British Mac Motorcycles unveils range of Buell-engined bikes

The once dominant British Motorcycle Industry does not have a lot of champion brands left these days with only Triumph competitive on a global scale. Now a new marque will fly the Union Jack with the news that a British motorcycle company named Mac Motorcycles is set to produce a range of four lightweight, air-cooled singles using the 500cc Buell ‘Blast’ motor in a tubular backbone frame. Expected pricing is in the UKP 8,000 -10,000 (USD$12,750 to USD$16,000) bracket.

Company founderounder Ellis Pitt has been collaborating with one of the UK’s leading motorcycle design studios, Xenophya Design, for the last nine months to create the new range of four motorcycles which will all be based around the same basic layout. The company initially plans to produce a few hundred bikes in small batches increasing production as appropriate.

The quirkily named models are described by the company as; ‘Spud’, for dossing about on, ‘Ruby’, the motorcycle equivalent of ‘the girl-next-door’, ‘Peashooter’, for squirting to your favorite pub and gassing with your mates and the ‘Roarer’, a modern-day dinosaur-chaser!

“Between us we’d designed, modified, built and ridden all sorts of motorcycles over the last 30 years and thought it was time to produce a motorcycle that reflected our philosophy”, said Ellis.

“Our influences have been diverse and we’ve made unusual connections between genres of motorcycles such as choppers, Italian singles from the 1950s, flat-trackers and competition specials. What underpins Mac Motorcycles’ philosophy though is the belief that the riding experience and the stories that go with motorcycle journeys seem to have been hijacked by technology and plastic.”

According to the press release, “During the last recession, Ellis, a product designer by background, grew his family company into a successful furniture manufacturing business before selling it in 1995. Since then he has combined work as a business adviser with design thinking, frequently developing successful products through a number of UK high street retailers.”

Based in the small English town of Upton-Upon-Severn in Worcestershire, Mac Motorcycles plans to market the range of motorcycles throughout the world. Bikes will be made in small batches for markets in the UK, North America and Japan, “with customers in France and Australia in-mind too.” Depending on your preferred specification and tuning options, you can expect to pay between UKP 8,000 and UKP 10,000.

Ellis explains “We would welcome comments and enquiries from your readers and we’ll be happy to keep you posted as we start building a little more of Great Britain’s motorcycle history.”

Best of British luck to the new company! From little acorns …