Other than the creator no-one has ever seen this before. Can you see it ?
Look what Josep found !!!!.
This is THE Merlin water cooled prototype as already described. Josep was interviewing the legendary tuner and trials bike designer Josep Paxau for Retrotrials when he stumbled on this bike lying in the corner. Josep Paxau had been developing motorcycles for Merlin in his Torello workshop many many kilometres from the Merlin factory in Girona. In fact Paxau rarely visited the factories he worked for ,and as a result wasnt really aware of any development Merlin might be doing themselves.
At the end of 1988 despite super sales of the latest red FIUS model , Merlin decided to call it a day and stop production . This was because they looked into the future and where bike design was going . They looked at the other models available ands saw that they would have to produce to compete . They realised at this stage that they would have to invest substantially to develop an engine of their own as well as a knew chassis that was far more sophisticated that the one they currently produced. They realised that the return on their profits would not be good enough. The businessmen Pere Arpa and Jonny Regas who were the financiers behind Merlin decided that in the future they would invest in property and away from motorcycles. Effectively there was no longer wind in Merlin's sails. The end of Merlin made very good financial sense. Rather than investing another 100,000 and then losing it , they decided to call it a day.
Josep Pibernat and Narcis Casas bought the firm Merlin , lock stock and barrell for as small sum. GasGas moved into the Merlin factory.
Josep Paxau came to meet his friends Pibernat and Casas at the new GasGas factory. Paxau had developed the successful GasGas Halley from a basic and awful prototype , created by Pibernat and Casas (their words). Paxau saw the watercooled prototype leaning against the wall in the corner of one of the many workshop and had to have it. He bought it and took it back home to Torello along with the slam box of spares for it. There it remained untouched for 28 years. When Josep saw this at Paxau's workshop his mouth fell to the floor. This was it ...the infamous Aqua Merlin.
After weeks of negotiation and a friendship which developed , the Merlin found its way to it's correct resting place, In Josep's collection.
This is THE Merlin water cooled prototype as already described. Josep was interviewing the legendary tuner and trials bike designer Josep Paxau for Retrotrials when he stumbled on this bike lying in the corner. Josep Paxau had been developing motorcycles for Merlin in his Torello workshop many many kilometres from the Merlin factory in Girona. In fact Paxau rarely visited the factories he worked for ,and as a result wasnt really aware of any development Merlin might be doing themselves.
At the end of 1988 despite super sales of the latest red FIUS model , Merlin decided to call it a day and stop production . This was because they looked into the future and where bike design was going . They looked at the other models available ands saw that they would have to produce to compete . They realised at this stage that they would have to invest substantially to develop an engine of their own as well as a knew chassis that was far more sophisticated that the one they currently produced. They realised that the return on their profits would not be good enough. The businessmen Pere Arpa and Jonny Regas who were the financiers behind Merlin decided that in the future they would invest in property and away from motorcycles. Effectively there was no longer wind in Merlin's sails. The end of Merlin made very good financial sense. Rather than investing another 100,000 and then losing it , they decided to call it a day.
Josep Pibernat and Narcis Casas bought the firm Merlin , lock stock and barrell for as small sum. GasGas moved into the Merlin factory.
Josep Paxau came to meet his friends Pibernat and Casas at the new GasGas factory. Paxau had developed the successful GasGas Halley from a basic and awful prototype , created by Pibernat and Casas (their words). Paxau saw the watercooled prototype leaning against the wall in the corner of one of the many workshop and had to have it. He bought it and took it back home to Torello along with the slam box of spares for it. There it remained untouched for 28 years. When Josep saw this at Paxau's workshop his mouth fell to the floor. This was it ...the infamous Aqua Merlin.
After weeks of negotiation and a friendship which developed , the Merlin found its way to it's correct resting place, In Josep's collection.
Interestingly the Aqua Merlin is fitted with a stripped down unmodified watercooled Cagiva motocross engine. All of Merlin's adult trials bikes had been fitted with Cagiva SSX trail bike engines which had been modified with close ratio gearboxes and modified barrel and cylinder heads. Its interesting how Merlin still , saw their future with Cagiva engines. Perhaps its closer to the truth that the fabricator of this bike saw Cagiva engines as the future , but in truth the investors did not , hence the factory closure.
You can see the cable operated power valve on this motocross engine. How they expected this to work on a trials bike , i dont know .The front holed bracket was to mount the radiator. The exhaust was clearly specially fabricated for this proto.
The swinging arm has been lengthened and the wheel turned around so that the chain is on the right hand side.
The rear subframe on the 1988 production Merlin FIUS was alloy . This subframe is clearly a prototype , along with the alloy airbox which would of course be plastic at a later stage.