FAMILY BUSINESS CRANKS IT UP
BRC Engineering designs and builds two-stroke engines for KTM off-road bikes
Looking at the past has brought avid motorcyclist Riley Will into the future. About six years ago, he noticed a trend where dirt bike enthusiasts were rebuilding vintage Honda CR500 two-stroke engines and retrofitting them into modern-day aluminum frames.
“I did that, too,” Will says, adding, “but while I was building that project I kept wishing I wasn’t using old Honda two-stroke technology. Their 500-cc engine develops very abrupt power, and it vibrates significantly.”
Will was in a unique position to do something different. He works with his brother, Carter, at BRC Engineering. This Calgary firm was started in the 1990s as a family venture with their father, Brian, who died early last year.
“I always wanted to race motorcycles when I was younger, and my mom said ‘no way,’ ” Will recalls. “So, we got into karting, and my dad came home with a milling machine, a metal lathe and a bunch of metal. I was always taking apart engines and modifying parts, looking to make more power, and also began designing and fabricating exhaust pipes.”
That early interest for both boys led to careers in mechanical engineering, and BRC began to develop and then market powerful 250-cc two-stroke engines for the kart-racing crowd. The 250FE super kart engine was launched in 2002, and would propel racing karts to 260 km/h.
Further developments led to other kart engines, but the market was fairly small for these fast and reliable motors, especially in Western Canada. Most of them were sold globally, going to Australia, Britain and France.
Looking to diversify, BRC Engineering undertook the development of a prototype 600-cc two-stroke V-twin engine with a continuously variable transmission that was meant for the burgeoning snow-bike market. Snow bikes are based on mass-produced motocross machines that rely on an aftermarket kit to replace the rear wheel with a track and the front wheel with a ski.
BRC had a prototype V-twin running late in 2014, but when the oil and gas sector began to stagnate (many of BRC’s larger contracts were with the energy sector), the company put all further development on hold. But that didn’t mean Will couldn’t pursue a side project. Instead of relying on dated Honda twostroke technology, he decided to see if he could build a 500-cc twostroke single-cylinder engine that would bolt directly into a 2007 to 2016 model year 250 to 300-cc KTM chassis.
“I pulled the 300-cc engine out of a KTM and looked at the chassis and did bore and stroke calculations,” Will explains. “I figured we could design a 500-cc two-stroke to bolt into the KTM frame.”
KTM has built the 250 to 300cc off-road motorcycles since the mid-1980s. According to Will, KTM has produced approximately 400,000 to 600,000 of the 2007 to 2016 models. This, Will figured, presented a good-sized market of possible owners who would like to upgrade the machine with a more powerful 500-cc engine, and BRC moved ahead.
Using laser scanning and 3D printing technology, a mock up engine was built to determine if it could be bolted, fully assembled, into the KTM frame. Indeed, it could, and BRC went directly to casting the components, from engine cases to cylinders and heads. Some components, such as engine side covers and kick-start lever, must come from a donor KTM engine.
“We got our first castings in June this year,” Will says. “By July, we had everything machined and the first engine built. We put together 15 engines in total, 10 to sell and five for personal use.
“Those 10 engines were all sold within three weeks.”
The BRC 500-cc engine to retrofit into the KTM chassis makes approximately 65 horsepower and 50 pound-feet of torque. BRC has now ordered enough castings to construct another 50 engines, half of which are already spoken for. The same power plant, with the cylinder head rotated 180 degrees so the exhaust is routed directly to the rear and their patented CVT bolted on, is in development for the snow-bike market.
“That 500-cc engine is the big news,” Will says. “But we haven’t forgotten about the 600-cc V-twin.”
Will now plans to develop the V-twin and place it in a 2009 Yamaha R6 sportbike chassis.
He’s got help with the projects, and says, “I come up with these crazy ideas, but it’s Steve Buffel, our design manager, who makes them all work.” Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada. Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or gregwilliams@shaw.ca. Driving.ca