Brief History of the Marque: Lefas
From Wikipedia
1994 Lefas motorcycle as rebuilt in 2005 (900cc Ducati engine) featuring
unconventional frame design that incorporates Lefas's development.Lefas
is the "brand name" of the motorcycles, engines and other systems created
by the Greek engineer Thanassis Lefas. Lefas was a brilliant engineer who
devoted his career in improving the motorcycle design, but not nearly as
good an entrepreneur as reflected by the fate of his designs. A motorcycle
enthusiast form early age, he worked for years making improvements in motorcycles
for trials races. In 1982 he decided to incorporate all his improvement
ideas into a completely new motorcycle. Introduced in 1984, the 370cc motorcycle
featured a large number of novel features in suspension (claimed to be
the first with single rear shock absorber), brakes, frame and engine, all
entirely designed and constructed by Lefas. This superb bike was intended
for production; Lefas had already planned diffent versions and personally
worked on the infrastructure for series manufacture of all its parts, including
the engine. However, he soon abandoned this project. Levels of state funding
and support have been quoted as one reason, but this move was made mostly
by choice, as Lefas focused entirely on a completely new design. Having
"rejected" conventional front arrangement patterns (as eventually he did
for the entire contemporary motorcycle design concept) as prone to instability
especially during sudden turns, he developed the prototype of a completely
new motorcycle between 1991 and 1994.
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1994 Lefas motorcycle as rebuilt in 2005 (900cc Ducati engine) |
1984 Lefas motorcycle (370cc Lefas engine) |
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about these classic Greek machines, please contact
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