Langen Lightspeed enters production

Norton has been taking the headlines lately when it comes to resurgent British motorcycle manufacturing. But at the other end of the scale, an (arguably) better-looking British bike has gone into production. It’s the Langen Lightspeed – a light, exotic, V-twin-powered ‘muscle cruiser’ from the firm that gave us the Langen Two Stroke roadster a few years ago.

We first saw the Lightspeed prototype last year, now the firm has announced the start of production and showed off the finished bike at an exclusive launch event in East Sussex last month. BDN’s Alan Dowds was there and saw the unashamedly gorgeous bespoke machine in the flesh for the first time.

It’s powered by a 1190cc 72° V-twin Rotax-designed unit from the Buell 1190 superbike and has a lovely hand-built steel tube perimeter frame. Dual-shock rear suspension and a long steel tube dual-sided swingarm echo the styling cues seen on the Langen Two Stroke and the CCM Spitfire, which Langen founder Chris Ratcliffe also designed.

The performance numbers are solid: a decent 185bhp from the motor, with a very grunty delivery, peak torque of 138Nm, and an impressively light 185kg dry weight. Brakes are by HEL and EBC, with suspension from Öhlins front and rear, while Langen has made its own CNC-machined wheels, as well as adding custom fuelling mapping and a hand-made exhaust system.

Ratcliffe reckons the Lightspeed sits halfway between a streetfighter and a hot-rod type power cruiser. “I’d say the geometry is between a muscle cruiser and a street fighter. So it’s quite unusual. It’s about 70mm shorter than a Ducati Diavel, for example, with a steeper rake. And it’s a lot lighter, so it’s more agile.”

Ratcliffe based the Lightspeed on a particularly wild machine from the 1990s, which he still owns. “One influence is that I spent many years on a 1996 Yamaha V-Max – it was a full-power Canadian import with V-Boost. Every year, I took it around Europe, to the Alps, the Pyrenees. I absolutely loved that bike, but in some ways it was shockingly bad! I went to the Nürburgring, and it was the closest to death I’ve ever come. The brakes weren’t great, it didn’t go around corners, the fuel tank size was rubbish, but it didn’t matter. I’ve still got that V-Max, and I kept meaning to restore it, but I thought, well, I’ll just build what I think that bike should be. It’s as if I made that Yamaha absolutely the best bike it could have been in handling, weight, fuel tank range, comfort, more power, everything.”

The £44,000 Lightspeed will be made to order at the firm’s factory in Wigan, and Langen will invite customers to visit the plant and finalise paint, finish and detailing. A £1000 deposit secures a build slot, with the first customer deliveries planned for summer 2026. Exports to the US and other markets will follow in January 2027.

“The Lightspeed has been part of our story since day one,” said Ratcliffe. “It takes everything we learned from the Two Stroke and builds on it – more power, more range, more refinement – retaining the emotion that defines a Langen.”

Life as a small bike manufacturer in the UK

I spoke to Chris Ratcliffe about his last few years as a niche manufacturer in the UK, and how Covid, Brexit and the various sequelae have affected business.

“Oh, it’s been hugely tough. Just as we got to the point of launching the Two Stroke, Covid hit, so we sort of launched it to nobody… Then we got Brexit, which affected imports, then aluminium prices went through the roof after the Ukraine invasion – most of the Two Stroke is aluminium.”

So, Langen was facing all of the massive hurdles that the likes of BMW, Ducati and Honda were facing?

“We faced them too, yeah, and even more intensely, since we didn’t have a war chest! So we weathered that by doing some contract engineering. We designed stuff for other people, automotive companies, oil and gas companies. We were doing motorcycles by day and engineering by night. We had a first year of challenges and supply chain problems, but I think if nothing else, we’re a resilient bunch. We’ve stood up and we’ve always found a way just to get over the next hurdle and keep growing.

“Luckily, we’ve had the sales; the Two Stroke was a hit. We’ve pretty much sold out, and the order book is closing over the next week or so. We made 100 of them, which was probably the right number. We wanted it to be uber special, and those 100 people, they believed in Langen from the beginning, they believed in what the bike was, and hopefully they’ve been rewarded with something super exclusive. But that’s finished now, and now it’s the Lightspeed…”

Langen currently distributes its bikes directly, but there may be a change to that, with agents potentially on the way for far-flung parts of the country and overseas. “We will primarily deal directly with customers as the purchase journey and customisation is a personal one,” said Ratcliffe. “However, we are considering a handful of strategically placed dealer/service locations around the south coast and Scotland. The service side would extend to our Two Stroke customers too.

“Maintenance and repair is essentially a door-to-door collection and drop-off service; however, if suitable service agents are found, they would have sole access to customers in a relatively wide area.

“International distribution will be handled by a small number of strategically located outlets (same principle as the UK), primarily in the USA, Australia and Europe – Germany, France, the Netherlands, etc. We’re open to people making contact with us.”
Langen
[email protected]
www.langenmotorcycles.co.uk