Total Motorcycle

TOKYO — Although most of the media focus at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show is on the three convention halls stuffed with the latest four-wheel dream machines, Tokyo is the only major auto show that also showcases motorcycles. They’re over in a pulsating big top tent officially called the North Hall, but for bikers, it should be called Fantasyland — something on the order of “Blade Runner” meets the mechanical bull scene in “Urban Cowboy.”

Besides the eyeball-assaulting light show, music loud enough to make your ears bleed and models in go-go boots and vinyl minidresses, there is a full spectrum of new rides, from futuristic to retro.

Let’s start at the Honda booth, where on one side, it’s back to the future, and on the other, Jimmy Carter is president again: the CB1100F, to me, evokes great old Hondas like the CBX, albeit with fewer exhaust pipes. Others will see what they want to see, but either way, it’s a beaut. The CB1100R (R for race) is about as ’70s as shag carpet, monaural LPs and polyester pants. Great retro themes overall though, and certainly buildable.

Muscle Bike Party: the Honda EVO6 has some really outer-galaxy styling and it’s coupled with a smart use of Honda’s underutilized six-cylinder engine from the Gold Wing. Output in this format would be more than the Gold Wing’s 118 horsepower. It looks like the styling department, however, ran out of time before they got to the rear of the bike.

The Suzukis are wild. Silent runner: the Crosscage is a fuel cell bike that really works; no gas engine at all. The powerplant is made by Intelligent Energy of the U.K., the same group that made the ENV fuel cell bike I tested — and thought was viable even if it sounded like a U.F.O., not a bike. The Biplane supposedly has a V-4, but the show bike is most likely a make-believe mockup. Looks to be straight out of a video game. When will either Suzuki be produced? Right after the 12th of Never.

Yamaha’s Tesseract looks like it wound up on the cutting room floor from the “Transformers” movie. It has another one of those dreamweaver hybrid powerplants; the jury is out whether it would even be classified as a motorcycle. Would it look quite as cool with air bags, seatbelts and impact-resistant bumpers? I don’t think so. It’s kind of a grown-up version of one of those scooters for the “help-I’ve-fallen-and-can’t-get-up crowd.” Perfect for cruising supermarket aisles. A lot of showgoers cooed over the retro-classic Yamaha Sakura. A standard-style bike with an 1,100cc V-twin would generate a lot of showroom traffic, methinks.

Finally, at the Kawasaki stand, the Z1000 gets a new suspension layout that helps improve engine and exhaust placement; that, in turn, permitted some low- and mid-range performance gains. KZ also says this screamer has better suspension components and brakes. But the leaner, meaner ZX10R is the more significant new intro, now with 170-175 horsepower, thanks to dual fuel injectors on each cylinder. Compression ratio is up to — yikes — 12.7:1. Stand back when you fire that puppy up.

The Ninja ZX-14 had to be massaged to meet tighter emissions standards, especially in Europe, so Kawasaki engineers thought, “Why not ratchet up that engine output while we’re at it?” Horsepower was already an unpublished number, but now, figure it has been bumped north of 180 at the rear wheel, 200 or more at the crankshaft. Last but far from least: A new 2-into-1 exhaust on the Ninja 250R perks up the engine; a new full fairing perks up its looks.

Important Note: Kawasaki was showing bikes they will produce; the competitors were showing daydreams they (and we) wish they could.

Thunder Struck Customs makes some sleek and sexy bikes, but the one that really caught my eye was this one, called the Hammer. Featuring a 147 cubic inch motor, six speed transmission, and style that borrows from Ferraris, AC Cobras, concept cars and drag bikes, it definitely put Thuder Struck’s Medford, Oregon shop on the map.

The Legends Have Arrived

Suzuki’s two most sought after bikes Hayabusa and INTRUDER launched in India.

The roads will wonder who passed by. Get ready to renew your faith in the physics of design. The two most renowned, four stroke, liquid cooled massive demons of power, steel and style are ready to burn the Indian roads with digital fuel injection and the most enviable wave of tractable power and responsive torque.

Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of one of the world’s leading two-wheeler manufacturers Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan, bowled the Indian bike freaks with the launch of its most awaited bikes, Hayabusa and INTRUDER M1800R.

Celebrated as the pioneers and leaders in the field of land crusader manufacturing, Suzuki has again proved its metal in the Indian market one more time with this launch. The entire focus of the launch was to deliver dazzling technology and performance to exhibit that they have now raised the bar in the motorcycle industry with superior technology and innovation.

These bikes have been reigning the international market for long were desperately seek in India. Both Hayabusa and INTRUDER are seen as ultimate machines and are known for their powerful engines and style. Launch of both the bikes in each other’s company unanimously was thrilling and electrifying.

Acknowledged as the legend in the league of sports bikes, Hayabusa is so unique that it requires its own new classification: Ultimate Sport. This motorcycle is so exciting that is has developed a devoted following around the world. It combines seemingly effortless acceleration, wind-cheating aerodynamics, sporty handling, timeless style, long distance comfort and unlimited excitement.

The machine has a muscular four- stroke, four cylinder and liquid-cooled DOHC engine. It has an overhauled oil capacity of 4.0L, fully transistorized ignition and radial mount breaks in the front. The bike sports the new advanced digital fuel injection system with three way selectable engine mapping to suit personal preferences.

The Hayabusa’s instrument cluster features a set of four analog gauges, including step-motor—driven tachometer and speedometer, fuel meter and coolant temperature meter. It comes with wind-cheating, wind-tunnel-developed aerodynamic shape, and the giant weights 220kg.

Hayabusa is likely to be seen in four titillating colours; Solid Black / Metallic Majestic Gold and Pearl Nebular Black / Metallic Phantom Gray.

Introducing to the Indian market, a new level of excitement on the roads, INTRUDER M1800R is a style statement in itself. One look is all it takes to tell that INTRUDER M1800R is not an average cruiser. The most striking feature of this model is an all-new 1783cc, v-twin engine, liquid cooled with DOHC and digital fuel injection. Presenting to you the new classic look with an engine designed to produce a massive wave of tractable power and responsive torque starting just off idle and reaching to redline. The bike has an unmatched combination of the latest high-performance technology and a unique, exciting style.

Tired of losing his cookie-cutter 2003 Suzuki Hayabusa in a sea of similar rides, Nick Dagostino added a third wheel to set his off. Now he has no problems finding his bike–it’s the one with the crowd gathered around it!

If “dare to be different” is the custom bike builder’s credo, then why the heck do so many custom sportbikes look exactly the same? The motivation for customizing your motorcycle is typically to create something unique and original, unlike what anyone else is riding, so you stand out at the local bike night. What to do, then, after you drop more than $10K on chrome and aftermarket exhausts and extended swingarms to individualize your ride only to find your “unique” vision is shared with nearly every other sportbiker on the street?

That was the situation Nick Dagostino found himself in last summer after he finished up the first round of customization on his 2003 Suzuki Hayabusa. “I did all the usual stuff,” the Saratoga Springs, New York, resident told us. “Chromed the gas tank, polished everything else, lowered the bike, stretched it 7 inches, but everywhere I went out here I saw 10 more that looked exactly like mine! I hate being in the mainstream; I always want to have something different from the rest. So I went home one night and, halfway into a 12-pack, I thought, ‘What the hell can I do that no one’s ever done before?’ This is what I came up with.”

“This,” of course, refers to the wild tandem swingarm mounted on his Hayabusa, which hangs a third wheel off the aft end of the bike and guarantees his ride is longer, lower and more outrageous than anything else at the local cruise spot. “I love it,” Dagostino says. “It’s so stealth. Coming at you straight on it looks like any other ‘Busa, but once guys see the 3/4 view everything changes–it’s so much fun to watch them do a double take and grab their buddies. At Bike Week they couldn’t get their cameras out fast enough.”

