The dictionary says “Halcyon” means calm, peaceful, tranquil, happy and blissful. Don’t listen to Webster: The Janus Halcyon motorcycles are way more exciting than he would have you believe. Our Janus motorcycle review shows the Halcyon 450 is a completely new motorcycle with a vintage look and feel that doesn’t on Janus motorcycle reliability.
Janus motorcycles are not restorations or resurrections of brands gone by; they are current production motorcycles that take styling and engineering cues from the past. The name fits the company well; Janus was the Roman god of doors, transitions, the past and the future. Think Vincent, Brough Superior, BMW and old-world hand-built craftsmanship, all wrapped up in a contemporary motorcycle. These motorcycles prompt conversations wherever they go. I led a Janus ride through southern California and Baja a few years ago and people on both sides of the border wanted to know about the bikes.
Goshen, Indiana, is a small town with a culture that fits Janus perfectly. Everyone I met at the Janus factory introduced themselves with a deep smile, direct eye contact and a firm handshake. Richard Worsham (Co-Founder and Chief Designer) and Grant Longenbaugh (General Manager) are in their mid-30s, and they are the old men of the 16-person Janus team. People on the Janus team are enthusiasts; many ride to work on café racers that rolled off the assembly line around the time they were born. The Janus folks are not dilettantes with too much time on their hands; they are riders and tinkerers, our kind of people. I asked Richard what it was like to work for Janus. “I am living a dream,” he said with a huge smile. “Everyone here loves motorcycles. I live and breathe motorcycles.” He swept his hand across a shelf above his desk (which was in the factory) lined with motorcycle books. Well-worn copies of Motorcycle Classics are on a table in a showroom that’s more like a clubhouse. “We get inquiries every day from people who want to quit their jobs, move to Goshen and work here. It’s a dream job.”
Digging in
Grant took us on the grand tour. The main building is next to the Goshen police department. There’s a metal fab shop a mile away where tubing is welded into frames and fenders are hand formed with rubber mallets, metal forming equipment, and muscle; when we went there Richard rode his Halcyon 250 (the same one that went on our 2018 Baja trip, and the bike he rode across the United States). A third building houses administrative functions a block away. “We’ve delivered over a thousand Janus 250 motorcycles,” Grant said, “and we have orders for three hundred 450 Halcyons.” Each Janus 450 build is documented in a digital photo album provided to the owner as the bike comes together. Every motorcycle is gem-like in its construction. Richard personally road tests every 450 and it doesn’t leave Goshen until Richard knows it is perfect. One might be tempted to call Janus the Rolls Royce of motorcycles, but I doubt that the top person at Rolls personally signs off on every automobile they make.
The Halcyon 450 is a full-sized (but not oversized) 53-inch-wheelbase steel-framed motorcycle that looks like it arrived through a 1930s time warp. The engine is a fuel-injected single with four valves, a single overhead cam, dry sump lubrication, and air and oil cooling. It was developed and is manufactured by Shineray (pronounced shin-you-way in the Ancient Kingdom) and SWM in Italy. The engine is based on a Honda design manufactured in various iterations for decades. I’ve ridden other motorcycles with this engine here and in China, and it is a solid and reliable power plant. The Janus SWM variant has Athena fuel injection and mapping, along with a few other touches for more power and reliability. Twin polished stainless steel downswept exhaust pipes and mufflers give the Halcyon 450 a symmetric and classic appearance. The motorcycle is approved in all 50 states.
The Halcyon 450 has 4.00 x 18-inch tires with a classic tread pattern. Aluminum rims keep the weight down. Brembo brakes are on both wheels (with single piston rear and twin piston front calipers). Ikon componentry handles suspension duties. Front suspension is leading link Greeves-type (think BMW Earles forks). What appears to be a rigid rear frame is not; the aft-end Ikon shocks are semi-hidden beneath the leather seat (think Vincent Black Shadow and you’ll understand). Richard told me wanted the smaller Halcyon 250’s hardtail look. “We sell 10 Halcyon 250s to every one of the other two 250s we make,” Richard said. It’s hard to argue with what works, and the Halcyon 450’s rear frame, fender, and suspension add greatly to the motorcycle’s vintage appearance.
The 2.1-gallon hand-formed aluminum fuel tank has a long and classic look. The machined fuel cap screws into the tank with artillery threads that would be at home on a Howitzer. The tank’s angled surfaces look as if they are cosmetic, but Richard explained they are necessary for the tank’s structural integrity. The look, to me, says Brough Superior, and polished side panels are optional. Like other purchased components, the fuel tank is manufactured locally (the Janus supplier base consists primarily of local Amish craftsman). All painting is powder coating; all pinstriping is done in house. “We have a good selection of colors,” Richard said. Janus also offers custom colors for a modest price increase (you can bring Janus the color you want), but Janus needs to confirm the color can be achieved with powder coating. One of the Halcyon 450s I saw during my visit was a gorgeous custom purple.
