MOTOR CYCLE
NEWS, January 11, 1978.
NVT trail bike
date
NVT
MOTORCYCLES’ long awaited dual purpose 125 trail bike is due to go into
production in March with a mystery still surrounding the type of engine that
will be used to power it. The British company has already formed a link with Yamaha
to produce Anglo-Japanese police bikes and use Oriental engines to power their range of Easy Rider mopeds but a veil of
secrecy has been drawn over the origin of the power plant that will be used for
the trail bike. All the company will say is that it is a two stroke single
cylinder motor.
The machine,
which has been christened the Rambler, was first shown to the Press two years
ago with a special mock-up engine used for the purpose, since then there have
been several cosmetic changes to the design and there is talk that the eventual
product may have a European rather than Oriental engine as at first thought. NVT
sales director Mike Jackson is remaining tight lipped about the rumours but
claims the Rambler which has cantilever rear suspension will be very
competitive in both price and performance. "We know the price we will set to
within £10 or £20 but we will be watching the opposition over the next few
months to see what they are doing," he said.
The initial
talks with dealers have been very encouraging and have resulted in “provisional
orders even though they have not seen the machine. Mr Jackson says the factory
will be producing hundreds rather than thousands of the bikes during the year
but hopes to have claimed ten per cent share of the street/trail market by the
end of '78. Asked if there were any plans to produce the bike in pure road going
form Mr Jackson said they were being careful not to over stretch themselves at
this stage.
"We
want to do one thing at a time, We are a small operation and could easily over stretch
ourselves. There are lots of things we would like to do if we had the time,
resources and finance." The Rambler - which will be available in a choice
of either red or blue finishes - was originally going to be shown at the Racing
and Sporting Motor Cycle, Show but illnesses at the factory made it impossible
for them to have the special display model ready in time. A new pre-launch
debut date has still to be fixed.
Note the pre production exhaust shape on this image Other than that, it looks pretty much as produced.
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