First picture of the VB2 twin

Here’s a first look at Boxer’s VB2, the Voxan-powered machine to rival Ducati’s Monster.

The Toulouse-built bike will go on show for the first time, officially, at the Parish Show next month. Given the working title of the VB2, the Voxan-powered Roadster should be shown next month at the Paris show.

The engine is the same V-twin used in the VB-1, but slightly detuned to match the semi-naked stance of the VB-2 .

Expect to see just. The Voxan engine is a French-built 8-valve V-twin, with twin-cams. For the VB2, the unit is painted black with fake silver finning. It’s a dry-sump – meaning the oil reservoir is kept outside the engine. In the VB2 you’ll find it in what appears to be the bellypan.

All this is surrounded by a brand-new chassis designed from scratch. It’s a trellis-style aluminium unit that carries the 72-degree engine as a stressed member, even though the original inception used a twin-spar frame similar in appearance to the Aprilia Falco.

” Obviously the bike needed to look unique, ” said English designer Glynn Kerr, ” So we opted for this design instead. I designed some sexy little covers for the frame tubes – you can see them on the side of the frame with the little holes in them. Unfortunately someone working on the Yamaha BT1100 Bulldog had the exact same idea. C’est la vie ”

It should weigh ‘in the region of 170kgs’.

The looks are helped significantly by the tree-trunk-thick upside-down forks and gold-line Brembos. Even the swingarm joins the party – it’s an elliptical-section aluminium item that wouldn’t look out of place on the most exotic of one-off specials. Of course, all this won’t just look good – it’s there for a reason. Specifically, to out-handle the competition.

There are no pictures showing the bodywork, but we’ve learned that the design brief was to create a naked bike that wasn’t too radical, but as minimal and brutal as possible. The hand-stitched leather saddle hints at a real café-racer feel though – as does the amazing sump/bellypan affair.

The company hasn’t even alluded to the price, but we would expect something in the region of £8000. We’ll be bringing you final shots of the bike from the Paris Show within three weeks.