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Concept: BMW F900S by Luca Bar Design

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To build the Husqvarna Nuda 900, the Swedish brand started with the 798cc motor from the BMW F800 series, and then bored and stroked the parallel-twin motor to a 898cc displacement. Through its marketing of the Nuda 900 & Nuda 900R, BMW has been sure to include itself, making sure that the connection of BMW’s trusted road-going heritage is tied to the previously dirt-only brand of Husqvarna. It’s been an interesting process for both brands to say the least, the product of which we haven’t even begun to fully realize.

Taking a reversal on the process between BMW and Husqvarna, our friend Luca Bar (check out his site here) is back with another concept bike. Designing what he calls a BMW F900S, Luca has taken the F800S aesthetic and imagined it with the newly-revised 900cc motor from the Husqvarna Nuda. Not stopping just at the revised motor though, his F900S also gets some trellis-frame love, which the Nuda used in lieu of the F800’s twin-spar frame design. Adding in some updated bodywork, the total package looks very clean. More photos after the jump.

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KTM SMX-E Imagined by Piers SP

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As we already know, the KTM Freeride E will be out in 2012 in limited numbers, as the Austrian brand tests the waters on the electric dirt bike market. Building an electric not because they believe in the technology’s immediate relevancy, but because they believe in its future and want to continue being a market leader, KTM is the first big motorcycle OEM to bring an electric motorcycle to market. Giving Zero Motorcycles (and soon Brammo & BRD) a run for its money, the KTM Freeride E is a modest design with its 30hp (peak) PERM motor and 2.1 kWh battery pack.

As a dyed-in-the-wool street biker, I was a bit disappointed that KTM was only bringing the Freeride E out as a dirt bike, with no supermoto variation available. Thankfully I was not alone in that sentiment, as Kiska Senior Pixel Pusher Piers SP also longed for an electric Austrian backing-it-in machine. The difference of course is that as a blogger, I have no concept of creating something of my own (that’s moto-journo humor right there folks), while Piers SP is a zen voodoo digital samurai (truth). Needless to say, photoshopping ensued.

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Husqvarna Baja Concept Breaks Cover

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Husqvarna continues its push into the on-road market, and has debuted another concept while at the New York IMS show today. Already showing us the Husqvarna Moab Concept in Milan, the folks at Husky have continued the thought process with the Moab, and built a more off-road capable dual-sport, which they are calling the Husqvarna Baja Concept. Another modern-take on retro design, the Baja concept carries over with it many of the Moab’s bigger design features, while sporting a 19″ knobby front tire for better off-road use.

Husqvarna simply states that the concept uses a four-stroke liquid-cooled 650cc single-cylinder motor (same as the Moab), which surely will be sourced from BMW’s G650GS. The Baja is also being fitted with a five-speed wide-ratio transmission, fuel-injection, perimeter frame, and Brembo brakes. The design from Husqvarna looks fairly polished, and we wouldn’t be surprised if some form of the Baja or Moab made it into production (or a fusion of the two).

With the Swedish brand already releasing the Husqvarna Nuda 900, and set to bring the Huqvarna Strada into production sometime this year, BMW’s want-to-be rogue street bike company could have a robust line-up if it brings the Baja and/or the Moab into produciton. We hope they do, because out of all the street bikes we’ve seen from the brand, these two seem the most intriguing, and also happen to better fit the Husqvarna name as well. Photos after the jump.

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Rendered: Ducati 1199 Panigale Race Replicas

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It’s only a matter of time before Ducati releases some race replica paint jobs for the recently unveiled Ducati 1199 Panigale. It almost certainly won’t be during the 2012 model year, but in 2013 don’t be surprised to see some race-inspired colors adorning Bologna’s flagship superbike. Seemingly beating Ducati to the punch, the guys over at MotorBikeTV have put together some fine photoshops of what the Ducati 1199 Panigale race replicas would look like. Hayden, Bayliss, Checa…the only thing missing is perhaps the most important race replica of all: Valentino Rossi’s.

With The Doctor signing onto the Italian MotoGP squad for two seasons, the match was a marketing director’s dream come true. And while the Rossi yellow might clash with the Rosso Corsa, you can beat anything stamped with a 46 and the Ducati Corse logo will sell like hot cakes…it did for the Ducati Monster at least. A Rossi-branded Ducati 1199 Panigale? The sound you just heard was Ducatisti worldwide having spasms of joy, of the change-your-pants variety. Thanks for the tip Sergio!

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More Photos of the Honda RC-E Concept

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Judging from our internal metrics, you love the Honda RC-E concept…you really love it. And what’s not to love about the electric superbike concept? The stylish design doesn’t stray too far from the basic shapes and lines that we think of when we conjure up a motorcycle in our minds; and if we’re really honest with ourselves, we all expect Honda, with its engineering prowess, to knock a project like this out of the park.

We still don’t have any real details about the Honda RC-E concept, but it’s probably safe to steal a line from KTM, when the Austrian manufacturer debuted the KTM Freeride E, it said that as a market leader, it could not afford to let competitors and new-comers explore the electric space by themselves. Rumored to have one of Honda’s hybrid automobile motors housed inside, the overall electric drivetrain package looks to be quite bulky, making us wonder how much battery power is on-board (or would be on-board, assuming Honda has even installed batteries on the concept).

