Behold, a $313,500 hand-built masterpiece designed by a modern-day motorcycling Michelangelo
Eleven years ago, at California’s annual uber-exclusive Pebble Beach Concours in Monterey, French engineer Olivier Midy unveiled a new limited-production motorcycle completely unlike anything else ever built for sale. The Midual Type 1 flat-twin roadster was the evolution of a prototype that Midy and his brother Francois had unveiled in 1999 at the Paris Salon. He then spent the next 15 years patiently developing it into a customer-ready model targeted at those high rollers who’ll regard the Midual’s current €170,000 ($A313,500) starting price (including French tax, or €141,000 tax free) as fair value for a hand-built work of two-wheeled art unlike anything else on planet Earth.
It’s increasingly difficult nowadays to dream up any new way of building a four-stroke motorcycle engine without thinking outside the box, especially in terms of architecture. But Midy did precisely that, and his tenacious pursuit of sufficient funding to put the bike into hand-built construction at his Loire Valley factory led to the first of the 40 bikes that have so far been delivered since production finally began in mid-2021.
Now, as a superlative version of an already exquisite mechanical masterpiece, Midy has unveiled the Midual Quintessence, a highly polished, superfinished version of the Type 1 of which just three examples will be built. Revealed at the Paris Retromobile show last January, that display bike itself found a new owner at a price of €300,000 ($A550,000). Hurry, hurry – only two remaining…
Finessing the flat-twin
So the Midual has a flat-twin engine – but what’s new about that, you say? BMW’s been making them for the past century. Indeed so, except that the German company’s legendary boxer twins, originally derived from its aircraft engines, have always been built with horizontal cylinders sticking out into the airstream, originally for necessary cooling in the days before motorcycles wore radiators. That format has traditionally brought various issues in its wake, most notably the rocking couple that’s an inevitable spinoff from the lengthways positioning of the crankshaft, as anyone will confirm who’s ever experienced the rise and fall as you work the throttle of a boxer twin – or indeed a modern Moto Guzzi V-twin, which has the same essential layout, just with upswept 90° V-twin cylinders. While practical, the shaft final drive that’s a spinoff requirement of such a format also has its own dynamic drawbacks. The whole layout is full of compromise, which BMW’s engineers have worked more or less successfully for the past century to counter.
However, long before BMW invented the cross-frame boxer twin layout, other manufacturers had used just such an engine architecture, but with the flat-twin cylinders positioned lengthways in the frame. This longitudinal format delivered the same smooth running and lack of vibration for which BMW flat twins are renowned today, which also led to improved reliability back in those early days of primitive, less resistant materials. Also, the low build of such bikes not only produced improved aerodynamics, but also better handling over the bumpy road surfaces back then, thanks to their low cee-of-gee. Harley-Davidson was only one of many companies to produce such a bike, the early-20s 600cc XF model of which only a handful were made – although Harley later copied the BMW format in producing the equally short-lived XA boxer twin in 1941 for the US Army, which had specified shaft final drive. But the success of the flat-twin Douglas in dominating 1920s sprint racing in the UK and elsewhere, as well as being the model of choice for the early days of Speedway racing, plus a successful grand prix-winning road racer, in turn led to its downfall. As engine performance increased, so did the problems of countering the extra heat this produced, especially in air-cooling the rear cylinder. The flat-twin motorcycle with lengthways cylinders died a death in the 1930s.
Olivier Midy has brought the same format back to the marketplace with the Midual, but in a unique way. He’s done so by liquid-cooling the engine for the first time ever, to address the problem of the rear cylinder overheating, and also by rotating the front cylinder downwards and the rear upwards by 25 degrees. This holds down the wheelbase to a manageable 1500mm by placing the six-speed gearbox beneath the rear cylinder, which also delivers an evenly-balanced weight distribution. In doing so, Midy has built a bike that’s quite unlike anything else in today’s marketplace, which resolves BMW’s problems with the lengthways crank’s sideways rotation, as well as ground clearance issues with the sticking-out cylinders on today’s grippy tyres – one reason BMW aborted the prototype R1 desmo Superbike it built 30 years ago but never raced.
