BFG / MBK 1300 - Boxeur Français

BFG 1300 Brochure

Long time followers of OddBike and Bike-urious will recall that one of my early subjects was the wonderfully horrid Brazilian Amazonas 1600. It’s become one of my fondest profiles, one that was an important part of the development of the OddBike concept celebrating (and poking fun at) the weirdest motorcycles I could dig up. For those unfamiliar with the Amazonas, the short version is it is a thoroughly terrible overweight pig of a machine powered by a Volkswagen Beetle engine that was borne of the necessity of subverting punitive Brazilian tariffs on imported vehicles, in a desperate attempt to build a Harley-esque machine that could serve the local police forces.

BFG 1300 Brochure

Today on Bike-urious I present the Amazonas’ sophisticated French cousin, who is probably even more obscure than her Latin-American counterpart: behold the BFG/MBK 1300, another ill-fated attempt at stuffing an automotive engine into a heavyweight motorcycle.

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BFG 1300 Brochure

Interesting Links:
Moto Club BFG
BFG 1300 Photos
Amazonas 1600
Van Veen OCR
Moto Francaise MF 650
BFG 1300 in the Lane Motor Museum in Tennessee
BFG Wiki
Citroen GS Wiki
Citroen G-Series Boxer Wiki
Review of the pre-production BFG GTA and GTB
Citroenet information of the BFG and MF
BFG 1300 fan page with some handy parts cross references

BFG 1300 Brochure

Citroen G Series Boxer Engine

BFG 1300s escorting Pope John Paul II

Bimota DB3 - Much Maligned Mantra

Sacha Lakic Design

For any Italophilic sport rider, there are few marques than can equal the beauty and desirability offered by the motorcycles produced by Bimota. Starting with their fortuitous decision to start building bikes instead of HVAC equipment in 1972, Bimota has earned its reputation producing some of the most delectable two-wheeled exotica in the world by assembling world-class sport machines around proven, bought-in powertrains. They are one of the few companies that can consistently take top-shelf engines from already capable machines and then make those donor bikes look staid, slow and boring in comparison to what the folks in Rimini have been slapping together in their laughably tiny "factory" since the Nixon administration.

The DB3 Mantra is not one of those machines. Nor was it ever intended to be. The Mantra represents one of Bimota's bigger missteps, an attempt to crack into a wider market that failed to win over many fans. It was expensive and saddled with some of the most controversial styling ever put into production. It was also one of the most useable real-world street bikes ever produced by the company, a fact lost in the unending stream of negative commentary that has dogged the Mantra since it was unveiled in 1994.

Voxan - Café (Racer) Français

Image Source

When you think of big sporting V-twins and café-styled roadsters, what do you picture? Italy and Great Britain maybe - well-groomed Latin men astride thundering sports machines or perhaps greasy-haired rockers congregating outside a bar.

It’s unlikely you’d imagine Issoire, a quaint town filled with medieval architecture situated in the heart of France.