10 MOTORCYCLES WITH THE MOST UNIQUE DESIGNS
While the general design direction of motorcycles has remained on a predictable trajectory, there have always been those designers who are convinced their ideas are right and will change the course of motorcycling. If that has nearly always been proven not to be the case, it doesn’t lessen the scale of inventiveness on display and only serves to make us wonder what motorcycles would look like today if any of the following ideas had made it into the mainstream. It is interesting to consider that perhaps these ideas failed because the end consumer was too conservative and not because the ideas were unworkable or impractical, although some were clearly just that.
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Megola - 1921 to 1925
At the dawn of motorcycling, much experimentation was carried out with regard to the position of the engine: some placed it above the front wheel, some put it behind the rear wheel, but only one manufacturer chose to place it inside the front wheel. The Megola had a 640cc, five cylinder radial engine that turned at six times the speed of the front wheel, rotating around the axle. The fuel/air mixture was fed to the cylinders via a hollow crankshaft and, by all accounts, the handling was excellent, thanks largely to the low center of gravity. There was no clutch, so the engine had to either be stopped when the machine came to a rest or, as the owner’s manual suggested the rider ‘make small orbits in the road’: in other words, ride in circles until the way was clear to proceed! Not sure modern traffic conditions would allow for that.
Ner-A-Car - 1918 to 1927
The Ner-A-Car was a type of feet-forward motorcycle designed by Carl Neracher in 1918. It used an unusual steel-channel perimeter-frame chassis, much like an automobile, and hub-center steering at the front wheel, making it 'nearly a car' in design. The low-slung frame, front suspension, hub-center steering, and long wheelbase contributed to the cycle's exceptional stability. About 10,000 Ner-A-Cars were manufactured in the United States by the Ner-A-Car Corporation, while around 6,500 are believed to have been produced in England under licence by the Sheffield Simplex company between 1921 and 1926 under the Ner-A-Car name. These figures make it the most successful hub-center steering motorcycle ever produced. Eclipsing the likes of the Yamaha GTS1000 and Bimota Tesi.
Bohmerland - 1924 to 1940
Manufacturers have pursued practicality in many different ways but perhaps the Bohmerland is the most outlandish. Produced in Czechoslovakia from 1924, it featured an extremely long, welded steel tube chassis and cast aluminum wheels, decades before they became popular in the 1970s. Powered by a 600cc single cylinder engine, they were available in several wheelbase configurations; a two-seater, a three seater and, incredibly, a four-seater - the Lantouren - which had the longest wheelbase of any production motorcycle, at 10.5 feet. A military version of the latter could carry four soldiers and had two gearboxes, the second being operated by one of the passengers (other than the rider).
Imme R100 - 1949 to 1951
At first glance, it looks like any typical post-war cheap motorcycle aimed at getting a war-ravaged country back on its feet again. But look closely and all is not what it seems for the Imme R100 is bristling with interesting and way-before-its-time engineering solutions. The frame featured a single curved top tube and no front down tubes at all. The engine was a two-stroke design, the front forks were single-sided, enabling easy removable of the wheel. The rear suspension was by single-sided swing arm, with cantilever suspension and the exhaust pipe ran through the swing arm leg, causing some problems with chain tension as the swing arm leg would expand and contract due to the heat. The company went bankrupt in 1951.
Rokon - 1964 Onwards
In 1958, Charlie Fehn created a two-wheel drive motorcycle, called the Nethercut Trail Breaker. In 1964, Rokon Inc bought the rights and produce the motorcycle to this day. The Rokon uses as system of belts, chains and shafts to drive both front and rear wheels and there is no suspension: whatever ‘springing’ there is, is provided by the large balloon tires. The hollow wheels can also be used to carry up to 2.5 gallons of water or gasoline. Designed for use in the most rugged terrain, the Rokon is slow but almost unstoppable and is deliberately kept simple to facilitate repair when miles away from the nearest civilization. You can even fit larger balloon tires which will enable the bike to float and thus cross swampy terrain or open water.
Britten V1000 - 1991 to 1998
The Britten V1000 didn’t necessarily incorporate technology or design that couldn’t be seen elsewhere in motorcycling but the difference was that the Britten had it all in one motorcycle, whereas other bikes didn’t. The result of the fertile mind and incomparable skill of one man - John Britten - the V1000 was bristling with innovative design thinking: carbon fiber chassis elements and wheels, radiator located under the seat, engine used and a stressed member, double wishbone front suspension, rear shock absorber mounted vertically at the front of the engine and engine data logging. The key thing is this: Britten built it all himself - everything, from the engine to the wheels, to the bodywork, the electronics. The only thing he bought in was the gearbox.
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Quasar - 1975 to 1982
From time to time, designers become obsessed with creating a motorcycle that has the advantages of a car, namely complete protection for the rider from the elements. One of these was the Quasar, developed in the U.K., which had the rider sitting in a car-type bucket seat, with feet forward, a roof and a windshield, complete with a wiper. There was also a large storage space behind the rider, but visibility was poor, even if the performance wasn’t bad, with nearly 100mph available from the four-cylinder engine from the Reliant Robin three-wheeler, while motorcycle engines were used later. Funding was always a problem and only around 20 were ever built.
Lazareth Moto Volante - 2019
As with enclosing the rider, other inventors have been obsessed with creating flying cars and motorcycles. Lazareth of France is known for its crazy ideas but the Moto Volante has to be the wildest. It features four wheels, each pair being mounted close together which then tilt out horizontally. The center of the wheels are actually turbines that burn kerosene to produce 2,800Nm of thrust and a claimed 1,300 horsepower to enable to bike to fly, with two small jets mounted on the side o the bike for forward thrust. Fuel for the turbines is carried in the dummy engine in its traditional position and, when riding on the road, the bike is driven by electricity.
BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100 - 2016
In the mid-2010s, BMW Group celebrated its centenary with a quartet of ‘Vision Next 100’ concepts covering Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW cars and BMW Motorrad. They were all radical, but perhaps the motorcycle concept topped the list because, due to what BMW Motorrad called ‘active assistance systems of the future’ (gyroscopes, in other words), the bike could not fall over. BMW claimed it was so safe, the rider would not need to wear a helmet but merely a visor that transmitted real-time data to the onboard computer, which would use the information to correct the motorcycle according to weather or road hazards. The bike could also be configured according to the rider’s skill level, staying more upright for novices but allowing full lean angle for experts. Even the tires could alter their tread pattern via a ‘variable tread’ system to match the surface on which you are riding, whether that be mud or a racetrack.
Suzuki Falcorustyco - 1985
Pure science fiction from Suzuki, circa 1985. There’s no frame: both the front and rear swing arms attach to the engine, which is a four-stroke, 16-valve, 500cc square four design, which makes sense as, at the time, Suzuki was coming to the end of its square-four Grand Prix bike success, albeit in two-stroke form. Hydraulic final drive, hydraulic hub-center steering, electric suspension and electro-magnetic brakes completed the futuristic specification. Not unsurprisingly, it never ran, let alone go into production.
2023-09-25T17:15:35Z dg43tfdfdgfd