46 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA
classic Citroën cars. “I ride bikes on the road, so
when Ger Van Rootselaar decided he wanted to sell
his Van Veen OCR parts because they were just
gathering dust, he came to see me and we got
talking. We agreed that I’d buy the parts from him,
and he’d build the engines for me. That was in 2009,
and since then we’ve digitalised the original
drawings, and built up a complete parts stock to
build ten motorcycles, using in most cases the
original suppliers. I’m making the exact same bike
from forty years ago, with all the original parts just
as Van Veen made them back then. We tracked
down every small part supplier, even down to the
ones making silly things like the special kind of tie
wraps for the cables. We wanted to make a
completely authentic original bike, and we managed
to find all the parts to do so, except for the tubular
steel frame, which is made by Nico Bakker to exactly
the same design as the original, and of course the
tyres, which are Michelin Macadam. Otherwise, this
bike is history on wheels – but brand new!”
The born-again Van Veen OCR 1000 isn’t so much
a replica, as the continuation of production, with
mostly original period parts acquired as part of the
factory clearout, even down to the Ronal cast
aluminium wheels made by a Mercedes-Benz/BMW
car supplier. Also avantgarde for back then were the
modern-sized 42mm Van Veen telescopic forks with
Koni internals, the twin Koni shocks nitrogen gas
shocks with three-way preload adjustment, and the
trio of 280mm Brembo cast-iron discs with two-
piston Brembo calipers, which apparently cured the
braking problems experienced with the stainless
steel discs originally fitted.
Delivery time is three months from the customer
placing an order, and the price includes a two-year
unlimited mileage warranty – the same as Van Veen
offered back then. Just ten bikes will be built – seven
of which have already found customers – reflecting
the number of engines held in stock. The Comotor
twin-rotor motor fitted to the bike, with wet sump
lubrication for the oil-cooled rotors and a
watercooled engine casing – hence the large radiator
- is built up by Ger Van Rootselaar with uprated rotor
tip seals, reflecting Mazda’s successful resolution of
this single most contentious rotary engine issue. The
four-speed gearbox with gear primary, shaft final
drive and a dry twin-plate diaphragm clutch with
hydraulic operation, was developed and
manufactured for Van Veen by Porsche, in keeping
with the calibre, and the price tag, of the motorcycle.
The chance to spend an afternoon riding this back-
to-the-future bike revealed an enticing blend of old
and new, that in some ways was nevertheless rather
frustrating. I must admit to be seduced by the
Wankel engine’s smooth running, compact build and
broad, rideable spread of power. Thumb the starter
button to fire up the OCR (the starter motor comes
from a Johnson outboard engine, since Van Veen was
also the Dutch distributor for them!), and the twin-
rotor engine bursts immediately into life via the
twin-choke Solex carb’s automatic cold start setting,
before settling to a fast-sounding but totally
vibration-free 1,300rpm idle, accompanied by the
trademark offbeat rotary burble that’s halfway
between a two-stroke’s high-pitched crack and a
four-stroke’s deeper rumble.
Having only ever ridden a 588cc twin-rotor Norton
Rotary streetbike, I was unprepared for the depths of
performance delivered by the Van Veen’s engine withalmost twice the capacity and practically double the
rate of acceleration, in spite of its weight. Notch
bottom gear, and you can feel the OCR pull smoothly
away from literally off idle, with impressive wide
open acceleration from 2,000rpm upwards without
any risk of lifting the front wheel, thanks to the long
1550mm wheelbase and also the fact the heavy
motor (because of the cast iron rotors) is carried way
low in the bike. The Comotor engine motors hard and
fast with a totally seamless power delivery toward the
6,500rpm redline. There’s 100.4bhp on tap there,
matched to 13.8mkg of torque at just 3,500rpm. With
the 160km/h mark showing on the speedo at just
4,200rpm, and 100km smooth running at just
2,500rpm, both in top gear, the rotary motor has
serious reserves of performance – but without the
slightest undue vibration at any time. The gearchange
is OK by shaftie standards, though there’s a clunk
when changing from first to second through neutral,
and the hydraulic-operated diaphragm clutch is quite
easy and precise to use.
The OCR’s riding stance is very ‘70s, upright but
pretty comfortable until you get much over 140km/h,
when you start to struggle to hold on. The location of
the right footrest is annoying, though – the clutchhousing protrudes into your ankle bone, which means
you can’t reach the rear brake pedal properly, and also
can’t park your toes on the footrest. And without
much engine braking to speak of, you do have to use
both front and rear brakes very hard to stop. Really,
the brakes fitted to the OCR aren’t up to arresting the
significant performance of such a fast, heavy bike –
you have to squeeze like mad on the non-adjustable
front brake lever, and somehow find a way of
stamping hard on the rear brake pedal to get it to do
so – eventually. The bike also disappoints in terms of
suspension compliance. Konis were the hot tip in the
twin-shock era, but while the Bakker frame steers as
well as Nico’s creations always do, in spite of that long
wheelbase and the rangy 29-degree fork rake, the
rear suspension feels way oversprung, probably in
order to counter all that torque and the substantial
weight transfer under hard acceleration. The relatively
primitive 42mm Van Veen period forks with zero
damping adjustment feel very stiff and not very
compliant. But you can’t really feel what the front
Michelin tyre is doing, and this is pretty important
with a Euro 85,000 package you need to bring home
in one piece, especially with the skinny 18-inch tyres
and all that weight.
I can’t help thinking Andries Wiesinga has missed an
opportunity here. Nowadays, a bike like this with such
a fabulous high-performance engine deserves much
better suspension and brakes to allow you to exploit
that performance in safety, and he should fit modern
Öhlins forks and Brembo radial brakes to the OCR
1000 to let his customers do so – especially at that
price! Instead, you must exploit the thoroughly
modern performance of that crown jewel of an engine
via period handling hardware that’s not up to scratch.
Reproducing the bike in original guise is one thing,
but to include all the period drawbacks when they’re
easily resolvable is a mistake. My test confirmed that
the OCR was way ahead of its time in terms of
concept, and performance, but the old-school brakes
and suspension stop you enjoying the fruits of that.
For more information, log on to...
http://www.ocrmotors.com■VAN VEEN
The Comotor engine motors
hard and fast with a totally
seamless power delivery
toward the 6,500rpm redline.