Motorcycle news

Husqvarna announced today the Norden 901 is confirmed for production as part of its streetbike lineup. After unveiling its first-ever touring model, Husky received overwhelming response at 2019 EICMA on the concept model, and even though it was unclear at the time if it was slated for production, they’ve decided to move forward.

Yamaha had showcased its mid-weight adventure concept last year and called it the ‘T7 concept’. It was then we knew that the Japanese guys are coming up with a winner in the adventure class for the next year. Then, the brand showcased the ’Yamaha Ténéré 700 World Raid’ at last year’s EICMA, but for all our dismay, it was still a prototype since they had yet to turn a few knobs more.

Now though, Yamaha has officially confirmed that the Ténéré 700 Adventure Touring motorcycle will be coming to our shores as a 2021 model lineup, but will be hitting the stateside dealers in early summer of 2020. The 700 will be available in the Ceramic Ice, Matte Black, and Intensity White color schemes, with all three models carrying an MSRP of $9,999.

We, for one, never imagined hubless designs becoming a thing apart from a few wacky custom jobs and, of course, the Legacy light cycle from Tron. Now though, a new Finnish company called Verge (previously known as the RMK Vehicle Corporation) has given us their version of the future, a hubless electric superbike called the Verge TS.

And it’s got a mind-bending peak torque figure of a 1000 Nm (786 lb-ft). You cannot find another machine on two-wheels that gets even half as close to this figure.

With a patented design back in 97’, Italjet Moto became the only mass-produced scooter manufacturer to equip its products with a radical forkless front suspension and a spaceframe. The Italian marquee made the famous Dragster model from 1998 – 2003 and was sold on European shores.

Now, after 16 long years, the Italian manufacturer has come back with their rebooted Dragster models that’s become even more radical and made us go “Booh yeah... Now we talking”. Italjet themselves couldn’t hide their excitement – "We are not joking!" is what reads on their website.

Efesto, founded in 2012, is a French-Italian electric mobility company that provides bespoke electric or hybrid powertrain solutions for automotive, aerospace, marine, and industrial applications. Their latest solution is this ‘200Novantanove Hybrid kit’ that bolts onto a Ducati Panigale 1299 superbike, and was showcased at the recently concluded EICMA 2019.

It is said to ramp up the power figure of the Italian from 205-odd horsepower to a freakish 300 horses while being all friendly to the environment. You’ll still get the ‘Brobdingnagian’ L-twin Superquadro powerhouse, and assisting it, or rather, pushing insanity boundaries, will be an electric motor churning out an additional 108 horsepower and 110 lb-ft of torque.

This puts the 1299 Panigale onto ’hyper-bike’ territory.

Kawasaki has finally spoken up. For a long time, the Japanese Green Team has been silent about their electric plans, despite being poked by the media a gazillion times. OK, for a moment of honesty here. The manufacturer had unveiled an electric Tron-ish concept bike - the Kawasaki J-Concept back in 2014, and again in 2018. A truly far-fetched idea, but nothing for the current bunch of masses. Now though, they is something cooking up.

Tethered to the elements of a Ninja 300 and a Ninja 650, Kawasaki showcased an electric powertrain concept at the recently concluded EICMA, 2019. While they released a video featuring the Ninja 300 EV pacing on the tracks, the Ninja 650 EV’s bones bolted with the electric powertrain was the attractive element at the Kawasaki stall during the unveiling of six new machines for the 2020 lineup.

So, there are days when you wake up and rub your eyes to clear out the haze and see things clearly. Well, this is one of those. The haze is not the water in my eyes, but this all-electric motorcycle that is calling itself the HyperTek.

A gorgeous sci-fi machine built by the famous carbon-wheel supplier – BST (Blackstone TEK), the HyperTek has been designed by Piere Terblanche who’s visions have given us multiple Ducatis, Cagivas, Moto Guzzis, and Confederates. This time though, Terblanche has consciously gone bonkers with his design, creating a robotic machine on two-wheels that reads out data on an integrated heads-up display in the bespoke helmet.

It had been over a couple of weeks that we’d learned about the Japanese Green Team’s acquisition of the celebrated Bimota brand from Swiss-Italian entrepreneurs Marco Chiancianesi and Daniele Longoni. But little did we know that this hostile effort would turn out to produce a no-holds-barred hyperbike powered by most powerful motorcycle engine in production in a jiffy, and we’ll get to see it in the flesh.

Imagine the thunderous H2’s 998cc supercharged mill harnessed in a Bimota Tesi chassis with the state-of-the-art electronic wizardry. That, my friend, is what the Bimota Tesi H2 is all about. It is the best of Japanese engineering and Italian architecture the modern world is going to witness and was unveiled at the recently concluded EICMA 2019. The universe is so kind.

Sharing the fancy DNA of the Atoms’ and Nomads’, Ace has been Ariel’s bare-bone take on the two-wheeled world that saw the first daylights back in 2014. A completely customizable machine that could become just about anything; Low riding cruiser, street, naked, touring, or out and out sport. They sold for $25k a piece, and a few of them came onto our shores as well.

