BMW has used their experience from building straight six engines for cars into creating a modern café racer concept powered by a six-cylinder engine displacing 1600cc. This means 266cc for each cylinder of the so-called BMW Motorrad Concept 6, which won’t see the production line pretty soon, but word is out that the German car and motorcycle manufacturer will use this precise engine on their next LT grand touring model.
Surely, this isn’t the first two-wheeler powered by an inline six as Honda had the CBX1000 in 1978, but the impressive part about the modern bike is the fact that it is so narrow for this type of engine rarely used on motorcycles. But when it is used it smoothly delivers impressive amounts of torque, which is why we have great expectations in what regards BMW’s future touring lineup. Hit the jump for the BMW Motorrad Concept 6 press release and picture gallery.
It seems that the CR&S Duu has turned from concept into reality as the company announced they will officially unveil their “two liter, twin cylinder, twin seater” at the EICMA show next week and released the bike’s official pictures with the announcement.
CR&S brags about the Duu’s 1,916cc S&S X-Wedge V-twin engine and we’ll have to say that this is precisely the piece that has the most to do with the 20,000 euros (US$29,500) starting price for when this blend of European chassis and American powerplant will go on sale in Europe no later than 2011.
What we like the most about this creation is the fact that you can’t easily identify which bodywork part is which, not to mention their purposes. We can see that the single-side swingarm reflects style at its best, but we still have to wait until EICMA to see the public’s reaction. Fingers crossed because CR&S will be building by hand a few dozen of these every year.
‘Kickboxer’ is a rather suggestive name for a concept motorcycle powered by a Subaru WRX engine and that is precisely what caught our attention about this project in the first place. Then, of course, we saw the radical-looking motorcycle behind the bad ass name and started to dig a little deeper into the story only to find that the concept belongs to Ian McElroy, who had it all in his mind for a little while and who then had to learn how to use Solidworks in order to come up with this.
Apart from the car engine, we’re also impressed by the innovative suspension system featuring two single-sided swingarms. This is precisely what allowed the designer to create the aggressive and very compact overall look, while the aviation-inspired finishing touches are simply excellent. Does this stand a chance to turn into the Mustang of motorcycles or what?
Yamaha has unveiled the Super Ténéré concept yesterday at the Tokyo Motor Show with the most diverse public reactions ever generated by the fact that the concept is nothing more than a mechanical skeletal wrapped up in cloth. It apparently recreates the look of Touareg desert nomads, but it also looks like a very detailed preview of what Yamaha plans on launching next year.
The Yamaha Super Ténéré 1200 production bike will be Japan’s first real opponent for the BMW R 1200 GS and it all comes down to the 1200cc parallel twin engine that will use a 270° crank in the attempt to replicate a V-twin’s firing order. Hmm, this is a lot of stuff indicated by a pair of wheels, some metal tubes and clothes.
William Woods has designed the “Fallout” as a rather interesting way to pay a tribute to the classic chopper. The reason why we’re saying that is pretty obvious: the thing looks like a streetfighter from the future rather than a chopper. While we have nothing against the designer’s approach, we can’t help noticing how this futuristic motorcycle concept looks like it could become reality right now.
Designed around a Bimota frame and featuring a single-sided swingarm as well as hub-centered steering, the ideas shown here might just see their way on the future’s much more refined streetfighters. Also, the “Fallout” comes with short bobber handle bars, chopped exhaust and a long tank, so it could always pass as a custom, although we’d love to see something like this being mass produced. How about you?
Now that Harley-Davidson is concentrating on its own brand after bringing Buell to a sad end of the road and planning to sell MV Agusta, we became even more interested in their future plans and came across a concept bike designed by Miguel Cotto. The interesting part about it is that, unlike the usual concept designs that we see nowadays, power comes from a high-revving 883cc engine claimed to retain the HD sound that drives bikers crazy about their bikes.
We like the hubless wheels and this concept HD motorcycle in general, but certainly can’t imagine a pack of highway wolfs getting their beards on this baby not even ten years from this day.
The “Snowmobile” is a concept belonging to British Designer Evangelos Gicas, who drew it as a combination between current snowmobiles and MotoGP racing bikes. This is only in theory because our friends at Gizmodo practically see it as a “Sperm-Shaped Snowmobile” and while we have to admit that the human machinery was always a trendsetter, urgent protection methods are required.
Long, low and sleek, the Snowmobile concept will supposedly offer a riding position similar to that of a supersports motorcycle, but we can’t see how this can be an advantage considering the fact that, unlike its inspiration sources, this thing doesn’t offer riders the possibility to lift themselves in a fairly upright riding position when braking or, in this case, trying to see and avoid dangers in time. Still, it looks like it can start an avalanche from a standstill and that’s why we like it so much.
Verdandi is an electric-powered chopper designed by automotive designer Michael Hallgren and two students from the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden: Anton Grammatikas and Viktor Berglin.
They started from the question “why fewer women than men ride motorcycles, and what can be done to attract female users and customers to the motorcycle market?” and came up to the conclusion that very few bikes are built with the female ergonomics in mind.
The Verdandi project is the solution to this problem and they’ve even created a full-scale clay model to prove it. This is claimed to be fairly safe, comfortable to ride for women and not harm the environment.
I wish we had this kind of projects back in college.
Urban traffic studies show that the city is precisely the environment where most crashes happen due to obvious reasons and BMW Motorrad is aware of that. What we’re interested in is the ingenious concept bike they’ve come up with as a solution to reduce the big number of motorcycle crash victims. Referred to as a “single track vehicle for city traffic”, the BMW C1-E concept is the electric version of the BMW C1 scooter, meaning that it protects riders with a safety cell made of roll-over bars and keeps them in the actual cell with the use of a seat belt.
Everything that rolls on wheels is green nowadays, so the BMW C1-E concept is powered by an electric motor made from Vectrix components and supplied with energy by a lithium-ion battery. Still, the thing could turn into a hybrid, but there’s no official word about production at this time. That is because BMW worked their magic with this concept to contribute at the European Safer Urban Motorcycling campaign. Read the press release after the break.
The Albura 125 is Javier Almazor’s wooden scooter concept built around a monotube chassis housing the fuel tank, a multitubular subchasiss with a progressive rear suspension and powered by a 125 cc four-stroke engine. It pretty much looks like an average Aprilia scooter to us, but the wood laminated body does help it stand out straight from the drawing board. Here you have it.
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