Have You Ever Ridden A Janus?
Monday, December 25th, 2023
The Halycon 250 made by Janus Motorcycles.
I had never heard of Janus Motorcycles but I got an email the other day from Grant Longenbaugh, the company’s president, complimenting me on this blog. He said he had run across it while they were here in Colorado doing filming for a ride on one of their bikes.
“If you haven’t heard of Janus, we make ultra-lightweight, classic bikes in Goshen Indiana. There are about 1500 of ’em out there, and we’re growing every year!,” he said.
Well, I hadn’t but now I have. So of course I had to check out their website and see what these bikes are all about.
The first thing that is clear from the start with Janus is that this is not a large-scale, cookie-cutter operation. As you can see from that screen shot above, you can pick from 15 different colors for your bike. Does anyone else offer that kind of selection? As for other customization, they offer a wide range of options from seat to mirrors to luggage and more. One bit of humor: On the FAQ page they go through what can and cannot be customized. Here’s one: “Can you buy ‘just’ a frame, tank, etc? Yes, but all frames come with engines attached, and all fuel tanks come with frame and engine attached.”
That reminds me of when I first bought my 1999 Kawasaki Concours and rode it to breakfast with the guys. Leaving the restaurant I told them they needed to look at the new seat I had just bought. (We had recently taken a trip to California and it was a long ride on my CB750.) When I walked them over to the bike I told them, “Yeah, the seat cost one heck of a lot but they threw in all the rest of the bike at no extra charge.”
Janus currently offers three models, the Halycon 450, Halycon 250, and Gryffin 250. The 450 has two cylinders and the 250s each have one. These are retro-looking bikes that definitely have you thinking of early Harleys and others. Which is not to say the technology is old school at all.
At the same time, these are not extremely complex machines either.
Our motorcycles are designed to be simple to understand and work on. We encourage our owners to perform their own routine maintenance and get to know their motorcycles. We believe that knowing your machine deepens the enjoyment of riding. We have an ever-growing YouTube channel of maintenance videos, and if there’s something you don’t know how to do or don’t want to do, we can help you learn, or help you find a local garage that will service our motorcycles.
So anyway, it’s always nice to have new companies coming along to build a wider variety of motorcycles. If this particular style stokes your fires you now have a source.
Biker Quote for Today
Bike may be new, but not my passion for riding.
