Two Wheel Tuesday: Tracking Down the Hejira Rotax 500

Hijera-T486Rotax
A few years ago, I wrote a profile of the Rotax Type 486, one of my favorite two-stroke engine designs EVAR. I have long dreamt of what one might be like in a road bike, even more so when I found the above photo of a Type 486-powered Hejira roadracer that was offered for sale in a British E-bay auction a number of years back.
Hejira, for those who don’t know, is a UK-based custom frame builder headed by legendary motorcycle fabricator Derek Chittenden. Since the web page provided no background information about the bike, I contacted Hejira to find out more about it. I told myself to expect a dismissive reply to my query, if any, but I promptly received a detailed message back from John Slenzak at Hejira. He couldn’t positively identify it, but he provided some very interesting background on the bike and its motor.

Early round-tube Hejira frame.
An early round-tube Hejira frame. Photo courtesy of Hejira Racing Developments.

Jon wrote:

“The chassis in the picture is one of the early round tube ones which were built to take a number of engines…. I can’t find any info on one with the Rotax 500 2 stroke engine installed. [It] could be one that was owned by a rider from Bristol. If this is that one, then it had a 250 Rotax in it and Derek was asked to fit the big two stroke. It was used for sprints and time trials as there was no real road race class for it to be competitive in. There were another couple of square tube bikes built after this but they were sold on to the continent and we don’t have any more info on how successful they were.”

Jon also provided a favorable assessment of the Type 486, and some insight as to why it was not more widely used in road racing:

“As you said in your last email, it was an underrated engine. When it appeared over here in the UK it was reputed to have a serious vibration problem and never was looked at by the road racing fraternity. When Derek did the conversion he did find there to be a lot of vibration until he lowered the compression for road racing. With the lower compression the vibration problem disappeared and the bike was much quicker.”

Derek Chittenden continued to build bikes around a variety of engines, but he is known mostly for his Rotax 250 tandem twins and four stroke bikes. His chassis designs went from round tube to square tube, to square spar, to rectangular spar and finally to carbon-fiber composite construction.

A later spar-framed Maico 250 waterpumper (Winner of the British 250 Singles Championship) and a carbon chassis with a Suzuki RG500 engine. Photos courtesy of Hejira Racing Developments.
A later spar-framed Maico 250 waterpumper (Winner of the British 250 Singles Championship) and a carbon chassis with a Suzuki RG500 engine. Photos courtesy of Hejira Racing Developments.

Many thanks to Jon for taking the time to fuel my love for the Type 486. You can learn more about Derek’s creations at hejiraracing.co.uk.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 64 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

  1. SlowJoeCrow Avatar
    SlowJoeCrow

    Speaking of homes for wayward Rotaxes, did Tigcraft, Harris, or Spondon ever build any 2-stroke models? I know the 4 stroke was a popular singles road race motor for a while.

    1. Tanshanomi Avatar

      Not for the 500 single, but Harris, Spondon, Armstrong, EMC and just about everybody else in the business built frames for the Rotax 250 tandem twin.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8hANaZCHI

  2. Alff Avatar
    Alff

    Well done!