The Janus Experience

By Tom Neel 9-11 of 1974, I walked into the third officially opened Kawasaki dealership in the country, and bought my first new motorcycle. It was a Kawasaki KS125, green, with a black stripe on the tank. That was 49 years ago. The KS125, like most enduro motorcycles of that era, was powered by a…

by Mark Zweig Of all the bikes I’ve owned over the last 53 years—that’s 300 plus—three of my top 10 motorcycles are 250s. The truth is that for 90-95 percent of the riding I do (or will ever do) at this point, a good-running 250 does everything I want it to do. The first of…

Janus Lightweight Motorcycles – What are the benefits of lightweight? Janus 250s weigh about 260 pounds. That’s nearly 150 pounds lighter than the lightest traditional mass-market motorcycles. The Halcyon 450 weighs 365 pounds. At 30 hp, that’s nearly identical to the power-to-weight ratio of a Sportster 883! Our Motorcycles are truly featherweight, and provide a…

We’ve just released our latest episode of “Why We Ride: The Janus Motorcycles Podcast”! In this episode, we speak with Rob Brooks of Road Dirt Magazine. Rob has been a writer and educator for decades, and a lifelong motorcycle rider. In 2019, after contributing for years to a variety of motorcycle magazines, Rob, with several writers & photographers…

What a pleasure to host Rob Brooks from Road Dirt Magazine, an independent motorcycle magazine that is filling in the gap left by many of the bigger motorcycle industry publications in recent years.  Rob is a seasoned rider with a love of all things two wheels, but we think we got him hooked on the…

As the founder and lead designer at a very small motorcycle manufacturer that often gets called “retro”, I’ve been pondering what that term means for quite some time. I believe there is more to be said on this, but here are some thoughts on the term and why our motorcycles look the way they do…

“Who said size doesn’t matter?” by Mark Zweig The big motorcycle makers have most riders these days thinking they should want the biggest bike with the biggest engine they make. Those are also typically the most expensive motorcycles these manufacturers sell. No doubt, some of those monsters have some impressive stats in terms of horsepower…

By Tom Neel Halcyon 250s are rapidly nearing the milestone of 1000 units produced. A decade or so in the making, the little engine that could, has, and seemingly will continue to not only be produced, but produce its worth in smiles per mile. By every account, it’s the motorcycle that shouldn’t be here. A…

Yesterday a major motorcycle review channel on YouTube failed to understand that Janus Motorcycles is not interested in making a better or even different version of what’s already on the market (check out the video below). Instead, they applied the old premise of the last 30+ years of powersports marketing to a new brand that…

The Big Bike Lie. Maybe it started to help meet quarterly board meeting numbers in mega-corp conference rooms. Or maybe it was the easy move to convince folks to buy x instead of y or to trade in your old one for a new one… Whatever it was that led to where we’re at right…