Five years later, Ariel is setting up the stage to unveil a (literally) shiny new model called the “Ace Iron Horse” at the upcoming Motorcycle Live show in Birmingham, England. Based on the existing Ace Muscle Cruiser, the Iron Horse is said to be a homage to the ’Black Ariel’ produced between 1926 and 1930 and will come with a price tag of around $40,000.

Aston Martin, the British luxury carmaker tipped as the "coolest brand in the world" of automotive, has announced plans to turn itself into a freak motorcycle manufacturer at the ongoing EICMA, Milan 2019. Partnering in with another legendary British manufacturer, Brough Superior (currently based in France though), Aston brings in a limited edition, track-only, 180 hp hyperbike - the AMB 001. It couldn’t get any more James-Bond-ish.

Taking on extremely rich finery, this $120,000 machine showcases the best of British motoring. An amalgam of a futuristic, nearly anime-inspired aesthetics of Astons’ as we know, and the engineering prowess of Brough Superior, who once used to make the most expensive road-going motorcycles in the world last century.

Woo wee sports fans; it’s show season once again in Milan, Italy, and as always there’s plenty to see on the world stage at EICMA 2019. This year we see the return of Bimota in partnership with none other than Japanese giant Kawasaki, new EV bikes and scooters, and new adventure bikes from both Husqvarna and Harley-Davidson with the latter checking in with a new sport/street machine as well. There just ain’t enough hours in a day to cover every single detail, so today I’m going to grab a handful of the most significant bikes to be revealed so far.

No doubt about it, EV technology is coming on in leaps and bounds across the board, and the motorcycle field is no exception. There are a few domestic marques working on electric bikes at the moment such as the electro-centric Zero Motorcycles and the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, the former of which makes nothing but EV bikes and the latter offers only a single entry with its new LiveWire. There’s a third option in the lees with the Brammo-based Empulse model that was just starting to make a name for itself when its carrier, Victory Motorcycles, went tits up. That machine still falls under the Polaris umbrella along with Indian Motorcycle and we expect to see it again sooner rather than later, but we aren’t there just yet so let’s focus on what is actually ready to hit the road as of this writing.

Harley-Davidson announces new models and new technology for 2020, as standard on some models and as options on others. New Softail models, a new CVO, and some long-awaited technology finally arrive to bring Harley closer to the 21th century than it has ever been before.

In an attempt to secure his fifth King Of The Mountain title, Carlin Dunne of the Spider Grips Ducati race team fell yesterday a quarter mile from the finish line and succumbed to his injuries. Dunne was setting records on the Prototype Ducati Streetfighter V4 at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb when he died at age 36.

Electric-motorcycle brand Voxan under the Venturi umbrella sets its sights on a world electric-motorcycle speed record in Bolivia. Slated for a run in August 2020 on the Voxan Wattman, world champion motorcycle racer Max Biaggi was in Monaco taking part in ergonomics testing and 3D scans in preparation for what could be a historic milestone for Voxan and electric motorcycles. Biaggi will attempt to best the current record of 203.58 mph.

The motorcycle interwebz are buzzing with the latest rumor that Suzuki is bringing back the DR Big. Spanish trailridersmag.com started the buzz with the report that Suzuki is basing the DR Big, to be released as a 2020, on the V-Strom 1000. Is it insider knowledge or wishful thinking in an attempt to speak it into being?

There’s a new name in the world of urban mobility and electric bikes and it’s hitting the interwebs. Fuell unveils its first products for the EV market in Flow, an electric motorcycle, and Fluid, an electric bicycle. Co-founded by big names in motorcycle and racing technology circles, Fuell looks to redefine urban mobility giving us a peek at the pair in New York City before the end of March, 2019 and a full reveal on April 23, 2019.

No doubt about it, electric bikes are becoming more viable all the time, and even the Harley-Davidson Motor Company is getting in on the action. Milwaukee has teased us, literally for years, with tantalizing tidbits from its Project: LiveWire initiative. It finally announced a 2020 release for its streetwise spark-o-matic not long ago, and immediately went about the business of teasing us with two more EV bikes. Well, now we have the skinny on them. The MoCo was at the 2019 X-Games in Aspen, Colorado, and it brought the two new rides for the crowd’s consumption. They’re still in the concept phase, and as such are not necessarily what the production models will look like, but ya’ gotta’ start somewhere.

Triumph inducted two models into the Triumph Factory Custom (TFC) line and takes what were already iconic bikes into legend. The TFC offerings for 2019 are the Thruxton and the Rocket III with 750 numbered editions of each model in new custom designs.

Janus Motorcycles offers three models in their 250-series line that all come with healthy doses of what is certainly quintessential “vintage” styling. You hear it all the time; “they just don’t build them like they used to.” Usually, that’s a good thing since we’re safer and more comfortable on the road than ever before, but I’d argue that motoring has all but lost one very important quality: charm. That’s right, I said it, and I can back it up.

Harley-Davidson reveals the price on their new LiveWire electric bike, slated to be the first bike in a portfolio of EV rides, but at $30k, we have to wonder if the folks in the corner office have lost their minds.