Pannonia motorcycles, a Hungarian motorcycle brand, has been undergoing a revival since 2002 and it is now hoped that this new Pannonia Bol d’Or will be ready to be released later this year.
After a few years of planning and development, a prototype has been built with approval pending from the Hungarian government.
Pannonia motorcycles were originally produced by the Csepel state-owned company from the 1950’s to the 1970’s and produced its last bike in 1975 after investment interest from Yamaha was rejected.
The team working on the new bike is made of up fans of motorcycles and the Hungarian brand, and it seems that so far production has not been easy, with the first bike originally planned to appear in 2007.
The Pannonia Bol d’Or is named after an historic 24-hours French race which was won in 1956 by the original Pannonia model, but there are doubts as to whether the bike will make it to market.
Despite the scarse information around, I gather this has been quite an interesting project and certainly a group effort from a few Hungarians bold enough to believe in it.
So far 20 people described as passionate about bikes have been working on the model, and the local council of the town where the bike is set to be manufactured has a 10 percent stake in the project.
A Hungarian publication that has apparently tried the bike has cited serious design faults, but nothing seems concrete.
If the Pannonia Bol d’Or does get to production, plans are to produce a limited series of 55 units before examining long term production plans for six to eight models.
Quite an ambitious target, but where there’s a will there’s a way, and we will certainly be interested to see if Pannonia can make a modest start to a bona fide Eastern Europe motorcycle.
