Why Janus Motorcycles?

This is the second of a two-part discussion of the history of the off-road motorcycles, the scrambler, and Janus’ latest model, the Gryffin 450. To catch up on part one, click here! Starting in the late 60’s Belgian engineering teacher, Lucien Tilkens, began experimenting with a new rear suspension design capable of handling the high…

At Janus Motorcycles we catch a lot of flack. A lot of modern consumers believe that engine size is directly proportional to value. In this view the biggest engine should be the most expensive and the smallest the cheapest (we’ve been hearing this argument since we launched our handmade 50cc two stroke over a decade…

As a follow-up to Richard’s blog post from 2019 about our Bulletproof 250, we recently made a video essay detailing our sewing machine engine as part of our “Why Janus” series. We get a lot of questions about us, our engines, and how we do things. In this series, we seek to answer those questions…

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…

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…

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…

A Janus motorcycle is a comprehensible, mechanical object, functioning according to the laws of physics and capable of being felt, understood, repaired, and maintained by its rider. It is not an unrepairable “device” with unintelligible terms of use, operating system updates, or opaque algorithms shepherding the “user” along a bureaucratically sanctioned route of efficiency and…

  At Janus, we are often told that our motorcycles are “too expensive”. This statement reveals a prevailing belief, perpetuated by the motorcycle industry, that the primary value of a motorcycle should be reduced to its engine displacement, followed closely by its level of technological rider aids, NOT necessarily of its ability to enrich and…

The Alpine Tunnel Trip- Adventure on a Gryffin 250 By James Pekarek August 2nd, 2022: It’s sunny and cool as I walk out of the hotel in Gunnison, Colorado and begin the process of unloading Gryffin #109 (aka ‘Sherman’) from the trailer. With the bike unloaded, I make a few final checks before starting my…