CCM HERITAGE 71 (2023 - on) Review

It takes a CCM engineer a week to handcraft the Heritage’s aerospace-grade chassis and apply its brushed satin finish. It’s 6kg lighter than the Spitfire’s 4139 Chromoly steel chassis.

Not only is the ’71 a featherweight piece of art that draws a crowd every time we stop during our test, it changes the handling dynamics. The chassis isn’t as stiff as a steel frame Spitfire’s, thanks to the exotic material’s more spring-like properties.

But the CCM is still pure, direct and there’s none of the mush you feel riding a built-down-to-a-production bike with heavy components, sound deadening and vibe protection.

You sense every tarmac ripple through the suspension and every suck, squeeze, bang and blow from the piston through your body. Forged ali seven spoke 19in wheels save another 6kg, which endows the steering with the unbridled directness of a race bike.

Its roomy, upright riding position is bang on for the road, with bars placed low enough to weight the front end, but not your wrists. It’s racy but still comfy, similar in layout to a KTM 890 Duke R.

Wet December roads never let us push the CCM anywhere near its limit, which is a shame, but at wobbling about speeds the handling is crisp, well balanced and confidence inspiring, even on its balloon-shaped 130-section Maxxis DTR1 FT rubber, which would look more at home sideways on a dirt track than tarmac.

Brakes are a clear highlight. Twin Brembo monoblocs aren’t the best of the best on paper, but they’re loaded with the kind of glorious feel and power missing from any road bike fitted with ABS. Brushing the front brake lever has the calipers hissing as they munch into the wavy CCM-branded Galfer discs to scrub speed off in a flash.

Like all CCM Spitfires, the ’71 is powered by a compact, liquid-cooled single cylinder motor, originally designed by BMW for Husqvarna. It makes a claimed 50bhp at the rear wheel, which is around 10% more than the standard Spitfire Six, thanks to revised mapping and an exquisite QR Racing titanium exhaust, free from heavy cats and sound-deadening Euro 5 shackles. As much a sculpture that wouldn’t look out of place in an art gallery, it’s hand built from 64 individually welded sections.

With so little weight to push around its thrappy 50bhp is devilishly effective and has the urgent, free-revving feel of a competition engine (the Clews in the name).

But despite the motor’s hard edge and explosive soundtrack, it’s perfectly fuelled, predictable and easy to control, so need for electronic rider aids or modes, although an up/down quickshifter would be nice. It’s a single and thrives on its meaty mid-range to thwack out of slow corners, but it’ll also rev on to deliver a decent lick of speed, if you can handle the undamped, single cylinder vibes that crescendo past 6000rpm.

Build quality is befitting of a £23k bike and there’s little to go wrong with such a simple machine. There are no electronic rider aids and the BMW-designed single cylinder motor is tried and tested.

Being so exposed you’ll need to keep it fastidiously clean to keep it looking fresh.

£23 grand is a huge amount of cash to spend on a simple single-cylinder roadster and its rivals will offer a similar riding experience for a fraction of the cost. But the CCM is exclusive and undeniably special, which for some will be money well spent.

If you're in the market for a simple, good-looking roadster without the pricetag then a Triumph Speed Twin 900 would be a logical rival. Ducati's new Scrambler 800s or the upcoming Fantic Caballero 700 is worth consideration.

But if you want something with a similar level of specialness and exclusivity then look at the equally British Langen Two Stroke Café Racer.

The front mudguard, rear hugger, seat unit, heel plates, engine covers, engine mounts and nose fairing are all carbon fibre and the Image Design paint job is applied immaculately by hand.

Other goodies include keyless ignition, an adaptive LED cornering headlight, sequential LED indicators, billet ali yokes, machined and engraved Monza filler cap, leather seat, Rizoma grips and master cylinder reservoir with machined ali caps, a Domino quick-action throttle, Oberon machined adjustable levers and bar end mirrors and a machined catch can and radiator guard.