Arrow or Andrews.

With 80% of production destined for export, Avinton is now present in several countries in Europe and in the world (France, Germany, Switzerland, England, Japan, Malaysia, India) and plans to expand this beautiful expertise to other territories while maintaining the desire to keep a small production on a human scale. This in order not to enter into a logic of pure profit and hard to keep the side “single object”.

In the end, they made not a motorcycle but by leveraging the talents and human qualities of each, an object capable of reviving the great passion. And that is, I think, their best win! But there are others …

For heart GALA 2015:

What is it? A simple idea and beautiful again: at this gala chaired by Tony Parker, a Avinton that has been built especially for the occasion will be auctioned and the funds will be donated to help sick children. This year, the sponsor of the gala will be held Omar Sy and late September in Paris!

In the sum-up conclusion:

All this is the result of cooperation of people as surprising as complementary. A nice snub to our sometimes too marketing company.

So yes, of course, everyone will be a review of the different models on the various tests will be delighted critical or short, everyone will find something to say on this concept.

But it is good to be able to find in the mirror the look of this kid that was in front of our mechanical dreams. We all one day experience this feeling. Feeling that later we will return to our great brotherhood. There are stories there, sensations, memories, bitterness and so many other things.

It is also true that these bikes are not those that are found at all street corners, that they are objects of great class but they are part of the few bikes that if we acquire them, will talk about them in several decades by the mouth of our grandchildren who will say: “There, beside my electric grinder is the bike of my grandfather He bought it when he was 40 years. have fun, rode with the rest of his life and was never sold in remembrance of him. Well she walks to gasoline but before, it seems that it was very common! ” Admit that two wheels that could cause such a discussion is very rare.

After free to you, the reader, to go for a ride on the net Page Avinton. Maybe you’ll find a little of what I have written and maybe you’ll get that desire to call to request information …

But in any case one thing is sure …… The idea seemed good enough to be told.