VWs, EMPI, Pro-One, and the Amazonas

I’m going to guess none of our blog followers rides an Amazonas, but if I’m wrong, please let me know!   And if you don’t know what an Amazonas is (or was), here’s a photo…

Yep, the Amazonas is a monster of a motorcycle.  Made in Brazil to get a big bike while skirting that country’s trade restrictions,  it was based on a 1600cc VW engine.  Just awesome.  I can only imaging the engineering meetings in which the Amazonas concept emerged.  In many ways, this bike paved the design path ultimately picked up by the Honda Gold Wing.

Today, we routinely see cruisers and touring bikes offering more displacement and more cylinders, but back in the day, this thing was pretty awesome.  I couldn’t find much information on the Amazonas bikes, mostly because there’s not much out there.   I’m guessing some are still being ridden in Brazil, but I don’t know if they are still in production.  I’ve never seen one in person.  If you have more information, please let me know.

So why the interest in the Amazonas?  Well, while poking around in the new CSC plant, I have been learning a lot about Pro-One (our sister company).   Pro-One offers V-twin and automotive accessories, including parts for VWs.   The EMPI line of performance products is particularly cool, and we sell a lot of those in our new showroom.

The VW world is very interesting.  I had a ’73 Super Beetle back in the day, and it was one of the best cars I ever owned.   It wasn’t fast but it sure was pretty (mine was powder blue), and the workmanship on it was way ahead of everything else.  I drove that car all over, including from New Jersey to El Paso when I was in the service.   My Dad (like a lot of people) thought I was nuts for buying a foreign car back in 1973, until he drove it.   Then he fell in love with the thing.  Dad drove that little VW when I deployed overseas for a year, and when I came home I had a hard time getting it back from him.

Anyway, all of the Pro-One gear related to VWs got me to thinking about my old Beetle, and that naturally steered my thinking to the Amazonas.  Cool stuff, and all part of the history of motorcycling.

You can keep up with the goings-on in our Pro-One world by liking our Pro-One Facebook page (please visit it and give us a “like”), and in the meantime, please let me know if you have any information on the Amazonas (thanks in advance).