Janus Motorcycle Review: The Halcyon 450
The Halcyon 450 motorcycle is narrow and nimble. Sitting on it, my overall impression was one of extreme lightness and compact power. The bike weighs a scant 350 pounds, unheard of these days for a street motorcycle (when I started riding more than 50 years ago a Triumph Bonneville weighed 363 pounds; the Halcyon 450 undercuts that). The grips have a unique texture and a comfortable, hand-filling swell. Turn signals, horn, starter, high-beam flash, and kill switches are in familiar spots. Twin polished cups ahead of the handlebars house a tach and speedo with easily read white markings on black backgrounds (think Vincent Black Shadow again). Small lights in the tach and speedo show turn signals, neutral, and high beam indicators. The speedo has a small LCD with an odometer, two trip meters, battery voltage, date and time, and low fuel indicators. The man-to-motorcycle interface feels superb. Every detail says vintage and ultra-high quality, but it’s all brand new.
I rode the Halcyon 450 around Goshen to get a feel for the bike and I like it. It’s different than anything I have ridden before, including the Janus 250 I rode through Baja. Just enough engine vibration gets through to let you know you are riding a big single, and the rear suspension and coil-spring-mounted leather seat make for an easy ride. The seating position is simultaneously comfortable and regal. Ergonomically, it’s perfect. The gearing is a bit on the tall side (the 450 Halcyon has a 15-tooth countershaft and 40-tooth rear sprocket), and it probably could be geared even taller if more top end floats your boat. Janus claims a 90mph top speed. I’ve ridden other motorcycles with the Shineray 450 engine in China that are 150 pounds heavier, and they easily hit 90mph. With the Halcyon’s dramatically lower weight, I suspect this machine could top 100mph with a tooth or two difference on either sprocket, not that the ability to do so is important. As it comes from the Janus factory, this is an eminently freeway-capable motorcycle. The bike wants to rev; it has a 10,000rpm redline but only runs a modest 4,500rpm at 60mph in top gear. Dropping the 5-speed transmission down to 4th kicks it up to 5,500rpm, where the engine is starting to enter its comfort zone. The Halcyon’s lightness, its maneuverability, its narrowness and its comfort impressed me. You feel the engine but in a good way that makes for a more intimate bond with the motorcycle. The bike achieves an artful blend of the past with the present and it all just feels right. There’s plenty of power and the overall impression is one of lightness and balance in looks, handling, sound, quality and feel. If the Roman god Janus exists and his standard of excellence is merging the past with the future, he’d be smiling at the guys and gals in Goshen. I enjoyed my ride enormously.
Regarding the elephants in the room (the Chinese engine, the Janus direct sales approach, and the price), I asked Richard about market resistance. “It’s not been a problem for us,” he said. “There are no comparable engines made in the U.S., so if you want a small engine, we feel comfortable we’ve made good decisions. On the dealer question, we have a two-year warranty on the 450 and a four-year warranty on the 250. Our approach has been to empower our riders to do their own work, but if a customer doesn’t want to, we’ll set them up with a local shop and we’ll take care of any warranty expenses.” Janus provided and I examined the Halcyon 450 Owner’s Manual; in my judgment it is excellent. I watched several of their YouTube maintenance videos and came to the same conclusion. On pricing, it’s understandable that some will cringe at spending $8,400 for a 250cc motorcycle or $13,500 for a 450cc motorcycle, but you can’t argue with success (people get on a list, pay a hefty deposit, and then wait six to eight months to get a Janus 450).
There’s a place in the market for these motorcycles and Janus is meeting it. Social media keyboard commandos comment that a used Sportster costs about the same as a new Janus (as if anyone ever contemplated getting a used Sportster instead of a Janus) but focusing on price alone misses the point entirely. If there’s a meaningful comparison to be made, a used Sportster isn’t the standard by which a Janus should be judged. A Vincent or Brough Superior would be better benchmarks, and as Motorcycle Classics readers know, those motorcycles weren’t cheap, either. MC
Adventures Showcasing Janus Motorcycle Reliability
In 2018, I pitched a Baja ride to Janus Motorcycles, and recognizing a good thing when he saw it, Grant Longenbaugh (then the Janus Director of Marketing) made it happen. Janus arrived in So Cal with a van, a trailer, and three 250cc motorcycles. Our Baja expedition was a blast and the motorcycles performed magnificently. The Janus folks rode Baja with me, we enjoyed the Baja experience, and the bikes never missed a beat. The Bajaenos thought we were on vintage bikes and conversations started wherever we stopped. You can read more about that grand expedition and adventure ride at Exhaust Notes.
During my recent visit to Goshen, I noticed a photo of another Janus adventure rider, Tim Hullinger, on his Halcyon 250 in Deadhorse, Alaska. I have poked around the world a bit on 250cc motorcycles, so Tim’s photo had my immediate attention. One thing led to another, I was soon chatting with Tim, and he told me more. Tim bought his Janus in 2019 when an ad popped up on his social media feed. Tim pulled the trigger and subsequently rode his new Janus 250 from South Dakota to the Janus owner’s rally in Goshen. Based on the success of that ride, Tim knew the Janus 250 would make Deadhorse and he aimed the front wheel at Alaska. Tim did it all on his own, riding solo, with no external support and a cell phone that lost service the instant he crossed the Canadian border. “What could go wrong?” Tim laughingly asked. As Tim and I discovered riding Janus motorcycles to the top and bottom of North America, apparently nothing. Janus motorcycle reliability is high and the bikes are indestructible. And there’s more to the story: Tim likes his 250 so much that as soon as Janus announced the Halcyon 450, he bought one.
