There are people who simply can’t keep stuff in their heads for too much time, so they simply go ahead and build what they imagine. This is probably someone’s childhood dream and it is now reality.
Although it looks like one of those lego toys, the V8 engine mounted at the back betrays the friendly look of this trike. Also, it has a roll bar and seat belt, meaning that it’s as serious as they get.
Chicara Nagata is an extremely dedicated custom motorcycle builder. He spends up to 8000 hours to build works of art such as the ones that he presents in the attached video. These are displayed at the Ippodo Gallery in NYC and sell for over $1 million each.
Orange County Choppers was commissioned by Siemens to build an entirely electric motorcycle in order to raise environmental awareness. Given the New York-based custom motorcycle builder’s tradition of building noisy and very spectacular choppers powered by a good old V-Twin engine, Siemens’s proposition might have sounded a bit unusual at first, but it was a challenge waiting to be taken.
The end result was unveiled yesterday at the Time Warner Center by Siemens and Paul Teutul Senior itself and we must say that it looks as good as any other OCC creation so far, if not even better, given the futuristic tendency.
But while the looks aspect is discussable, the incontestable fact is that the 27-horsepower electric motor from Advanced DC powers the Siemens electric chopper to a 100+ mph top speed. The six batteries take five hours to charge and supply the bike with electricity for around 60 miles, which is quite decent.
OCC built the Siemens bike in a single month and it is all on tape and scheduled to air on TLC on Thursday, October 22 at 9PM.
Siemens plans to take their bike on a worldwide tour in 2010 and then auction it and donate the money to "a charitable cause that will help benefit the environment." Yes, that means you can even end up owning it if you’re a man with deep pockets and the fact that OCC says that it currently has no plans to mass produce an electric chopper until demand is here, makes this creation even more unique.
See a video from the event and read the Siemens press release after the break.
In the attempt to make it possible for vehicles to benefit of more power (sometimes in huge quantities) motorbike/trike makers end up adding an extra wheel, for more stability. But how do you call something that has four wheels, a 500 bhp BMW V12 engine that runs on bio-ethanol, and yet is rode like a veritable motorcycle?
Apparently, we will have to settle with talking about the Lazareth Wazuma as being a quad with French origins and an absolutely mind-blowing $284,000 price tag.
After the jump, see a beautiful video courtesy of MotoRevue.
The Ghost motorcycle concept was created by Imran Othman, a designer living in Singapore and who was inspired by the famous adrenaline junkie known as “Ghost Rider”, but also by a flying falcon. Given the first source of inspiration, we reckon this concept bike is extremely fast, while the overall shape does share a few aerodynamic parts with the mentioned hawk, which is very cool.
Offering a very aggressive riding position and an appealing look, the Ghost concept most likely looks tempting even to “Ghost Rider” itself, but will this bike end up a fact or is this just one of those situations in which “Now you see it... and now you don’t...”?
We’re quite familiar with unusual motorcycles here at TopSpeed, but this cigarette-shaped motorcycle shows we haven’t seen it all. The strange creation belongs to a man called MK Sudakar, who is an inventor and environmental activist living in India and who developed this for his country’s recent public smoking ban – “Break the Habit”.
Apparently, this isn’t the man’s first strange invention. He is also the inventor of a motorized suitcase and a motorized toilet. I wonder: part of which campaign those creations were?
The SS Trike is a fresh new approach towards the idea of having a three-wheeled vehicle that is rode like a motorcycle. In fact, it actually addresses to “non trike” riders, but requires no balancing skills whatsoever. Power comes from either a 96 or 113ci engine of the same V-twin configuration and the transmission is a six-speed unit, allowing for better mileage and more speed out on the highway.
Probably the best (for those who appreciate the style) about the SS Trike is the extremely low riding position and the unique look that comes with it. There’s currently nothing like it on the market, but neither the SS Trike isn’t that official. The production version will make its debut at the Sturgis Rally in the production class of the 2009 AMD Official World Championship of Custom Bike Building next week.
Hit the jump to see a video with the bike in action.
Harley-Davidson has recently launched the 2010 model range featuring nine brand new models. This is the effect of the company now investing in the brand, despite poor sales. The expected result is to conquer the new generation and so bring a new wave of Harley buyers.
The new models address to all kinds of riders and benefit of Harley’s new plating process called "Midnight Pearl" and used to add a nice detail to components such as the headlight cover, timer and derby covers, fender strut covers found on the CVO Fat Bob.
While the Screamin’ Eagle Twin Cam 110ci V-Twin engine is supposed to get at least a 50bhp power increase, the rest of the models will get "slammed suspension," and many many options such as a “flame paint scheme,” "a larger front wheel," "a new tail light assembly," " a slimmed-down exhaust," "new paint schemes and styling details" as well as a "a low, light and lean extreme profile”.
When buying a motorcycle, some riders look for speed and others for comfort, but the most challenging part for motorcycle makers was to build one machine that meets these two requests. There you have the incredible Honda Goldwing meeting the comfort standards of even the most demanding riders, but you still have to earn enough money to buy and maintain such a model. The guy who did this to his Kawasaki Ninja clearly doesn’t, but we certainly can’t blame him for that. This is just an original way to make sure he still has a vertebral spine in his 70s.
Who among you will do the same thing to their sports motorcycle?
Carpenters rarely drift away from their object of activity, but when someone thinks at having a wooden fairing built for a Honda Nighthawk, bike building (or, better said, bike dressing) turns into a job for the man with few tools and plenty of imagination.
This particular creation was spotted at the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show and we understand it was quite a big attraction.
