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 is one of those cases where “rare” doesn’t mean “good”, but it’s still very interesting from a historical standpoint. Plus it’s never been run, so it could be a good fit in a specific type of collection.
Find this Sprite Talon for sale in Richland, Washington for $10,000 or best offer here on Facebook Marketplace.
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