A what? A Dutch-designed and built rotary-powered motorcycle? While Spyker may be the most famous Dutch vehicle lately, they have made quite a few interesting ones, even shoehorning a twin-rotor Wankel engine into a motorcycle called the Van Veen OCR 1000. This 1978 bike, 1 of 38 made, will be auctioned here at Mecum’s Las Vegas extravaganza on January 31st, 2026. Thanks to Nevadahalfrack for the great tip!
“Hello, Van Veen OCR 1000 Parts For Less? I need a crown gear for my ’78 OCR 1000 engine, do you have any in stock?” We’ve seen a couple of arguably the most famous Wankel rotary-powered motorcycles here on Barn Finds over the last decade or so, the Hercules W-2000 (best name ever contender), one here and one here. The same technology applies here, but the Hercules Wankel was a 294-cc, the Van Veen is a whopping 996-cc Wankel. The Van Veen has about three times the horsepower, so it’s in a different league than the Hercules.
Van Veen Motorcycles was founded in Amsterdam by Henk van Veen, who was an importer of German motorcycles under the Kreidler brand name. By 1974, he had a prototype ready. They were produced between 1978 and 1981, with only 38 built. Another gentleman purchased the leftover parts and pieces and put together another 10 motorcycles in 2011, according to legend.
Van Veen and Hercules weren’t the only two motorcycle makers using rotary engines; Triumph Norton had a handful of different models, and the famous Suzuki RE5 is one I should have owned by now. Yamaha had a smaller model as well. For a measly $9,427 ($46,863 today!), buyers got an incredibly well-engineered, well-built superbike with 100 horsepower and one of the most unique engines of all time.
The 996-cc twin-rotor Wankel-type rotary was designed in conjunction with a French company, Comotor, with ties to Citroen. With a top speed of around 135 mph, it wasn’t the fastest motorcycle available, but exclusivity is king if you have rooms full of $100 bills, and this would probably be toward the top of that list. The four-speed shifter and shaft drive is said to have been designed with Porsche, and at 650 pounds, it’s no lightweight, but this may be one to watch at the big Mecum auction at the end of this month. Have any of you heard of a Van Veen rotary?
Never heard of one Scotty and thanks to you i now know about this amazing bike with so many other bikes and cars thanks to you. My first car was a 1972 Mazda RX2 i bought use in 1976 and have loved rotary engine cars ever since.
Leno you on here? Get your phone bid ready.
Wow!!! Nope, never heard of these before. Huge props to Nevadahalfrack for finding such a rare and fast and sharp looking bike. And a tip of the hat to Scotty for all that research and writing this up. Its a beautiful, and very interesting bike for sure. The opening side view at first had me wondering if that was a small Nuclear Reactor on there lol. This is one interesting bike for sure. I’m wondering what it’s going to sell for?
Yup, know about these.
And Norton, rather than Triumph, built rotaries; not least what’s known as the interplod…
(it being a police bike)
Yes! My mistake, dang, thanks for catching that, Derek.
P.S. Norton won a Senior TT with the rotary in the capable hands of Steve Hislop.
Sorry about the Triumph/Norton mistake there, I don’t have a clue how I typed Triumph rather than Norton when I was looking right at Norton.
Thanks for the great comments! I wish I could be at that auction with a million or two in the bank.
RE: 1st 2 words,,,you don’t fool us, SG, nothing should surprise this guy, folks, the master of the unusual, and yet another rotary application, good heavens, wasn’t the early Mazdas proof enough? Even AMC declined, for a number of reasons, and I think the Suzuki was probably the best in the RV market. A brief infatuation that didn’t stick. Years ago I had a Johnson rotary snowmobile , I got for nothing, it was like new, had 50 miles on it, never got it running, and apparently neither did the previous owner. I read they were actually stout performers, if they ran that is, and heavy, weighed a ton. Not good in cold weather as many Mazda RX2-3-4 owners found out. I took it to the dump.
This? Never thought someone would continue down a seemingly dead end, don’t get me wrong, I think the rotary is an amazing machine, but just not for practical use. I like all bikes, but I’m not that curious here, and lately there seems to be a glut of HDs, and going for peanuts. These older guys( not this again, yes, this again) are dying off and leaving behind their cherished HD,,,that nobody wants. I saw’r one, a sweetheart, maybe an early 90s Glide, $3995!!! I know, the temptation is great,,,this not so much. Is a neat find.
Suzuki used to built a rotary engined motorcycle, named the RE5. And this looks just like a Suzuki rebrand
Dave from bullpen cycles where are you you own several of these
Watch him on his YouTube channel
That would be a hard no! But you can watch him on YouTube