History
BFG is derived from the initiators, Louis Boccardo, Dominique Favario and Thierry Grange
The concept for the motorcycle is done late 1977 / early 1978 following a compitition that involves getting a car engine into a bike.
Early 1981, Louis Boccardo starts builting the first motorcycles.
The first bikes are sold in February 1982.
The french Gendamerie buys a few hundred bikes.
Near the end of 1983 when about 400 bikes have been built, BFG has (financial) problems.
MBK buys BFG for 1 franc and continues the production.
More then 150 bikes are built under MBK leadership.
Technical info
Engine
Citroën G-type 1299cc
4 horizontally opposed air cooled cylinders
Power: 70 bhp @ 5500 rpm
Torque: 100 Nm @ 3250 rpm
Ignition: Fully electronical, as fitted to Japanese export G's.
Instrumentation: derived from Renault 5 Alpine
Headlight: Renault 16
Links
- http://members.aol.com/BFGCLUB
- http://web.ukonline.co.uk/Members/jr.marsh/bfg.htm
- http://home.worldonline.dk/~orange/
- http://gely.free.fr/bfg.html
In the spring of 2001 I have the oppertunity to see one of two BFGs in the netherlands. The bike has been partially dismantled to do some small repairs. First there are some pictures of the whole bike without it's plastic clothing.
You can see the giant engine just hanging under the frame suspended from the gearbox only. The engine is mostly standard GSA. Some differences:
- Special alloy camcovers.
- Right camshaft sprocket cover is not fitted to the front engine cover.
- No mechanical fuelpump, drive is blanked off.
- No ditributor, drive is blanked off.
On the engine the first thing you notice is that the carburettor heating pipe from the exhaust is all prepared but also blanked off. This heating was deemed unneeded in the warmer parts of europe but could prove usefull when exporting the bikes to colder parts, which is why this solution was choosen.
Another interesting feature of th BFG is the ignition. This is a full electronic system, very much like that fitted to the Visa and LNA 2 cylinder cars. 2 sensors, very similar to visa 3 wire sensors are fitted to the bellhousing. The computer / black box is fitted to the front of the battery. It looks remarkably like a visa unit but it's bigger and twin 6-wire plug connections, instead of the visa single 9-wire connection.
