JCM ‘VEGA’ 333
Roland Streit was the owner of a huge industrial estate in a little French town Santoche Cleval, near the highway between Mulhouse and Besancon. At that time, just about a quarter of a century back, the automotive industry in France was booming and here you could find a lot of Peugeot activity. One of the core businesses of Streit’s company was the production of parts for cars manufacture but that was all aboutot change. I was fortunate enough to visit the facility at the time when the first production JCM ‘Vega’ model was produced.
Joel Corroy had produced over 1,000 JCM machines but Roland Streit wanted to produce more. We wind the clock back to the point when Joel had handed over the JCM name to Roland Streit and his new production facility which had been set up to produce the new ‘Vega’ trials machine.
For Joel Corroy the project was too big for him to continue as he wanted to concentrate on his own motorcycle business. He held the franchise for the Japanese ‘Big Four’. He also sold road machines, off-road, motocross and also trials along with everything else around motorcycles. The decision was not an easy one for him, as he had developed the new Vega model with English rider Tony Scarlett. The French government would only give a subsidy to help the country’s motorcycle industry to grow bigger and he did not think that was possible at his base in Vesoul.
The new home of JCM was huge and Roland Streit talked about production of flywheels, turbo chargers, and gearboxes etc for production cars. Not only for Peugeot but also for Volkswagen, Volvo and Renault who were his other clients. It would take nearly an hour to enter the part of the building where the production line of JCM was planned!
Hand Made
The new motorcycle production line was installed but not operating correctly when I visited: The first Vega, in shining red, is far from finished. Twelve workers are recruited to make the machines with only one or two knowing anything about a trials motorcycle.
I am carrying a box of parts that I had been given to carry when we first met. I give the production workers the box as they need it to complete the first machine. It’s a part of the air filter system. The JCM air filter system gets its air from just behind the headstock, where it is very well placed so no water can get into the carburettor.
The fuel tank has to be filled up on the ‘let’s say’ normal position above the main frame tube but from there the fuel goes via a tube to the fuel tank situated under the seat, and the red tank cover goes over it. The set-up is very similar to the new generation Sherco trials machines.
The main objective of this is to lower the weight of the fuel and bring it to the centre of the machine and to help make it more manoeuvrable.
Four people, including a French girl, are working on the Vega. In the surrounding area we can find a lot of parts for the production including the six-speed air-cooled Gas Gas engines. A close look at the frame and the rolling chassis gives us the impression that there has been little change from the prototypes developed by Corry and Tony Scarlett.
The new rear suspension with a link-type system is attached to a Corte Cosso shock absorber with adjustment for dampening on both compression and rebound, which can be adjusted to suit the rider’s individual weight. It looks similar to the Yamaha mono-shock, and even the swinging arm could be a copy of the Japanese product.
The front fork is from Foral, Italian products for a French machine, but it looks fine and later we found out that it worked well. It took a couple of hours to finish production of the new machine after a few minor problems were found. Small problems like fitting the sump shield had to be solved, which required the drilling of new location holes.
In the meantime one of the workers does some fine-tuning on the ignition flywheel and Roland Streit comes in to view the project. The Vega comes to the end of the production line and is almost complete.
Streit takes over the duties of applying the finishing touches to the machine’s decoration in person, and all of a sudden the handmade machine comes off the unfinished production line.
One of the guys is ready to give the machine its first kick and we notice that nobody is really nervous, they all expect that it will run. Surprise, surprise, with the first kick it runs and the front and rear lights are burning immediately! Everybody goes for a coffee and leaves us with the brand new Vega.
Test Time
In all honesty we didn’t have many hazards to try the new machine on, but who cares we were riding a piece of history. I liked the engine immediately, it had a very ‘modern’ feel to it.
The 327cc cylinder size with its 83.3mm x 60mm bore and stroke is the same as the old Bultaco Sherpa, but that’s where it stops. The machine makes you feel at home and is very stable. The suspension felt excellent but I am sure you can appreciate that with any machine with the fuel mass towards the rear it gives a very light feel on the front. The Grimeca front brake disc brake worked well, which is more than can be said for the rear drum-type brake. The more I rode the machine the more I liked it.
It may sound crazy but it felt like a French Yamaha mono-Shock TY 250cc but with more power. I was not quite sure it would match Japanese quality but I suppose only time would tell.
Roland Streit continued to produce JCM machines up until 1990. JCM as a brand had a lot of competition with other brands so it was hard to survive. But when the Vega rolled off the production line in 1987 the French had a new motorbike industry of its own, albeit for a short period of time.