There’s nothing like dreaming up your ideal bike and ending up building it. This is the case of the motorcycle designer JT Nesbitt and his Magnolia 4a custom frame with clear reminiscences of his homeland, New Orleans, and inspired by those models that were successful between 1910 and 1940, before World War II.
Designed using AutoCAD by Nesbitt himself and his team of Bienville Studiowe are faced with the opportunity for past, present and future to coexist, thanks to the use of a vintage design and the addition of new technologies at key points of the model. All of this is combined with the possibility of including different options in the configurator enabled for this purpose.
Magnolia 4 in detail
JT Nesbitt and his team have focused on configuring a design that achieves a visual, mechanical and ergonomic balance without leaving aside other essential factors such as safety, reliability or the personality of this Magnolia 4To achieve this, they have opted to use a four-cylinder engine cooled by air and oil and associated with a 3-speed manual gearbox.
Highlights include internal cooling fins achieved using modern CNC machining techniques, a configurable crankshaft design and a non-hemispherical combustion chamber. The gearbox features a centrifugally actuated clutch and a gear shift lever from the fuel tank, offering a completely new user experience, thanks to the “analogue connection” with the machine.
The chassis is undoubtedly outstanding due to the suspension system chosen with a front beam fork, assisted by shock absorbers and a machined rear swingarm that works in conjunction with a monoshock anchored to it. Aesthetically, both the seat, the design of the mudguards and the fuel tank or the countless CNC aluminum parts manage to immerse us in an aura that exudes nostalgia and passion from all four sides.
The level of detail is such that the Magnolia 4 is equipped with a kick-start system that, in the words of its creators, is: “Recovering the lost art of converting biomechanical energy into a self-sustaining mechanical reaction, while minimizing the reliance on complex electrical systems and batteries. As long as humans are interested in riding motorcycles, the Magnolia 4 will be ready for an adventure.”
From the official Bienville Studio page we can even configure our Magnolia 4with up to four colour options and two equipment finishes. Initially, there are only twelve units available of this limited series that Nesbitt intends to manufacture at a price that we assume will not be cheap.