What does Honda plan to do with the RC-E exactly? Well that is anyone’s guess really. Is the bike purely an experiment and display of what’s been going on in the Honda labs? Is the RC-E concept a precursor to a soon-to-be realized production model? Will we see one at an electric racing event soon? Only time will tell.

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Boxer Design SuperBob Concept is all Turbo and Monocoque

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Carbon monocoque frame, turbo-boosted v-twin motor, single-sided swingarm, duolever front suspension geometry, and premium components — that’s what French firm Boxer Design’s SuperBob is made of. You’ll either love or hate the SuperBob’s general aesthetic, but you have to admit up close, the details of the sport-naked are superb. Based around an 88° 997cc v-twin motor that was developed by French firm Technologies (the same company behind the stillborn Inmotec MotoGP project’s motor), the Boxer Design SuperBob massages its peak power output to 158hp, thanks to some light turbo work (6-9 psi).

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Husqvarna Strada – Do We Need A Single-Cylinder Nuda?

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Husqvarna apparently didn’t show all it had to offer at the 2011 EICMA show in Milan, Italy several weeks ago. Debuting the Husqvarna Strada concept at the Paris Motor Show today, the Swedish brand continues its expansion into the on-road market. While the business case is strong for why Husky is currently on a street-bike tear, excitement over the Strada might pale in comparison to the hype that surrounded the 2012 Husqvarna Nuda 900.

Based on BMW’s 650cc single-cylinder motor found in the G650GS, the Husqvarna Strada has allegedly been “breathed” on by the Italian engineers at Husqvarna. Details are still under lock and key, though Husqvarna says the Strada will tip the scales at less than 170kg dry (375 lbs). While the bike being unveiled in Paris is a concept, Husqvarna plans to go into production with the Husqvarna Strada in 2012, meaning what we’ll see on dealer showroom floors will look very similar to what we see here now.

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Up-Close with the Husqvarna E-Go Concept

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While KTM made waves with the debut of the KTM Freeride E electric dirt bike, the Austrian brand wasn’t the only OEM hocking an electric offering at the 2011 EICMA show. Unveiling a very rough electric concept, Husqvarna continued to redefine itself for the future with the Husqvarna E-Go Concept. The physical size of a 125cc dirt bike, the Husqvarna E-Go is the exploration of entry-level electric street motard.

Like the KTM Freeride E, the battery pack looks a bit small for serious street duty, and we’re not so sure about the air-cooled brushed motor, but honestly the E-Go is more about the Swedish brand exploring electric motorcycles in anticipation of that market developing further. With OEMs hoping that electrics will bring in a new generation of rider, the Husqvarna E-Go seems to hit all the right bullet points for that concept, but as always, time will tell.

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MV Agusta Tricruiser Concept – A 675cc Sport-Tourer?

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Walking around the halls of the 2011 EICMA show, I saw this concept for an MV Agusta tourer sitting in the Motociclismo booth, and wondered what was the story behind the bike. Luckily the internet has answers for such questions, and it turns out that the MV Agusta Tricruiser is the brainchild of students at Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin (IED).

Using the MV Agusta F3 as a starting point, the graduate students at IED set out to envision the next iteration in MV Agusta’s smaller-displacement platform. With the Italian company under tremendous pressure to become profitable, MV Agusta must increase its volume by a factor greater than 10x if it wants to see blank ink on its balance sheet.

Accordingly, the company from Varese has been making a bevy of variations of its F4-based models, showing three new Brutale street-nakeds at EICMA (Brutale 920, Brutale R 1090, & Brutale RR 1090) at ECIMA, along with two F4 superbikes (F4R & F4RR).

Slotting in a smaller-displacement and cheaper-price point model series that is based off a 675cc three-cylinder motor, MV Agusta also showed its F3 supersport and its corresponding Brutale 675 street-naked at EIMCA this year. While compelling pieces, MV Agusta will surely need more models in its arsenal if it wants to achieve its financial goals, and the next MV Agusta is heavily rumored to be a sport-touring/adventure model.

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Parker Brothers Does Daniel Simon’s Cosmic Detonator

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We’re big fans of Daniel Simon’s work here at Asphalt & Rubber, especially his Cosmic Motors series. Stocked with some of the most imaginative illustrations of vehicles from an alternate reality, Simon’s two-wheeled pièce de résistance is the Cosmic Motors Detonator motorcycle.

For reasons that probably resemble our work-induced daydreams, Parker Brothers Choppers (PBC), the same firm that brought you the rideable TRON Lightcycle and Batman’s Batpod, has built a functional, albeit unlicensed, version of Simon’s Cosmic Motors Detonator. To the company’s credit though, the build overall seems fairly true to the sketches and renders done by Simon.

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Honda RC-E Concept to Debut at Tokyo Motor Show

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The Tokyo Motor Show is next month, and Honda has something special for two-wheeled enthusiasts. Fresh on the heels of KTM debuting the first major OEM electric dirt bike, Honda has an electric concept of its own: the Honda RC-E. The japanese company is being fairly terse about the RC-E’s details, simply stating that the bike is “an EV version of a super sports bike that pursues the joy of riding. A powerful and smooth ride unique to an EV model is achieved with the 250cc-class compact body.”

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