The Ducati Desmosedici Trike is one of those concepts that you know won’t ever make it to the streets – at least not in production form – but it can make a rider beg Ducati to consider this as an alternative to enlarge their lineup. The concept belongs to Nicolas Petit from Creil, France, a 25-year-old professional motorcycle mechanic with a soft spot for Ducatis. In his creation, he retains the rear end of the Ducati Desmosedici, but brings in a two-wheel front from whatever reason you can find in his project description:
"This project is a mix between a motorcycle and a street quad. The base is without its Desmosedici fork, the rear is slightly restyled. The ATV-type front is grafted directly on to the engine chassis – simple and effective, Spartan and light,”
To us, only the idea of a 200bhp trike makes our minds go in places they normally shouldn’t, but who cares…just take a look at this.
Italian motorcycle designer Oberdan Bezzi clearly has a soft spot for classic enduro motorcycles and his latest supposition, the Yamaha 660 XT Spirit, is yet another proof from the many. Although Yamaha sells the XT660R adventure bike with success in Europe, Obiboi has created this as a return to the roots of Yamaha’s enduro motorcycles and we’re not far off when saying this could easily compete with models such as the Triumph Scrambler and Moto Morini Scrambler, which occupy a rather subtle but profitable niche on the market today.
In order to be entirely successful, the Japanese bike would have to combine the classic looks with the benefits of a 660cc four-stroke single-cylinder engine that would have to be powerful enough for decent street use, economic and reliable. In what the chassis is concerned, it looks like Bezzi has it all figured out from this rendering right here. A light and narrow frame, decent ground clearance, long-travel suspension and disc brakes should do the job just fine.
Given that Yamaha has recently introduced their all-new XT1200Z Super Ténéré, we can’t see a shiny future for the middleweight concept, but this doesn’t make it a bad one.
Although it wears the BMW badge, this is a concept bike created by a group of design students at ISD of Valenciennes, France. Called the “BMW HP Kunst”, the whole concept spins around the idea of hydrogen power, so it features the fuel cell where you’ll normally find the internal combustion engine on a regular motorcycle, a 20-liter cryogenic tank and a lithium polymer battery pack for electrical energy supply.
The French students do offer a glimpse in the ecological future of motorcycles, but the thing still had to look good and perform even better. Being asymmetric, dynamic and featuring electronic brakes and controls as well as electromagnetic suspensions, we believe this is an overall great concept motorcycle with good chances to hit production if BMW ever thinks to turn their research effort on hydrogen into something profitable.
The Bat Bike concept was designed by Marouane Bembli who drew inspiration from the movies Dark Night and Transformers in the attempt to combine the raw mechanics of a transformer with the stealthiness of a batmobile.
Claimed being a guardian of the city, the V4-powered concept could handle itself without human interference. This makes us thing of it as the future of police bikes. What do you think?
For the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, Honda has prepared a rather unique concept vehicle called the Honda 3R-C Concept. It is actually a single-seat trike that accommodates the rider in a fully enclosed cockpit and which is, obviously, powered by batteries.
This is more like the kind of concept you’d expect from innovative designers eager of global recognition, but considering that this is an official Honda concept and it is going to Geneva, it actually stands great chances to be proposed for production. Read the full press release after the jump.
Bulgarian designer Krasimir Emilov Aseno has come up with a different kind of helmet. His concept is supposed to comfortably accommodate the rider inside and be handled by joystick. Power will come from several electric motors fed both by an accumulator battery and by a solar energy system which collects outside power thanks to a folio of solar sensitive cells. Ingenious, huh?
The best part about this concept is that it doesn’t roll you over as it goes down the street, but has what the designer calls a “speed track system” consisting in many treads covered in elastic, flexible, and strong material in order to make movement possible. Also, driving-belts can be used.
The joystick handling system is a gyroscopic one that determines the vehicle to bend left or right depending on the direction indicated by the rider.
Needing to be strong and yet very light, the Rollersphere will be made out of materials such as carbon or titanium and it will even have shock absorbers as it is designed for huge jumps too. Sounds crazy to me!
Is this supposed to turn into the world’s safest ride if it’s ever made?
With his Nomad Project, Jason Battersby imagines the motorcycle of the future truly as a mechanical horse. This should allow riders to traverse all kinds of terrains, but I don’t know why I’m having a feeling this won’t ever see the light of day.
When it comes to the future’s green bikes, the main trend seems to be towards electric power, comfort and practicability. While this concept bike designed by Nicholas Holland is anything but comfortable or practical, it does shine in the alternative energy chapter as the whole brilliancy of it spins around the idea of having an intense magnetic field (which is highly energy efficient as it reduces friction) produced by the giant loop passing through the front wheel. Apart from spinning the wheel and setting the bike in motion, the magnetic field also rotates the axis when steering.
Considering that it was designed as an urban commuting vehicle, this concept bike looks a bit too complicated, but as long as it makes everyone look like Batman’s sidekicks it’s ok with us.
You know what the problem with the motorcycle page on TopSpeed is? Not enough talk about scooters. We recently came across an interesting scooter concept from the Italian chaps at Happy Design and thought at it as a good way to even up the scale between superfast, uncomfortable, gas burning supersports and relaxed commuting, green scooters.
Although there’s very little information about this concept, we know that it is supposed to be an electric scooter, a very fast one considering the way it looks. With a futuristic front end, smooth flowing lines and very small wheels, it meets the Happy Design theme and could make a lot of European commuters truly happy if someone ever decides to turn it into fact.
Designer Pablo de Chaves has recently published online his latest creation which he calls 599 Blue Label. The racing bike is designed for the new Moto2 series after de Chaves worked for Bottpower’s Moto2 bike and, like all Moto2 bikes, will be powered by a 600cc 4-stroke engine. A highly refined chassis is claimed to make all the difference while the aerodynamic fairing reduces drag to a minimum and offers a lot of room for racing numbers and sponsor decals.
The 599BL looks like a fast way to go around the racing track, so let’s just hope someone decides it should actually do that.