DESIGN DEEP DIVE
The Midual engine personally designed by Olivier Midy is a DOHC eight-valve flat-twin with vertically split crankcases, with an oil-bath, ramp-style slipper clutch and straight-cut primary gears. The dry sump format, with the oil tank positioned above the engine, is intended to counter potential blow-by cylinder lubrication issues, especially starting from cold with the tilted cylinders, as well as possible starvation under braking and acceleration with a wet sump design and lengthways engine layout.
The engine measures 100mmx66mm for a capacity of 1036cc, and its one-piece, 180° plain-bearing crankshaft runs on central plain main bearings and two outer ball bearings, with its bolted-up steel conrods carrying three-ring forged pistons delivering a 12:1 compression ratio. A layshaft is mounted above the crankshaft and driven directly off it, which in turn actuates the rear of the two high-pressure trochoidal oil pumps, whose pinion then drives its forward companion. That layshaft also drives the two camchains operating the twin overhead camshafts per cylinder, via hydraulic tensioners. These operate the four valves per cylinder – twin 36mm inlets set at a 21.5º included angle to the 31mm exhausts – via cylindrical tappets.
Twin 54mm Magneti Marelli throttle bodies each incorporate a single 12-hole Marelli injector positioned south of the butterfly, but the ECU is an Athena specially developed for Midual.
The twin stainless steel exhausts have a balance pipe joining them beneath the engine, and each contains a catalyst inside the silencer, as well as a single lambda probe. The Midual engine produces exactly 100hp (74.57kW) at 8200rpm at the crankshaft, with peak torque of 102Nm on tap at 5500rpm, with a very flat curve.
This nowadays unique engine, for which Midy holds five global patents relating to its design, contains 520 component parts, each of which was designed in-house, accounting on its own for 15,000 hours of collective work by his nine-person team. It’s mounted in an equally innovative chassis that’s the subject of two further patents. The result of 7000 hours of development work has resulted in an immensely stiff aluminium, double-wall monocoque frame sourced from an 84kg raw casting. This has been five-axis machined and manually polished to create the finished product weighing 24kg. It’s a process taking literally hundreds of hours of craftsmanship, knowing that one slip could render it valueless.
It incorporates the integral 14-litre fuel tank – so it’s a true monocoque, which also incorporates the subframe for the dual seat, as well as ducts leading to the airbox feeding the twin throttle bodies, and it carries the Midual’s flat-twin engine as a semi-stressed member via twin boomerang-shaped cast aluminium spars bolted to it. At their upper ends, these support the radiator mounted above the front cylinder, thereby helping hold down the wheelbase to that acceptable 1500mm, and at the bottom contain the pivot point for the cast aluminium cantilever swingarm. This operates the fully adjustable Öhlins TTX36 cantilever monoshock directly, without a link, with the shock’s upper pivot incorporated in the monocoque frame casting. This also includes the steering head housing the front 43mm Öhlins FGRT upside down fork, which is again fully adjustable and delivers 120mm of travel, same as at the rear. Head angle may be varied half a degree either side of the default 24.5º rake, with 100mm of trail.
The 17-inch Akront aluminium wire-wheel rims (cast wheels are one of the many options, and so far none of the 40 Miduals delivered to customers have been alike, with each one essentially built to order) carry Michelin Pilot Road 2 tyres – could a French bike wear anything else? These don’t have to carry tubes because of the design of the Spanish rims, the front 120/70 cover mounted on a 3.50in rim, with the 180/55 rear on a 5.50-incher.
Twin 320mm Brembo floating front discs are gripped by four-piston four-pad Brembo Monobloc radial calipers, while there’s a fixed 245mm rear disc with two-piston caliper.
The Midual’s 239kg dry weight is split 48.2/51.8 per cent for a slight rearwards weight bias to enhance traction. There’s no traction control, nor any other electronic riding aids. Because the weight of the 14-litre fuel load is centralised in the wheelbase via its location in the monocoque frame, there’s no change in the weight distribution as the fuel level lowers, nor therefore in the dynamics of the bike.
The Midual has only its speedometer in the conventional location in front of the one-piece taper-section handlebar mounted on 35mm risers. All other components of the comprehensive dashboard are mounted in the upper face of the monocoque chassis, with the large tacho flanked by six smaller round dials, three each side: a clock, oil temp and oil pressure gauges on the left; fuel, water temp and voltmeter on the right, with four warning lights in the centre, above the large red starter button. Both the handlebar-mounted metal control units are made in-house – Olivier Midy is at pains to point out that the only visible plastic component is the rear numberplate furnished by the French state. Everything else is metal, including the alloy mudguards, radiator shrouds, and the housing for the purpose-built halogen headlamp.
