British motorcycle brand CCM, or Clews Competition Motorcycles has unveiled render images of its carbon steel framed, 600cc, single-cylinder street machine called the Spitfire. According to CCM, the Spitfire is the cumulative work of a small group of mechanics and designers who have been working behind the scenes and developing their ideas in their spare time. The CCM Spitfire has an all-new 600cc, single-cylinder engine making 55 bhp and 58 Nm of torque, and mated to a six-speed transmission. A teaser image of the actual bike has also been released, but it doesn't reveal too many details of the bike.
What is unique and immediately noticeable about the bike is the frame, constructed from T45 steel - the same steel used to build the fuselages of the Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane. Despite the fancy trellis frame, the claimed dry weight of the bike is 121 kg. Suspension is handled by a 48mm upside down WP fork with rebound and compression adjustments. Rear suspension is fully adjustable with a tractive mono shock.
(CCM Spitfire)
Wheels are lightweight 19-inch track type, high strength spoked wheels while braking is handled by a single 320mm disc gripped by Brembo calipers at the front and a single 240mm disc at the rear, again gripped by a Brembo caliper. The reveal of the Spitfire comes on the back of excellent 2016 financial results from CCM, with sales growth of 150 per cent, largely on the back of the CCM GP450 model which has been a runaway success for the company, which was born out of the collapse of BSA's Competition Department in 1971. The firm has been specialising in producing single-cylinder four-stroke dirt bikes, even at the height of two-stroke dirt bike competitions in the '70s and '80s.
The Spitfire is born out of a new design and development department within CCM called 'Skunkwerx' which was established after significant cash investment to develop a new series of bikes under the CCM brand. The Spitfire is expected to be available on sale from April 2017 onwards, but there's been no word on expected price or actual availability timeline. What can be assumed is that the Spitfire will be a limited low-production model and will be priced higher than commercially produced models like the GP450.
