Ducati’s planned V4 Superleggera is expected to be one of the world’s most powerful street-legal super bikes with 167kW (224hp) at 15,250 revs.
Throw on the optional Akrapovic full racing exhaust system and power is boosted to 174kW (234bhp), even beating the supercharged Kawasaki H2 at 171kW (230hp).
That compares with the Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory at 162kW (217hp) and new Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade with 160kW (212hp).
Super light
A leaked photo (above) and details show the largely carbon-fibre bike will weigh just 152kg which is 20kg less than the V4R, hence the term superleggera (super light).
The Superleggera’s Desmosedici Stradale R V4 engine is a big jump up from the “standard” V4 with (155kW/208hp, 124Nm) and V4S/R (top of page) with 159kW (214hp).
However, it is expected to have a super cost as well at $US100,000 (about $A145,000).
The world’s most iconic big-bike manufacturer, Harley-Davidson, is thinking small for 2020 with the launch of a small-capacity motorbike in China, electric bicycles and an electric scooter.
Baby Hog
Harley-Davidson HD350
Last June Harley-Davidson announced plans for a joint venture with China’s Qianjiang to produce a motorcycle under their HD350 project, indicating a 350cc engine.
However, it could be even smaller as they now call it the HD338, presumably powered by the Benelli 338cc twin-cylinder engine from the Benelli 302S as Qianjiang also owns and makes the former Italian brand of motorcycle.
The baby Hog will hit the showrooms in China in June and India by the end of the year.
There is no word on whether it will be exported to any other markets, but we suspect it will be sold throughout Asia.
Airbags seem to be the flavour of the times for the safety “experts”.
A host of airbag leather race suits is now available, airbags are mandatory in most motorcycle racing and some companies such as Dainese, Alpinestars and Furygan, are now releasing aftermarket airbag vests that go over or under a normal jacket.
As for motorcycles airbags, we can see they may be a safety device in crashes where the rider hits something head-on or is hit from behind, but not glancing blows or being hit from the side.
The Goldwing airbag in the “tank” area is bulky and would only fit big tourers.
However, Honda’s new patent is for a much smaller airbag.
It would be suitable on smaller motorcycles as shown in this patent drawing of a scooter published by Visor Down.
We imagine this will also be a cheaper airbag than the one in the Goldwing.
It’s not the first time Honda has considered adding airbags to smaller bikes.
In 2017, the company exhibited an airbag designed for scooters at the Honda Meeting in Tokyo. (See image at the top of this page.)
The danger of this type of cheaper technology is that safety experts will one day deem it as a mandatory fitment on all bikes just as they have with ABS!
Honda patent blitz
Honda has been having something of a blitz on patents in the past couple of years.
While this idea seems quite reasonable and may make it into some future motorcycles, a lot of the others are less likely.
Now, the second-generation Diavel 1260 S has clinched the Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum, Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
For 2020 the Diavel 1260 sports two new colour schemes, an all-black Dark Stealth for the standard version and an all-Ducati-red with white trims and red seat tail on the S version.
Dutch company Icon Motorcycles plans to hand-make new-age Triton motorcycles with Norton featherbed frames and modern Triumph 900cc engines.
Original Triton
The original 1960-70s Tritons were not factory models but private builds where enthusiasts mated the lithe-handling Norton featherbed frame with Triumph Bonneville engines.
Now Dutch company Icon Motorcycles plans to supply handmade Triton cafe racers for private orders with bespoke specifications. However, they won’t bear the name “Triton”.
Wouter Pullens of Icon Motorcycles says the frame is special build.
“It’s a replica from the famous Norton ‘featherbed’ frame of the sixties,” he says.
They will use the air/oil-cooled 900cc parallel twin from the previous model Thruxton, so it’s not liquid cooled and doesn’t have an ugly radiator.
He says the “Triumph engine is standard, not tweaked”, so that means 51.5kW of power and 71.8Nm of torque.
“They are available in the second half of this year, I expect about July,” he says.
“This is depending on the final inspection/approval of the Dutch Government.”
There is no word on pricing because each bike will be handmade to order, but Wouter says they can can “ship to every country”.
As a bit of a guide, Triumph 900 models cost around $15,000 while Norton 961 models cost more than $30,000.
So we expect they will cost around the Norton prices, or more depending on how much exotic kit you want to add.
Hyperbole
Icon Motorcycles says the original Triton was “perhaps the most influential motor movement the world has ever seen”.
Certainly the cafe racer seem was seminal, but they may be overstating the case a bit.
Here’s more hyperbole from their website:
Icon motorcycles guarantee you exclusivity as exclusivity is intended. You invest in craftsmanship and quality. We see every Icon engine as an investment in life that only becomes more beautiful with the years. You never really own a motorcycle really look after it for the next generation. Authentic hand assembled engines , we create an interesting investment . This is how we achieve our goal, creating rare motorcycles for the owner. Because of the exclusivity and rarity we create, you are guaranteed a right investment. Courtesy is timeless class, you must be able to enjoy the ownership.
At Icon Motorcycles we don’t just produce motorcycles, we go back deep into history. We let our hands do the work and lay our soul and salvation in every model, with the greatest care for the smallest details and that with only one goal let man and machine come together in perfect harmony.
The expected revival of the traditional British motorcycle brand, BSA, seems to have stalled more than three years after the brand was bought by Mahindra.
Indian tractor and automotive company Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) bought the revered brand for $A5.4m in October 2016 through their wholly owned subsidiary, Classic Legends Private Limited (CLPL).
At the time they expressed intentions to make it a traditional-styled revival.