“This is a scrupulously honest bike – what you see is what you get,” proclaims Olivier Midy with pride. “C’est logique! When you are providing a handmade work of mechanical art to a customer who appreciates the finer things in life, and has the resources to avail himself of them, you can’t cut corners, but must deliver what the eye tells you the material is, not a fake imitation.”
No doubt deemed equally logical, as well as nowadays unique, are the old-style BMW indicator buttons which the German marque has now replaced in its bikes with the same identikit format as every other manufacturer. So on the Midual you must push the button on the right to turn right, then press it again to stop it flashing, and the same thing on the left to turn left. You wouldn’t guess that Olivier Midy has been riding BMW boxer twins for the past 30 years, would you? But during that time, he has also been pursuing his dream of creating the Midual for discerning customers. In the past five years this dedicated artisan of motorcycle craftsmanship’s goal, which he’d been following for the previous two decades, has finally reached fruition.
MIDUAL IN MOTION
I’ve twice visited the Midual factory, to ride the Type 1 in two configurations. On my first visit I tested the distinctive but unlovely development prototype with 32,000 hard kilometres under its wheels, and on a return visit duly rode the production version. In the meantime, Olivier and his team had successfully addressed most of the criticisms I had expressed after riding the prototype, so this unique take on twin-cylinder motorcycling will live up to the high expectations of its demanding clientele.
The Midual’s beautifully upholstered 820mm-high seat (there’s a lower 770mm option) was a good place to spend a full day riding hard and fast through the picturesque Loire Valley countryside, with the relatively low-set footrests delivering a comfortable stance. The whole aura of the bike is incredibly exclusive and upmarket. Fit and finish is superlative, with every single component from the monocoque frame down to the gearlever or handlebar controls exquisitely made and superlatively detailed. Out of all the uber-expensive hyperbikes I’ve been fortunate enough to ride down the years, only an Aston Martin AMB 001 – perhaps by no coincidence, also Made in France! – equals the Midual in terms of quality of construction. It simply reeks of exclusivity, even down to the hand-stitched tan leather side panels.
I didn’t care much for the wide, flat handlebar. I’d have preferred something narrower and more pulled back, so I didn’t have to lean as far forward with my arms out wide. But that’s personal choice.
The completely unique engine character has a syrupy, smooth power delivery that’s practically uncanny, because there is absolutely no vibration down low and in the midrange. That’s not to say it feels as characterless as an electric motor, just hyper smooth, and the absolutely unique exhaust note that’s the backbeat to your riding takes fine care of stirring the senses. It’s a blend of the offbeat lilt of a V-twin and a BMW boxer’s droning.
The way the Midual builds power smoothly yet strongly from not far off the 1300rpm idle speed is pleasurable and rewarding, allowing you to cut down on gear-changing, even riding at 50km/h in top gear and pulling smoothly away with zero transmission snatch.
Though 100hp doesn’t sound like a lot these days, it’s how you deliver it that counts, and the Midual’s extremely broad spread of torque makes this a satisfying real-world ride. The Athena ECU is well mapped, with zero snatch off a closed throttle, just a smooth pickup that’s in keeping with the bike’s aspirations to be refined and classy. The gearbox’s shift action is excellent – light but positive, and for sure one of the best I’ve yet encountered riding a boxer twin.
The handling of the Midual is also really outstanding. This would have to be one of the most neutral-steering bikes I’ve ever ridden, right up there with the original MotoCzysz, and for the same reason.
On that American bike, its narrow-angle V4 engine’s twin contrarotating cranks completely eliminated all adverse forces created by the engine’s operation, leaving you to start dialling in your preferred chassis geometry and suspension set-up, unencumbered by external considerations such as crankshaft rotation and inertia.
The Midual is the same, with its single crossways crank powering twin horizontally opposed pistons, the dynamics of whose operation all but cancel each other out in terms of their effect on the handling, leaving just the minimal effect of the very narrow forwards-rotating crank. So, blip the Midual’s throttle at rest and there’s no sign of the bike rock’n’rolling fore and aft beneath you. Out on the road, this makes for an ideally balanced engine package, allowing you to exploit the neutral handling of the lengthways engine layout to the max.
