Cruiser Bikes
The engines in these bikes are unique and sought after by custom bike builders due to them being manufactured from solid billets of aluminium instead of castings – so they are very easy to polish.
The smaller of the bikes – The Monos (which is Greek for 'The Only One') – has an engine size of approximately 2.5 litres. The Titan – a copy of a bike that Melling made purely for himself initially, where he sculpted the cylinders of the engine to look like the American fighter planes of the Second World War. The engine on the Titan is 4.5 litres and it totally different to other engines of bikes in a similar category – it stands completely on its own in terms of concept.
How the Monos came into being: At that time Melling had a contract to redesign the Indian Motorcycle engine in America. He acquired one of the Indian Chief motorcycles and he was quite appalled with some of the design features and especially the engine. He redesigned the engine, to the benefit of Indian Motorcycles and also advised them on various aspects of the bike. At the same time he had a contract to design a similar V twin engine for a new company; Viper Motorcycles in Minnesota. After extensive evaluations of the Indian engine, various Harley Davidson and other American engines, he designed a completely new engine for Viper – which was very successful and is still in production.
In this context he decided to design a range of completely motorcycles – the first of which is named after his yacht – Monos. Subsequently his company began production on this range of heavy cruiser motorcycles similar to Viper/Indian/Harley Davidson.
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