Alan Cathcart (Australian Motorcycle news) Date ??
Small manufacturers of cars generally use other people's engines for cost reasons- You might call this the "Amazonas Syndrome', because there can be no earthly justification otherwise for the creation of the Brazilian Behemoth, a motorcycle so lacking sophistication and finish that you can scarcely believe someone, somewhere, is actually turning them out of an established factory. Russian bikes used to be the means by which we reminded ourselves of the design and construction excellence of latter-day Japanese and most Western European motorcycles. Not now. The Amazonas has amply and that's putting it mildly for a two-wheeler scaling 386 kg dry and with a wheelbase of no less than 1680 mm usurped the Eastern Bloc bikes in this educational role. After seeing photos of the Amazonas in various magazines over the years, 1 was curious to actually see one in the flesh, so to speak. Could it really be as elephantine and grotesque in reality as it appeared in pictures'? And, more to the point, what was it like to ride? 1 finally got the chance when 1 learned that Rainer Koch had secured the European dealership for the VW-powered bike in Germany, so I paid hint a visit. This gigantic motorbike undoubtedly represents the Third Reich's last laugh: somehow it's ironic, yet apt, that it should emanate from South America, post-war bolthole for so many former Nazis. For when he authorised production of the Porsche designed Kdf-Wagen, Hitler probably had no idea that it would represent the only avenue by which his dreams of world domination might be achieved. Fifty years on, literally tens of millions of the rechristened Volkswagen Beetle- have been built, long after the model was dropped in. its native Germany, continues to be churned out in two Third World countries: Mexico and Brazil (Brazil up to 1986 Ed.) Hence the Amazonas. When Daniel Ferreira Rodrigues decided in 1978 that the improving road system of his native Brazil, coupled with its status as the worlds leading debtor nation and consequently prodigious in-import duties on any motorbike not locally produced, called for a large capacity touring machine, he decided to build a 100%. Brazilian bike, using the air cooled flat flat-four pushrod VW engine still being built in large numbers in Sao Paulo. Rodrigues company, AME is based practically across the street from the VW factory from which he buys the. engines complete with four-speed gearboxes. However. instead of using the inherent strength of the car engine as a fully stressed member, AME has constructed a crudely-welded full duplex tubular chassis into which the engine is shoehorned thus adding weight and reducing rigidity. This is typical of the whole design attitude of the Amazonas, whose creators appeared intent on making the bike as massive, as crude. (read cheap) and as ungainly as possible. Look at those evil alloy castings for the footboards, or the brake master cylinder, amateurishly sculptured by hand complete with marry shaky lines where the artisan paused for a slug from the sugar-cane still. Or at the massive front forks, 48 mm in diameter with barely noticeable compression damping and fitted with weighty 10 mm thick cast iron disc brakes borrowed, like the large ATE callipers, from a local Ford car, and twice, as thick (and heavy) as most normal bike brakes. A 28 degree fork angle scarcely improves the steering response, and I imagine that in solo form lugging a bike with such a massive wheelbase round any but the gentlest curve must be a severe test of the riders pectorals. 1 say imagine because after riding his newly acquired Amazonas a Super Esporte model with twin carb (32 mm Solexes nicked from the local Ford Escort parts bin) 1584ce engine, as opposed to the single carb 1600 Esporte or Turismo. Rainer Koch decided that it was completely unsuitable for solo use and decided to fit a sidecar. The fact that part of his business is making these for BMWs proved handy, so when I came to grapple with the Brazilian Behemoth, it was in three-wheeler form (now scaling, a mere 496kg!) which at least gave some measure of security, especially once I had a look at the 5.00.x16 Cargal, crossply tyres. car type covers with practically no shoulder which looked as if they'd send you into the weeds once you tried to lean more than ten degrees from the vertical. Rainer claimed this was the worst thing about the bike when he rode it in solo form, followed closely by the steering. Mind you, those forks are so massive. that while he normally fits his leading fork conversion to the BMWs he attaches chairs to, it wasn’t necessary in the case of the Amazonas! The VWs starter motor is obviously retained so a touch of the button cranks the flat-four into life. Never a quiet motor even under a Beetle back, it's extremely noisy in the Amazonas partly because the twin megaphone exhaust are almost unbaffled presumably to try to reasonable performance out of the beasts measly 67-bhp at 4600rpm, and partly because in spite of the cylinders exposed location in bike use, it's been thought necessary to retain the. huge fan, which sits crossways in front of the engine dominating the frontal aspect of the machine. This whirr’s away to itself, making conversation with the sidecar passenger possible only by shouting. The VW gearbox is fitted with Amazonas' own single-plate cable-operated diaphragm clutch that is reasonably light to use, though the same can’t be said for the VW gearbox, converted to foot change by means of a mechanical linkage that can only be termed crude, and operated by a left-side Italian-type rocking pedal that requires you to remove your foot from the board to use it. Being a car box, it naturally comes with reverse gear, handy in -a sidecar, which you select by means of a special hand lever on the right side, of the bike after obviously coming to a rest first. With the VW crown wheel and pinion, but AMEs own conversion chain final drive (cheaper than making your own hypoid unit for the rear wheel, that’s why), a top speed of just 160km/h is claimed by Amazonas, but it’d be a brave man who’d dare to push the monster’s velocity to those extremes. Somehow the fact that most 25Occ bikes from the Orient or Europe will comfortably outspeed the machine Amazonas proudly trumpets as O Major Moto do Mundo (the biggest bike in the. world) puts it all in perspective. Trundling along at half the claimed top speed with the Koch sidecar attached was a sobering experience, apart front the clutch, all the controls are so heavy you feel you need a Charles Atlas course to be able to ride it. Besides the noise problem, there's fairly considerable drivetrain snatch, caused by the fact that the drive chain is so long and the final drive design so poorly executed, it needs a jockey wheel to be fitted to maintain tension even with the rock-hard rear suspension, itself a primitive layout combining totally ineffective Brazilian-made hydraulic dampers with a primitive plunger type location for the rear axle. However humble the means and facilities at his disposal, your average garage builder can do better than this, When the passenger got out of the sidecar, I found the task of controlling the monster without any chair ballast literally overwhelming. I practically gave myself a hernia trying to keep all 500 kg of it from overbalancing going round right handers. Of course, sheer bulk alone need not pose any problems for you in a bike. But even your experienced Honda Aspencade or Kawasaki Voyager pilot would find the crudity, lack of response and noise of the Amazonas quite daunting. About the only thing it's got going for it is that reverse gear. I suppose a Brazilian bike enthusiast would find our view of the Amazonas insufferably condescending and pompous. After all, you have to do the best with what you've got, right? Right except that by any engineering standards the Amazonas is a disaster. After riding one, I reckon the boys from Brazil should stick to making coffee and football and send the Amazonas back from whence it came: deep in the jungle- Tarzan might have liked it I didn't. Alan Cathcart (Australian Motorcycle news)