Last year, we told you Christini was bringing their two-wheel-drive motorcycles to Canada, but everything’s been quiet on that front since. Now, here’s an update.
First off, the main reason you haven’t seen a Christini yet in Canada is due to import and EPA regulations. The company is working on bringing their bikes north, but the expense may delay that a bit yet.
However, this is good news, sort of. The reason they’re tangled up in EPA regs is that they’ve moved from carburetors to EFI for 2014, which is supposed to result in considerable power gains after it’s tuned properly.
They’re also making some suspension changes for 2014; currently, their 450 models have Fastace shocks, and the 300 models have Fox suspension. That’s going to change halfway through this season; Christini plans to use suspension from Canadian manufacturer Elka instead, going ahead. Christini will be the first OEM to use Elka shocks as standard.
Our chat with company bigwig Steve Christini got especially interesting when he discussed some of their future plans. For now, they’re happy to make utilitarian, go-anywhere machines, but a larger bike may be on the horizon, he says. Apparently, the company is considering a mid-displacement adventure bike, possibly powered by Rotax.
“We’re not going to go after what KTM and BMW have done with the larger displacements,” Christini said. “What we want to do is design a bike that’s still an off-road bike.”
Don’t expect to see that machine anytime soon, though; the project is still at the “crystal ball” stage, he says, and they’ve got plenty of other work on their plate at the moment. They’re working on establishing a European dealership network, they’ve got several military contracts on the go, and there’s always the chance another manufacturer might call and ask them to put together a concept bike. They’ve already had a couple manufacturers do that, and Christini says a 2wd Husaberg was supposed to happen at one point, but it seems that moment has passed.
