Tag

concept

Browsing

Despite what the DMV says, you might not consider the Can-Am Spyder to be a motorcycle, but the three-wheeler is part of a growing segment of on-road fun machines that have a pretty strong overlap with two-wheeled buyers.

It is not necessarily our cup of tea, but we wouldn’t mind swinging a leg over BRP’s latest creation, a turbocharged Can-Am Spyder F3 concept, which just debuted at the Daytona International Speedway.

The venue comes from Can-Am’s involvement as a title sponsor in the series, so naturally the Canadian brand wanted to spice things up with a special concept.

As such, the turbocharged 1,330 three-cylinder Rotax engine puts out 150hp (considerably more than the stock 113hp figure), and is aided in its breathing by its custom Akrapovi? three-into-three exhaust system.

Another tasty item from the 2016 Motor Bike Expo in Verona, the Motul Onirika 2853 concept builds upon a different Italian sport bike, the MV Agusta Brutale 800.

Commissioned by the Italian arm of the French lubricant manufacturer Motul, the Motul Onirika 2853 was designed and built by Luca Pozzato at Officine GPDesign.

The name “Onirika 2853” takes some deciphering, as it refers to dreaming or imagining of what the Motul brand will look like a millennia after the company’s founding (1853). At least, that’s how Motul explains it…we will have to take their word for it.

Ducati is at this year’s Motor Bike Expo in Verona, and it has a bevy of concepts and customs it wants to show the world. The Italian brand’s trio of Sixty2 Scrambler concepts didn’t really spark our engine, but the Ducati draXter Concept is certainly of note and worthy of further scrutiny.

The Ducati XDiavel was Bologna’s big reveal at EICMA this year, and while the cruiser model wasn’t our cup of tea, we might have to change our tune with this decked-out version of the machine.

Ducati says that the draXter model interprets the XDiavel from a “sports” point-of-view, and the modifications made to the machine certainly do a good job of connoting a bike that leaps from the line.

I think in 2016, we will find that the whole post-authentic motorcycle movement officially jumped that shark right about at this point in time. The 2015 EICMA show was inundated with café racers and scramblers from manufacturers that wanted to cash in on the budding trend.

Now with Deus ex Machina up for sale and no Honda CB350 left behind, the industry feels ready for the next moto du jour – though not before we give it one last go, of course.

I’m not a fan of the Monster line from Ducati. There, I said it. There is just something about the Monster models over the years that has failed to strike me as appealing, though I must say the latest crop of liquid-cooled Monsters has certainly been a step forward for me, visually.

I’m more of a fan of the Ducati Streetfigther lineup, and I still hope that Ducati has a new Streetfighter design somewhere on its design boards. Ideally, such a machine would have a Superquadro engine at its heart, and accordingly make big horsepower numbers that rip our eyeballs from our sockets.

The fate of the Streetfighter line remains to be seen though, and with each passing model year I expect to see the Streetfighter 848 finally leave the Italian company’s lineup. It would seem the Streetfighter is kaput as of the 2016 model year. -JB

As such, the Monster line could be Ducati’s only naked bike model, any year now. So, if time is really against us, and if the Monster really is to be the only naked bike from Ducati, I hope the future iterations take a lesson from this concept.

It had been widely rumored that Victory Motorcycle would launch a sportier offering, using the 60° water-cooled 1,200cc engine that powered the Project 156 race bike almost to the top of Pikes Peak.

The new model is a tectonic shift for Victory, which also this year debuted its first electric model – though the Empulse TT is really just a rebadged Brammo Empulse R.

Debuting the Ignition concept at the 2015 EICMA show today though, it’s clear that Victory Motorcycle is becoming more than a modern alternative to Harley-Davidson and the metric cruisers from Japan.

The Honda Six50 concept continues where the Honda CB4 concept left-off in exploring what other machines could be created from the Honda CBR650F platform. Instead of a café racer though, the Honda CBSix50 is more of a modern-take on the popular scrambler genre.

To that vein, it works well with the Honda CB4 concept, as both machines attempt to tackle popular hipster tropes currently in the two-wheeled space, but with decisively modern and unique approaches.

Honda isn’t saying too much about its CB4 concept, and we are not sure they need to – the motorcycle speaks for itself. Just in case you can’t hear it, the retro-style standard is an appealing machine, which draws a distinct line to the Hondas of a couple generations ago.

The Honda CB4 concept seems to be built off the Honda CBR650F platform, though the concept is certainly as far as you can get from the CBR650F in terms of feeling and inspiration.

To that end, a single-sided swingarm has been added, the exhaust routed stylishly and polished, and we are a big fan of the solid iron front brake discs with radially mounted Tokico calipers, in red…naturally.

Ever since Stefan Pierer bought the Husqvarna brand, we have been curious to see how “Husky” would fit within the KTM family.

As of late, Husqvarna models have been little more than recycled KTM motorcycles, with a few minor changes and some cosmetic tweaks seemingly being the only thing that separates the Swedish brand from its Austrian owner.

Part of this is a necessary evil, as it takes time to design and build new models, with the current overlap at least serving to update the Husqvarna line until actual new models can be released.

In 2017, we will see the first truly new Husqvarna models come to market, the Husqvarna 401 Vitpilen & Husqvarna 401 Svartpilen. Now we can see a third model, which further defines how we will understand Husqvarna in the future, its called the Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 concept.

Part of Kawasaki’s future is surely in supercharged motorcycles, as the Japanese manufacturer has debuted its second supercharged concept, in just a month’s time.

You may remember from the Tokyo Motor Show the Kawasaki SC-01 “Spirt Charger” concept, which depicted what many believed would be the next supercharged model from Kawasaki. Now we have the Kawasaki SC-02 “Soul Charger” concept, a model Kawasaki is being very coy about.

Now, I’m not one to talk when it comes to slapping knobby tires on an inappropriate street bike, and heading out to the dirt trails on it. But that being said, the Honda City Adventure concept takes the notion even farther than we could imagine.

For those times when you feel like getting your ADV on, but you know…with a scooter…the Honda City Adventure concept is there for you, and it debuted today at the EICMA show in Milan, Italy.

Honda seems to like blending different kinds of bikes in order to create new segments, we have seen this practice with a number of machines, and it has produced some interesting ideas.

The Honda City Adventure concept is equally interesting, though it seems like the answer to a question no one is asking. Maybe we are wrong though, and there are just thousands of scooter riders out there, eager to hit the trails on their feet-forward machines…