Founded by Frank Hipkin in the mid ’60s, Sprite Motor Cycles (later known as Sprite Developments) as a small British off-road motorcycle company that built trials bikes and scramblers, usually as a kit. One of their bigger efforts was the 405 Talon, and it was exported to several countries under different names: the BVM 405 in Belgium, Alron 405 in Australia, and American Eagle 405 Talon in the US. You may remember that American Eagle was the brainchild of Jack McCormack, who worked for Honda and helped Suzuki start selling bikes in the US before he decided he wanted to work for himself. So he started American Eagle and was able to offer a range of bikes from 80cc to 750cc.
The Talon made decent power and handled alright, but there seem to be plenty of complaints about reliability and the gearbox. For more on the Talon, check out this excellent page that details how the bike was presented across the world. Sprite Development is still around, but now they create “RVs, caravans, and motor homes” instead of motorcycles.
This example is said to be new, unrestored, and unused, having been stored “in a climate-controlled environment from day one” with the original tires. Find this Talon for sale in New London, New Hampshire for $5,000 here on Craigslist.
This bike-uriousity brought to you by Robert B!
3/2/21: Updated link per DK.