Chichester-based dealer Mono Motorcycles has taken on Portuguese off-road brand AJP, focusing on its new PR7 Adventure bike. Set up in 2017 by directors Daniel Morris and Katy Mason, Mono has grown into an independent service and repair centre in the South Downs National Park, near Goodwood, and was also a CCM service and sales centre. It added an MOT testing bay in 2024 and has taken on a couple of 16-year-old apprentices over recent years.
With the demise of CCM last year, the firm had been looking for a new niche brand to work with and has now settled on AJP, an off-road manufacturer founded in 1987 by brothers António and Jorge Pinto. The new PR7 Adventure machine is based on the same SWM single cylinder engine used by CCM, with which the director and technical guru Morris is very well acquainted.
“We reached out to Martin Bell from MHB Imports in November last year,” said Katy Mason. “And within a week, we had joined the AJP family as an official dealer for the AJP PR7. As soon as the news got out and even before the first bikes had arrived, we’d already taken the first deposit. Shortly after, just before Christmas, the second bike was sold.”
According to Mason, the AJP PR7 is affectionately known as a “unicorn” bike – a perfect ‘one-bike-fits-all’ adventure motorcycle.
“The PR7 is seen as the ideal blend of a lightweight, hardcore off-road rally bike and a practical, street-legal adventure machine, fulfilling a fantasy many riders dream of, but rarely find in one factory package,” she told BDN.
Despite coming from one of the smaller brands the PR7 has some impressive specs, including long-travel Sachs suspension, and up to 64bhp available from the 600cc DOHC four-valve single-cylinder SWM engine.
“We’re excited to be entering this new phase of our business adventure,” said Mason. “And we’re looking forward to sharing the PR7 with plenty of enthusiasts across Sussex and the South Coast.”