Vanguard's Roadster Will Give You Serious Motorcycle Goals!

Published December 15, 2016
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2 min read

At $30,000, the Roadster is quite expensive

USA is a funny place, you don’t see concepts cars or bikes there, you see cars and bikes that you can buy and look way better than any concepts you can find on the internet. I mean, have you seen how the Confederate bikes look? I still can’t believe that they are production bikes despite our very own MS Dhoni owning one of them. The latest, and which I find even more exciting than a confederate, is the Vanguard Roadster. The bike is the brainchild of a New York-based startup, Vanguard, and is here to set some new benchmarks for premium and exclusive superbikes.

The first thing that you notice is the huge air-cooled 1917cc V-twin engine, which has been infused into the structural frame of the bike as a supporting member. The engine produces a hefty 149Nm of torque which is sent to the rear wheel via a shaft and a 6-speed gearbox. Moreover, the fat front (130/60 VR18) and rear (240/40 VR18 or 200/50 ZR18) Metzeler tyres are expected to offer exceptional grip.

The bike also features Ohlins fully adjustable 46mm front forks and an Ohlins single shock unit at the back, suspended via a single-sided swingarm. The bike's machine cut alloy wheels get dual 320mm 4-piston callipers up front, while the rear features a 245mm, single disc, 2-piston calliper anchor. One can also notice what the dials inside the primary cover, the valve bearings and the gearbox are doing, thanks to the glass covers at these places.

The roadster also features an infotainment screen with a rearview camera, hence no rear view mirrors. It also gets a cafe racer-like carbon fibre fuel tank.

Vanguard Roadster swingarm with shaft drive

A similar design can be seen on the Confederate motorcycles, which is because Vanguard's design head, Edward Jacobs, is a former Confederate designer. He says that the easy availability of manufacturing technologies like 3D printing has helped smaller players to match the standard of big companies. Interestingly, Jacobs is also a student of martial art and before 2005, he had spent a year in Kerela learning the age-old discipline of Kalaripayattu. I wonder if that has played a role as an inspiration for the bike.