From left to right: Phil Noble, Bill Speake, Royce Creasey, Ingrid Oesten-Creasey.
Photo: © Paul Blezard
Royce has recently revealed some interesting facts about the cost of producing the Voyager, elsewhere on bikeweb, which it seems appropriate to reproduce here:
“The Voyager retail price came out at £9250, a bit embarrassing as I'd quoted 'around £6000' only eighteen months earlier on that Top Gear shoot. I can throw some light on that inflation. We achieved a build cost per bike of £6,500, based on the actual costs of producing five bikes, not too far out of line and somewhat due to the discovery that ex-F.1 innovators appear to work faster than the average production worker, for less money... Series production would have seen this price reduce. Biggest contributor to the price hike was the charge of £1000 per bike for public liability insurance, due to the novel design and naturally ignoring the moderate power, performance and emphasis on safety. One imagines this could have been negotiated down after a few hundred Voyagers had been sold.
SCL also added a bit less then £1000 for profit, which I thought was possibly excessive, but they were doing it to make money. The rest of the hike was 'car tax' levied on all new vehicles that time, a payment to the state for the privilege of making vehicles.
Other interesting costs were a mere £600 for each brand new Reliant engine, complete with our specified cam and all ready to go. However, the Moto Guzzi transmission 'kit', flywheel to rear wheel, with brake and starter, cost £1200 – the most expensive single purchase.”