A few months later Italian motorcycle designer Oberdan Bezzi released some sketches of BSA models but they were never confirmed.
When they launched, the order website crashed because of demand.
They said they planned to sell 90,000 bikes a year.
But despite the interest, the Jawa relaunch has been fraught with production problems and delays of up to a year.
Some customers cancelled their orders in frustration.
And that’s just for domestic sale. They haven’t even contemplated exports.
Jawa say that production is improving and customers only need now wait a few weeks for a bike.
However, Mahindra’s boss recently lamented getting into motorcycles at all, so the revival of BSA could be stalled permanently.
BSA history
BSA stands for Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited and it began in 1861 making guns.
It gradually moved into bicycles and motorcycles for which they are most famous, although they also made cars, buses, tools and other metal products over the years.
Its most famous motorcycles were the Gold Star 350cc and 500cc single-cylinder four-stroke bikes considered among the fastest of the 1950s. At the time, BSA was also the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer.
However, the halcyon post-war days slipped away in the 1960s under competition from more modern and reliable Japanese models.
BSA went bankrupt in the early 1970s and merged with the Norton Villiers Triumph Group. BSA-branded machines ceased production in 1973.
BSA is currently just a brand that churns out motorcycle t-shirts and merchandise.
KTM is also building a joint factory with CFMoto in China with an estimated output of more than half a million bikes a year.
From 2021, the factory will make all KTM models powered by the new 799cc parallel-twin for the world market.
That doesn’t mean they won’t build other models.
Perhaps some of these new models may only be available for the Asian market, but we think all would have wider acceptance across the world.
It should be a big year for the KTM group who also own Husqvarna and in August acquired GasGas.
Husky recently confirmed they will produce the 901 Norden adventure bike in 2020 and GasGas say they will move into the street market just like KTM Husqvarna.
Royal Enfield has applied for the trademarks of Sherpa and Hunter which we expect could be applied to the upcoming smaller and bigger Himalayan adventure models.
The current 400cc Himalayan has been a moderate hit so 250cc and 650cc versions could also score well for the Indian company, both in the subcontinent and overseas.
Several manufacturers have produced baby adventure bikes in recent years such as the Kawasaki Versys-X 350, and there has been a host of 650cc models available for many years.
Sherpa and Hunter
Both Sherpa and Hunter would be ideal names for extensions to the Himalayan family.
Perhaps the Hunter would be the bigger model and the Sherpa the smaller one, given the company had a 178cc Sherpa in the 1960s.
Royal Enfield boss Siddhartha Lal has long suggested the 650cc engine from the popular Interceptor and Continental GT could be used in the Himalayan.
The Himalayan is powered by a 411cc, single-cylinder engine producing just 18kW of power at 6500rpm and 32Nm of torque at 4250rpm.
That compares with the 648cc twin from the Interceptor and Continental GT which has 35kW at 7250rpm and 52Nm at 5250rpm
Indian websites have published spy photos of disguised 650cc Himalayans being tested on local roads, so they could be close to production.
However, the trademark application is probably a little late for a 2020 release.
BMW Motorrad has filed a patent for a sidestand charger that looks like it belongs to an electric motorcycle, lending more weight to an electric future.
These patent applications seem to give a clear indication of BMW’s electrification plans.
However, BMW Motorrad boss Markus Schramm recently told US website Cycle World they would not have an electric motorcycle for at least another five years.
“In the urban environment, it is possible that there will be an electric BMW motorcycle in five years. In the touring, off-road, and sport segments, I am not sure that we will see them,” he is quoted as saying.
The Bavarian company already has an electric scooter, the C-Evolution.
But these latest patent filings seem to show plans for an electric motorcycle, at least for the urban environment.
The sidestand charger system involves the stand slotting into a “puck” which is plugged into the AC mains.
It’s simply another way of connecting to a charger.
It would probably only be of use in your home as we cannot see this sort of infrastructure being rolled out in public places.
In 2017, BMW Group Australia boss Marc Werner said Australia needed tax incentives, import subsidies and/or charging infrastructure, but we don’t think he had a sidestand charger in mind at the time.
The only advantage we can see of a sidestand charger is that it might save you a couple of seconds where you would normally plug in the bike’s onboard charger.
However, the filing is important as it is another example of BMW getting serious about electric motorcycles.
Each model has a different idea of how leaning three-wheelers with two front wheels should lean and steer.
The Kawasaki design looks quite complex with horizontal links instead of conventional vertical forks and a mono shock like a BMW telelever arrangement.
Here is how they explain it in the patent filing abstract:
A saddle type vehicles includes two front wheels, a left front wheel supporting member and a right front wheel supporting member which are turned around a left front wheel turning axis and a right front wheel turning axis respectively, an upper lean arm and a lower lean arm which are rotated around an axis perpendicular to a vehicle width direction, and a steering rod. The upper arm is connected to the left and right members via first and second connecting parts which are provided on the left front wheel turning axis. The lower arm is connected to the left and right members via third and fourth connecting parts which are provided on the right front wheel turning axis. The steering rod is arranged forward of the steering spindle. In a front view of the vehicle body, the steering rod is arranged between the upper and lower arms.
Simple!
It may look complex and heavy, but they claim it makes it lighter.
Pros and cons of leaning
The advantages of leaning three wheelers is that they feel very much like a normal bike to ride, but they double the contact patch on the front which improves cornering grip.
They can also be made to stay upright without having to put a foot down at slow speeds or stationary.
This makes them ideal for novices or those who can no longer support a motorcycle because of leg injuries or age.
However, the disadvantages of leaning three wheelers are that they are ugly, heavy and more expensive.
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