The swingarm is a custom one-off creation built by Myrtle West Cycle in Longs, South Carolina. Conceived by Dagostino and CAD-developed by the crew at Myrtle West, it is more than 4 feet long and features extra underbracing to ensure strength and stability. Only the center wheel is driven–the rear wheel is fitted with a dummy sprocket that has had its teeth machined off. Dagostino says the logistics of driving both rear wheels are complicated and would likely require a jackshaft and second chain, but driving the second wheel is a goal for the future. There is a rear brake fitted to both wheels right now, but this is also a work in progress. To run both brake calipers off the same lever and get optimum performance will require a proportioning valve to balance the load, and Dagostino says he hasn’t been able to find one that looks good enough to add to the bike.

None of this stops Dagostino from riding the bike regularly–he put 2500 miles on since wrapping the project up, 600 of these miles at this year’s Daytona Beach Bike Week. “It tracks pretty well,” he says. “The only place you really feel the extra wheel is on hard, 90-degree turns. The second wheel will scrub a little bit, just like on a dump truck or any other tandem vehicle, but you know when this is going to happen so you can deal with it pretty easily.” Fortunately, Dagostino, who makes his living driving a truck for the New York highway department, has had plenty of practice with tandem-wheeled vehicles.

The bike is dropped as low as it can go using a Myrtle West adjustable triple clamp and revalved/resprung factory fork to adjust the attitude up front. The rear end is rigid and supported by a strut, as on many choppers. “To keep both wheels on the ground you’ve got to keep the swingarm parallel to the pavement,” Dagostino explains. “We couldn’t find any shock that could crank down that low, so we used a strut instead.” The ride isn’t too bad, the slightly masochistic Dagostino says (”Not any worse than a rigid chopper”), though speed bumps do present a serious problem. Dagostino says he’s been discussing options with Tricky Air to add a custom Air Ride system to get some spring back. Nicole, Dagostino’s long-suffering girlfriend and frequent passenger, will no doubt appreciate this upgrade.

The tandem swingarm, of course, is just the beginning of the mods. All the chrome plating was done by the crew at Santa Ana Plating in Fullerton, California, including the trio of factory Hayabusa wheels (Dagostino is looking for a custom wheel sponsorship, if any wheel makers are reading this), engine cases, brake calipers, clip-ons, rearsets, levers and more. Anything that isn’t chrome-dipped (frame, fork, rotors) has been expertly polished by Dagostino’s good friends Rich Marshall and Dean Kawczak at LBF Cycles in Feura Bush, New York. The LBF team also assisted with much of the fabrication and assembly.

The rear fender is from Jesse James’ West Coast Choppers line, modified by Dagostino to fit on the end of the extended swingarm and cover the third wheel. This extra fender, along with the rest of the bodywork, was sprayed with a DuPont baby blue basecoat and covered with “angry tribal” graphics in various shades of House of Kolor candy blue and purple. Neil Cuomo at Cuomo’s Custom Paint in Rotterdam, New York, handled all the painting. The seat covers are custom too, recovered by Dagostino in marine-grade, ostrich-patterned vinyl.

Look closely at the top of the tribal-striped fuel tank and you’ll notice a 5-inch, flat-panel color monitor recessed into the upper surface–this transmits an image from the tiny rearview camera Dagostino hid just below the taillight, allowing him to clean up the front of the bike by removing the mirrors. The mirror openings are covered with chromed block-off plates from Schnitz Racing, which also supplied the swingarm-mounted license-plate bracket. An HMF high-mount dual exhaust system and Ivan’s Timing Retard Eliminator (TRE) are the extent of the motor mods Dagostino dialed in.

Love it or hate it, you have to give Dagostino credit for doing something different with his Hayabusa. Dagostino says he definitely encounters his share of haters on the street. “Guys always come up and give me crap, saying, ‘Sportbikes are supposed to carve corners, how do you do canyons on that?’ That one-sided mentality just fuels me to do something different with my sportbike, and break out of that mold.”

Even though some might disapprove, the vast majority of custom bike fans absolutely love his machine–in fact, it even caught the eyes of Discovery Channel producers who were filming an upcoming Big, Big Bikes television program at Bike Week. They pulled Dagostino aside for an on-camera interview, after which Dagostino helpfully rounded out their footage with a 2000-foot-long rolling burnout. Smokescreen or not, few people forget this three-wheeled ‘Busa, which is exactly the response Dagostino was aiming for.

