Electronic nannies. Technology overloads. No matter what you call them, one thing is evident, some riders have reached a breaking point with today’s tech-laden motorcycles. Launch control, lift control, adaptive cruise control. Where does it end?
Some believe that older, simpler machines deliver the true essence of motorcycling. JT Nesbitt’s Magnolia 4 concept follows that line of thinking.
If you’re unfamiliar with Nesbitt’s work, he’s known for the Confederate Wraith and Hellcat designs. When founder and CEO Matt Chambers flipped Confederate into the all-electric Curtiss Motorcycles, Nesbitt also lent his talents to developing the flagship Curtiss One platform.
His latest project, the Magnolia 4, taps into Nesbitt’s affinity for vintage motorcycles. More specifically, American-made inline-fours such as the Indian 441, Henderson Model H, and Ace Four. As a designer, Nesbitt considers them to be the most beautiful motorcycles of all time, and the Magnolia 4 is meant to be more than just the spiritual successor of those bygone fours. It’s meant to be a direct descendant.
“This design is a love letter to William Henderson, the greatest American motorcycle designer of all time,” says Nesbitt. “This is a continuation of his work.”
Designed under Nesbitt’s Bienville Studios banner, the concept calls for an “overbuilt, under-stressed” powerplant that’s meant to last a century. The engine’s undersquare layout prioritizes low-to-mid-range torque over high-rpm power.
Simple engine, complex design: five-axis machining techniques were required for the block’s complex oil feeds and drains and internal cooling fins. A bevel-driven shaft operates the engine’s single overhead cam. Bienville Studios illustration.
A three-speed gearbox operated via a tank-shift lever also calls back to the inline fours of yore. However, the Magnolia 4 employs a modern centrifugal clutch, which simplifies the shifting process by negating the need for a foot clutch pedal. Did I mention that the concept is kickstart only? Because it is. No batteries included or accepted. Talk about a throwback.
Not everything about the Magnolia 4 design is archaic, though. Both the girder-style front end and five-piece swingarm benefit from hydro-pneumatic shocks while the solo seat earns a suspension system all its own (consisting of a leaf spring and single hydro-pneumatic shock).
Like the Curtiss One, Art Nouveau still influences Nesbitt’s Magnolia 4 design. Even the cylindrical crankcase resembles the One’s battery pack. Bienville Studios illustration.
Will we see a Magnolia 4, and at what price?
Talking to Nesbitt, one can get the impression that he’s less concerned about building and selling motorcycles than perfecting this design. That’s definitely different from the usual build.
“My focus is on the design work,” Nesbitt says. “This is something I just have to do because I can’t not do it. It’s an art project.”
That said, Nesbitt does have plans to go beyond renderings and build motorcycles. The next step is to build a full-size model. In theory, at least, he plans to build 12 examples of the Magnolia 4 eventually and, if you want, you can request to reserve one of them. He’s not very specific about the details, however.
In an interview with vintage motorcycle expert Paul D’Orléans, Nesbitt noted that one of the original four-cylinder American motorcycles in exceptional condition would cost around $200,000 today, so his Magnolia 4 would be priced accordingly.
Even in a time of proliferating limited-edition motorcycles at inflated prices, that would put the Magnolia 4 solidly in the unobtanium price range. Who is the target for a kickstart-only, three-speed, hand-shift motorcycle that costs close to the median home price in Ohio? Aren’t those who are asking for less tech in their motorcycles also seeking lower, not exorbitant, prices? Sure, the Magnolia 4 aspires to recapture the spirit of a Henderson from more than a century ago, but it isn’t an original, preserved Henderson. Why would it be as valuable as one? Because there are so few of them? That sounds like a manufacturer-made problem to me.
There’s lots of evidence of an increasingly barbell-shaped economy, with more haves and have-nots and fewer in the middle. Is motorcycling going the same route? And is that the road we want to take? Whether it ever gets built or not, Magnolia 4 makes you think.
If money was no object, would you pay over $200,000 for a tank-shift, inline-four cruiser? Bienville Studios illustration.
