Luxury Marque Produces Titanium Bike

Motorcycle maker Ecosse Moto Works has produced a series of bikes with all-titanium chassis.

The frames, swingarms, exhausts and the rivets on the rear sprockets of the Titanium Series RR Limted Edition are all made of the metal. Titanium has the highest strength-to-weight ratio among metals, having the strength of steel but only 45% of the weight.

Extracing titanium is much more expensive and labor-intensive than iron though. Designers of the company based in Denver, Colo., spent almost a year to produce ten titanium motorcycles, each with a price tag of US$275,000.

It is very difficult to get titanium to work with, says Wendy Atchinson, co-founder of Ecosse Moto Works. Fortunately, we have very skilled welders who can purge the oxygen when they work with titanium. Everything was done by hand.

The titanium series is the brainchild of Atchinsons husband and Ecosse co-founder Donald. A mechanical engineer and motorcycle enthusiast, Donald Atchinson has a passion for creating motorcycles from hard-to-get items while still achieving high levels of performance.

The titanium bike was his vision, says Wendy Atchinson. Its power to weight ratio is phenomenal. It gets more than 200 horsepower at the rear wheel and more than 210 ft. lbs. of torque. The bike weighs 440 pounds.

The engine is a 2150cc aluminum 45-degree V-Twin, supercharged and inter-cooled with electronic fuel injection. The bikes also feature six-speed transmission, K&N XStream top high-flow air filters, Öhlins FG700 Superbike forks and TTX rear racing shocks and ISR radial brake systems featuring 12 individual brake pads.

Each Titanium Series RR Limted Edition motorcycle will also come with a specially designed timepiece with a brushed titanium bezel from custom watchmaker BRM.