“I wanted a bike that would be talked about long after Bike Week, and long after Laconia,” Dagostino says. “I want people to go home and say, `You aren’t going to believe this sick, three-wheeled Hayabusa I saw. It looked like a 200-mph rollerblade!’ I love having that effect on people.”

Not to mention he never, ever has a problem finding his bike.

hayabusa GSX1300R is the fastest bike u would ever ride.
plus as they say there is no such thing as safe.
Suzuki Hayabusa is the most wonderfull and fastest bikes in the world.

Hayabusa Gulf

The customized modified 2002 Hayabusa build by Hank Young, The bike has been fitted with two small HID headlamps, a Bonneville land speed-style front fender, an extended, tubular swingarm, and spoked rear wheel. The Gulf Racing-inspired paintjob – Hank loves Carroll Shelby’s Ford GT40 racers from the late-1960s was done by Platinum Customs.
Hank Young Choppers

The Kawasaki bikes would be retailed through the chain of hi-end Bajaj Probiking showrooms. The company had kick-started the Probiking initiative in 2005 with the launch of the Pune showroom. Today ten Probiking showrooms are operational with presence in all major markets with ten more to go on-stream by end of economic 2008. intended for professional bikers the showrooms house state-of the art interactive terminals and offer prospective “Probikers� a chance to test-ride the bikes on specially designed Indoor Dynamometers. Kawasaki, Japan will also give the necessary service training and part back-up to ensure that the hi-performance bikes are in peak condition and fully live up to the expectations of the Probikers.

, President of the Kawasaki Consumer Products and Machinery Company comments, “India is a very important market for KHI and Bajaj Auto is a strong partner. The Indian market is in the cusp of progressing to big bikes and Kawasaki is highly regarded in this section. Soon the “flying K� and the “Kawasaki Green� will scorch the Indian roads.�

Mr. Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, and Bajaj Auto said, “Both Kawasaki and Bajaj have synergized their strengths to widen the selection in own markets. The family consumer can now experience the power of big biking while the Kawasaki customers in the Philippines are previously experiencing the range of Bajaj products for the past few years. We are in debate to extend the Philippine commerce model to other countries as well.�

Here is the brand new list of the top 5 fastest bikes in the world! Includes the BMW K1200S, Ducati 1098s, Aprilia RSV 1000R Mille, Yamaha YZF R1 and the Honda CBR 1100XX!

MV Agusta today revealed the new F4R 312 – which it claims is the fastest production bike in the world.

Replacing the previous F4R, the new 312 version is named after its 312km/h top speed – which is equivalent to 194mph. Unlike other fast MV’s the factory has told MCN that this particular F4 will not be part of a limited production run.

Power is up from 172bhp to 180bhp thanks to new valves and remapped fuel injection, and the engine also gets a new engine braking system to reduce rear wheel hop on a closed throttle.

Honda CBR 1100 XX Super Blackbird is a sport-touring motorcycle built by Honda. It combines big engine power, Easy operational error-tolerance with touring comfort. The Blackbird production started in 1997 and the last year of production was 2006. The Blackbird was the result of Honda's attempt to build the world's fastest production motorcycle, stealing the crown from Kawasaki.

The Yamaha YZF-R1 motorcycle, introduced in 1998, was the first significant motorcycle in the true litre class (1,000 cc) "handling arms race" between the Japanese Big Four motorcycle manufacturers (Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha). When introduced, it took the class closer to a true racing motorcycle, and increased the handling capabilities.

The RSV Mille and limited-edition RSV Mille Factory are high performance V-twin powered motorcycles made by Aprilia with a 143 HP 998 cc engine built by the Austrian company Rotax. For 2006. the RSV Mille Factory won the Maxisport category for Masterbike 2006 and overall Masterbike of the year.

