So who builds a bike like this?
‘The main part of the business has been backpack aircraft’, says Gilo Cardozo, founder of Gilo Industries, the aerospace outfit behind Rotron and Crighton. ‘You have a paraglider wing and a backpack engine, and we build thousands. Brian Crighton and I met when I was flying over Everest with one in 2007 – I was struggling to get enough power so decided to use a rotary and heard of a guru in Birmingham. He showed me how to get power and we went to 30,000 feet. ‘I realised there was a whole aircraft industry using rotary engines. I offered Brian a job and he got involved to build helicopter engines out of what were originally Norton engines. We evolved it into a very specific aircraft engine. We sell thousands for unmanned aircraft. I’m not sure anyone has put the hours of testing into rotaries that we have. We have six dynos, sometimes all running 24 hours a day. ‘About 11 years ago we started building Brian’s first bike, based on the Norton but with wider rotors. We then did aero engine work based around the wider rotor, and five years ago I said the time has come to develop a specific bike engine. I put an engineer full-time with Brian. Everything from the ground up is for this engine; it’s a new game. We’re getting good efficiency, phenomenal torque and no vibration. ‘We’ll make 25, and Brian is assembling every one himself, and he’ll deliver them. A bunch are going to Japan and quite a few to the US, but I want at least five to stay in the UK. And in the UK there’s so much interest for a road-legal version we’ll do a limited edition of 250. And I’d like to think that would lead us to be able to do British Superbikes and get it back on the track.’