It takes a single look at the GP racing concept bikes designed by Art Center College of Design student Jeremy D’Ambrosio to know that they’re in for some serious controversy. To begin with, they all feature leading arm front suspension and tubular aluminum cradle frames in their creator’s attempt to get rid of the patterns.
But wait to hear the interesting part: Jeremy has thought at a 250cc, four-cylinder, vertically opposed engine or even at a two-stroke class. Hit the jumps to read the designer’s statement on the 250GP concept bikes.
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Because the world that we live in spins around money, we have serious doubts that any vehicle prototype powered by an engine that runs on AIR will ever see the next stage (at least not as long as there’s still oil around and Bin Ladens to chase), but we do find Edwin Conan’s Green Speed motorcycle quite fascinating precisely because, as real as it might look and be (note that this is not just a concept, but an actual prototype), we know that we won’t get the change to see such thing on the streets.
While the bike was designed by Edwin together with a team of student designers and their teacher, the air-powered rotary engine was invented by Melbourne engineer Angelo Di Pietro. They worked together to come up with this air-powered motorcycle prototype that originally started live as a Suzuki GP100 back in the 1970s and even managed to give it a nice racy look to back up the innovations that stand at its base. We have attached the official details after the jump, so check this article out for more.
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French designer Romain Herment considers that nuclear fusion will allow the turning of nuclear energy into a power source for motorcycles. Not only that, but he has even come up with a concept bike meant to reveal the designer’s idea about how motorcycles based on the new technology will look like.
The “Motorbike 2050 version 2,” as it is called, is a fairly cool looking thing with plenty more interesting details needed to be unveiled. For instance, it will supposedly rely on deuterium and tritium – two inexhaustible natural elements – to make it efficient, as efficient as 1 liter of water per 100 km can be four decades from now.
While we have no knowledge of version 1, we must say that for this project the designer made sure to cover every single aspect such as power being generated by an electric engine and the whole thing weighing only 55kg, although they don’t mention much about the materials used to achieve the light weight.
Each time I see something like this, I start thinking more and more seriously about recording a Harley for when we’ll be riding on this sort of motorcycles.
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At the 67th Milan International Cycle and Motorbike Show, Peugeot unveiled the new HYbrid3 Evolution Concept - a convertible version of the HYbrid3 compressor presented at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.
The HYbrid3 Evolution Concept is powered by two electric motors - one in each wheel - and a 300cc petrol engine that delivers 41 hp. The electric engines are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which can be recharged by an energy recovery system active during deceleration and braking.
The concept has an average fuel consumption of 2.0 liters per 100km (141.2 mpg imp) and C02 emissions of 48 g/km.
Press release after the jump.
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At this year’s EICMA show in Milan, Moto Guzzi made one of the most inspired moves in the Italian brand’s recent history when taking the wraps off of an impressive triangle of concepts. This is formed from the Moto Guzzi V12 Le Mans, V12 X and V12 Strada and represents the work of Miguel Galluzzi and Pierre Terblanche.
The two designers thought at borrowing the 1,200cc V-twin from the Norge GT and mounting it on two roadsters (the LeMans and X) and a supermoto model (the Strada) in an attempt to give Moto Guzzi a new, more aggressive design based on innovation.
Miguel Galluzzi, head of Piaggio Group’s styling centre said: ‘There is an impalpable, yet very real force in the history of Moto Guzzi. It lies in the ideas and in the unrelenting research work that led Moto Guzzi to build its tradition on innovation.’
Galluzzi, who also signed the Aprilia RSV4, ended by saying: ‘Keep an eye on Moto Guzzi because this is just the first step. We are back to relying on ideas, and we have plenty of them. This is just the beginning.’
I believe we shall do so, don’t we?
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The Austrians from KTM have directed their innovative minds to creating two 125cc concept bikes that will meet the demands of riders who are just starting out and yet not benefit of more than 15 horsepower so that they can be ridden legally starting the age of 16. They named the two bikes KTM 125 Race concept and KTM 125 Stunt concept and we have to say that both look more than decent for the category. Press release is attached after the jump.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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