The Midual’s relatively low-down cee-of-gee thanks to its distinctive engine layout means it rides bumps very well at speed; I found a great fourth gear sweeper with some really wicked lumps right on the apex, and took several runs at it cranked right over, without once managing to get the Midual shaking its head, so high-speed stability is excellent.
The Öhlins suspension is just icing on the cake, of course. Ditto the Brembo brakes, which haul the bike down hard from high speed, aided by the nicely dialled in slipper clutch – though I found it best to blip the throttle for downshifts to get a smoother change, not just because I wanted to hear that sweet-sounding exhaust sing a little harder.
VERDICT
It’s hard not to stand in awe of what Olivier Midy and his team have achieved in creating the Midual. In theory, such an exploit as developing a completely new engine of any kind – let alone a one-litre twin as individual as this – from the ground up should be out of reach of such a small company with minimal resources, beyond determination and self-belief. That’s usually reserved for large R&D departments driven by global enterprises with huge budgets. But after twice visiting the Midual factory, I have a full appreciation of the passionate commitment and countless hours of hard work that have been put into creating this bike, over so many years. And now they’ve created the Quintessence, just to rub it in!
It takes a rare commitment to invest 30 years of your life developing and building your own completely new vision of what a motorcycle should be, but Olivier Midy is such a man, and the Midual the result. The personal sacrifice this modern-day motorcycling Michelangelo has invested in creating such an exquisitely detailed two-wheeled mechanical masterpiece powered by so completely innovative an engine design deserves to reap its just rewards.
PROS – No stone has been left unturned in the pursuit of motorcycle design perfection
CONS – Sadly, this uber-special piece of two-wheeled art is outside the reach of many aficionados
The Quintessence
“SEVERAL IDEAS led to the creation of the Midual Quintessence model, which is based on a Midual Type 1 Series 2,” says Olivier Midy. “For 10 years we’ve been constantly explaining how our motorcycles are made, all of which justifies their price, and we feel like we’re not always understood, even though a real respect for our work has now been established in France, at least. So, one way to showcase this is to show off the metal and the monocoque to best advantage. The Midual Quintessence receives over 1200 hours of additional polishing compared to a Type 1, but it’s very complicated and time-consuming to manufacture, which is why we will only make three examples of it.”
SPECIFICATIONS
ENGINE
Liquid-cooled DOHC eight-valve 180° flat-twin dry-sump four-stroke with chain camshaft drive and vertically split crankcase, positioned lengthways in the frame and rotated forward by 25º,
Bore & Stroke: 100mm x 66 mm
Capacity: 1036 cc
Compression ratio: 12:1
Fuel/ignition: Electronic fuel injection and engine management system, with single injector per cylinder, Athena ECU and 2 x 54mm Magneti Marelli throttle bodies
Transmission: 6-speed. Chain final drive
PERFORMANCE
Output: 100hp (74.57kW) @ 8200rpm (at crankshaft)
Maximum torque: 102Nm @ 5500rpm
Chassis: Double-wall cast aluminium monocoque incorporating 14L fuel tank
SUSPENSION
Front: 43mm Öhlins FGRT fully adjustable inverted telescopic fork with 120mm of wheel travel
Rear: Cast aluminium swingarm with fully adjustable Öhlins TTX36 cantilever monoshock with 120mm of wheel travel
CHASSIS
Head angle: 24.5° (variable 24-25°)
Trail: 100mm variable
Wheelbase: 1505mm variable
Weight/distribution: 239kg dry, split 48.2/51.8 per cent
WHEELS & BRAKES
Brakes: Front: 2 x 320mm Brembo floating stainless steel discs with radially-mounted four-piston four-pad Brembo Monobloc calipers
Rear: 1 x 245mm Brembo steel disc with two-piston Brembo caliper
Wheels/tyres: Front: 120/70-17 Michelin Pilot Road 2 on 3.50in Akront wire-wheeled rim
Rear: 180/55-17 Michelin Pilot Road 2 on 5.50in Akront wire-wheeled rim
Seat height: 770mm to 820mm according to customer choice
PRICES
Midual Type 1 $A313,500
Midual Quintessence $A550,000
CONTRACT
