Rokon Trail Breaker – 4×4 off-road motorcycle

Four-wheel drive motorcycle – you can only dream of such a miracle of two-wheeled technology. True, there are folk “samopaly”, but this is only a revision. But at the industrial level, hardly anyone will call. But such a miracle of motorcycles has been created – I present to your attention the Rokon Trail Breaker. “So far” the world’s only serial two-wheeled motorcycle with a drive, both to the rear and to the front wheel, it is equipped with an automatic transmission. Even obstacles are not afraid of him. A versatile SUV.

At first glance, you may not like it, but for those for whom design is not particularly important: the main thing is good indicators, then they will be all the same. “Blind” is of course rude, but it’s all bullshit. One does not interfere with the other. Moreover, he was preparing for extreme trips. Has a modest appearance and monotonous color.

Trail Breaker was specially designed for washed-out roads, viscous swamps, snow-covered fields and dense forests. At the moment, this all-terrain vehicle is in service with the special forces of the US Army.

But if you look not at the design, but at the technical capability, then despite its modesty, the Rokon Trail Breaker has fantastic functionality. Can you believe that 15 liters of water or gasoline can be poured into the hollow discs of this motorcycle, if desired or necessary? Probably the engineers were very puzzled when they first got acquainted with such an unusual technical task. But they nevertheless coped with the task – the wheels, in addition to their main purpose, began to represent also universal containers for storing liquids. By the way, empty wheels significantly increase the buoyancy of the motorcycle, so that it can be dragged on a rope across a deep river – the Rokon Trail Breaker will remain on the surface all the time.

The Trail Breaker is equipped with a time-tested, reliable, four-stroke, 7-horsepower engine from the American company Kohler, which has been specializing in the production of motors for many decades.

Another striking feature of the Rokon Trail Breaker is its huge ground clearance. The engineers decided to make the ground clearance equal to the diameter of the rim with the tire, which is 380 mm, which is more than that of motocross motorcycles. In addition, the saddle of any crossover is located quite high, as for the Trail Breaker, then, sitting on it, you can always rest your feet on the ground. This off-road bike has footpegs, which are more like stirrups, but they have one feature – they can be folded when traveling on tough terrain. True, one cannot fail to note some design flaws in comparison with the same motocross bikes – for example, the complete absence of a rear suspension, which is compensated by all those Goodyear low-pressure tires and a wide and soft seat. The designers did not take care of the fifth points of the clients, most likely for those reasons that the Rokon Trail Breaker is clearly not suitable for performing acrobatic numbers.

In terms of fuel consumption, a full tank is enough for 8 hours of driving, and a full supply of gas will be sufficient for a week’s journey.

The Rokon Trail Breaker motor is not the most powerful, which is not required for a motorcycle of this class, but together with the transmission it has very unusual features. At the very first inspection of the bike, you will notice that the chain drive is brought out not only to the rear, but also to the front wheel. By the way, the developers of the bike received a patent for the transmission, and this was back in the 50s of the last century. From the motor, the torque is transmitted to a tricky unit, in which a three-speed gearbox and a transfer case are hidden. Moreover, the difficult task – how to drive the front wheel, over which the inventors probably fought since the appearance of the first motorcycles – was solved quite simply: there is a bevel gearbox in the distributor that changes the direction of rotation, a long shaft passes inside the inclined tube of the motorcycle frame, in the area of ​​the steering column a cardan joint is installed, which allows the steering wheel to turn, and then another angular gearbox, from which two chain drives go to the front wheel.

The engine is a four-stroke Kohler, and judging by the starting method, and it has to be started with a cord, it was originally intended for stationary use. The Rokon Trail Breaker has neither a battery nor an electric starter, and in order for the engine to start, you also need to open the gas valve and conjure up with a mixture enrichment. However, some modifications are closer to the needs of buyers – on them, the engine stratum is carried out by a simple turn of the key.

Before you get under way, it is worth looking around – the working conditions of the driver are simply Spartan by modern standards. The dashboard on the Trail Breaker does not exist in principle, except that a mechanical fuel level indicator mounted in the gas tank cap, no warning lamps, and from electrical appliances only the head optics and a sound signal can be distinguished. The motorcycle is, to put it mildly, post-apocalyptic. It is possible that it was designed in the middle of the twentieth century, just so that the survivors of a nuclear war had something to move around after its end.

Before starting, it is worth deciding which gear to include. There are three of them and switching can be done only while standing still. The fastest, designed for driving on good roads, can travel at a speed of 60 km / h. The slowest one is designed for hard off-road conditions – you can drive on it no faster than 1 km / h. Third gear for average road conditions between tarmac and bog.

Needless to say, with such features, the Rokon Trail Breaker was simply born off-road? Front-wheel drive design provides excellent steering angle. You can turn it 50 degrees in each direction, while thanks to the wide wheels, even with the handlebars turned on the motorcycle, you can maintain balance without lowering your legs. The motorcycle crawls uphill like a tank along the enemy’s defensive zone – not recognizing any obstacles. The rowing front also allows you to reliably roll over tracks at an angle or enter dug up slopes. If we talk about the brakes, then they are not afraid of any dirt since they are not located on the wheels, but directly on the intermediate shafts of the transmission.

Among the shortcomings, we can only note possible problems with maintenance – our off-road terrain loves such equipment that can be repaired even in the forest, even in the field, and the Rokon Trail Breaker is unlikely to fit at least some third-party spare parts. If not for this feature, then it could become an ideal option for foresters, fish inspectors, and even more so the rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. But still the device is very good!

Rokon Trail Breaker Specifications:

based on materials from smotorom.ru