The Ducati 1098 is a 1099 cc L-twin sport bike manufactured by Ducati. It was announced on November 8, 2006 for the 2007 model year and replaces the 999. The 1098 makes a manufacturer claimed 160 horsepower, 90.4 ft-lb torque, and weighs 173kg. These figures gives the 1098 the highest torque-to-weight ratio of any production sport bike ever made.

With enough raw power to shock even the most seasoned adrenaline junky, the K 1200 S hurls you from a dead stop to sixty mph in just 2.8 seconds. Once you're over the whiplash, you'll keep climbing, topping out at speeds that run neck-and-neck with the fastest production motorcycles in the world.

BMW R1200R

There was a time when I considered that on reaching 50, one’s life was over. Not any more. I used to think that anyone who rode a large naked BMW like an R80, R90 or R100 could be guaranteed to smell of urine, have a pipe and beard, and wear a set of Belstaffs covered in Ulysses and rally badges. Not any more.

Motorcycles have had mass appeal to the general public for roughly a century and a half. An American named Sylvester Howard Roper designed one of the first motorcycles in the 1860s. The motorcycle was displayed at fairs and circuses around the eastern U.S.. Europeans also had their hand in popularizing motorcycles and during the World Wars, motorcycles functioned as a quick means of transportation.

As the motorcycle progressed, the engines and frames became bigger, sleeker, faster and more powerful, resulting in the high-tech and expensive motorcycles of today. If you can afford one, a custom motorcycle built to your exact specifications is within reach.

Currently, the most expensive motorcycles in production are fetching in between $100,000 and $200,000 US. While researching expensive motorcycles, we found 4 bikes that dominate all others in performance, appearance…and cost.

The fourth most expensive motorcycle we found is the new MV Agusta F4 CC created by Claudio Castiglioni, the motorcycle company’s director. He wanted to create a spectacular motorcycle that met strategic marketing needs while also being something truly special and unique. The expensive motorcycle bearing his very own initials “CC” has a top speed of 315 kph (195 mph), 1078 cc’s and a 198 hp engine. Each bike will boast a platinum plate located near the top of the steering column showing the model number from 1 to 100, making this motorcycle all the more special to its owners. This Italian dream costs 100,000 Euros ($133,745US).

MV Agusta F4 CC

Next on our list is the MTT Turbine Superbike costing $150,000 (111,000 Euros). Not only is this motorcycle expensive, its also extremely fast. The Superbike is the Guinness World Record holder for the “Most Powerful Motorcycle Ever to Enter Series Production”. The turbine engine in this one is made by Rolls Royce and is capable of over 300hp. The motorcycle also boasts carbon fiber fairings, a rear mounted camera with LCD color display, forward-and rear-looking radar detector with laser scrambler, one touch “Smart Start” ignition, and many other cool gadgets. This bike seams to be pretty popular in Hollywood. It starred in the movie “Torque” and even Jay Leno owns one!

MTT Turbine Superbike

The Macchia Nera Concept Bike is near the top of the list of most expensive motorcycles at 150,000 Euros ($201,000). Built around a Ducati 998RS engine, its Italian designers and engineers set out to create an extremely high tech and expensive motorcycle that would be thought of as “the ultimate track bike” that is “simply beautiful and beautifully simple”. The Testastretta engine is fitted with lightweight metals and alloys like titanium and aluminum making it very lightweight. The view from the side of the Macchia Nera shows exposed belts and engine components, giving its design a minimalist feel while still being aesthetically pleasing. We should add that this bike is a one of a kind and not in produced for retail at this point, but if you have an extra 150,000 Euros ($201,000) laying around for an expensive toy, your dream might come true.

Macchia Nera Concept Bike

The most expensive motorcycle in production will cost you at least $250,000. The production is limited to a few hundred models, so you better place your order. The Dodge Tomahawk V10 superbike boasts 8.3 liter engine (505 cubic inch), and the 10 cylinders can bring the bike to a maximum speed of almost 400 mph. The 1500lb bike has an independent 4 wheel suspension and can reach 60 mph in around 2.5 seconds.

Dodge Tomahawk