Daily motorbike news, views & reviews
Honda has filed a patent application for a facial-recognition helmet that would act as a key fob to unlock your motorcycle. It features a camera on the inside that identifies your face and then activates the motorcycle. Don’t expect that this will happen any time soon. It’s sort of an answer to a question no …
Honda has been granted a patent for a leaning trike possibly powered by the Goldwing six-cylinder engine, a V-twin or electric motor. The Japanese company filed for the patent with the European Patent Office in August 2016 after the Neowing leaning three-wheel concept (pictured above) was unveiled at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show. The filing has just been …
If you get sweaty in the crotch riding your motorcycle, you may be interested in Honda’s plans to develop a climate-controlled seat that heats and cools your backside. It’s like many luxury cars that have venting in the seats to pump in warm or cool air. In these drawings it seems to be pumped via …
Suzuki Motorcycles have developed a radar reflector, not to detect or jam a police speed radar, but to make motorcycles easier for hi-tech cars to detect them. In fact, the radar reflector could make motorcycles easier for police to detect with radar guns! Suzuki have filed a patent in Japan for the radar reflector. There …
While most riders like to expose themselves to the elements, there have always been inventors trying to make the ultimate airconditioning unit to cool riders. The latest comes from Bruce Hammond of Hammond Brothers Motorsports, Colorado, who has invented a turbofan that blows cold air at the rider from the handlebars. Bruce, 35, says motorcycles …
BMW Motorrad is seeking a patent for a hybrid drive motorcycle with a boxer engine and a back-up electric motor that would also act as a starter motor. No, it’s not April Fool’s Day, even though two years ago BMW announced a two-wheel-drive version of its R 1200 GS Adventure as an April Fool’s Day joke. …
Suzuki Motorcycles believes riders are vulnerable in a tunnel where they can disappear into the darkness, so they have invented a beacon light that shines on the roof to make traffic aware of the rider’s presence. It seems a lot of effort and expense to solve a problem that would be a fairly rare occurrence …
Great news for Moto Guzzi fans with news that parent company Piaggio has filed an international design patent in Australia for a scrambler that is not too far from the V85 scrambler concept unveiled at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan last November. The V85 concept scrambler is powered by a new 90° transverse air-cooled 850cc V-twin …
BMW Motorrad applications for two patents and emissions certification suggest the Bavarian manufacturer is developing carbon motorcycle frames and two new models based on the R nineT. The patent applications are for sportsbikes and standard bikes with Ducati-style trellis frames made from long tubes of carbon fibre. BMW already uses carbonfibre in the frames of …
Smart cornering headlights are coming to more motorcycles now that Kawasaki is thinking of introducing them on their Ninja ZX-14R. BMW was the first to introduce smart cornering lights on their K 1600 models, followed by KTM with the 1290 Super Adventure and now aftermarket manufacturers J.W. Speaker Corporation. The BMW smart lights actually swivel while …