< AllMoto's Motorcycle Investor mag

Motorcycle Investor mag

Remember Moko

(by guy 'Guido' Allen, June 2022)

Wild Swiss creations

Moko Motorcycles was one of those outfits that briefly flourished as a constructor in the eighties and more or less sank without trace. Established near Lucerne in Switzerland in 1979 by Ernst Strahm, the company tackled a long string of weird and wonderful designs.

moko harley

Arguably the most successful was the Moko Harley (above, in a period Cycle World magazine feature), based on what looks to be a Shovel powerplant platform and which was listed at what was then a stratospheric US$20,000. At the time, that made it the world's most expensive 'regular' listed motorcycle. However the level of customisation available makes the 'listed' part questionable.

moko suzuki

The company tackled a surprising range of designs from 1979 through to circa 1987. They included Yamaha XS twins, Suzuki fours (above), Ducati bevel twins, Harley-Davidson and the 1985 bike you see at top and below, based on the Yamaha FZ750.

Otherwise known as the Powa, the FZ-based machine went close to some form of series production, with 10 thought to have been produced. Six of them are thought to have survived.

Largely a styling exercise, the Powa hooked into the fully-enclosed styling themes that had been emerging in the eighties, with Ducati's Paso and Honda's first-gen CBR1000 being good examples.

moko powa