Motorcycles Archives

E&E XR338 – Designing a Premium Motorcycle for the Mass Market

Michael Uhlarik — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 09:00:00 +0000

“You get what you pay for”; “Bigger is better”. We’ve heard it all before, but that doesn’t mean that buyers should settle for inferior products based on market positioning and budget constraints. Designer Michael Uhlarik discusses the design development of the E&E XR338 to uncover what happens when a small company sets its sights on creating a product that delivers far more than its entry-level positioning would suggest. Like most consumers, new motorcyclists expect design sophistication and practical features to […]

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Electric Motorcycle Design – Thinking Outside The Box

Michael Uhlarik — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 08:06:53 +0000

Can a battery be beautiful? This is not a question that most car designers are asking themselves, because electrification means different things to different vehicles. Sculpted, non-structural body panels as the defining design elements is relatively new to motorcycles. The motorcycle has spent most of its 150-year life as a naked machine, proudly showing off its internal plumbing, structures and propulsive components. The art of the motorcycle has always been principally about proportion, not lines, and the interplay of contrasting […]

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Suzuki Katana 3.0 – History Repeats Itself

Michael Uhlarik — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:59:06 +0000

In the realm of transportation design, the influence of the motoring journalist is often underestimated. By simply endorsing or condemning a vehicle a magazine can greatly affect sales of existing machines, but less well known is the way in which publications often initiate new product development. Such was the case for the Suzuki Katana 3.0 project. Some of the most iconic motorcycle designs in modern times were the result, at least partially, of freelance projects created by and with the motorcycle […]

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Suzuki Katana – When The Future Arrived (1983)

Michael Uhlarik — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 20:34:58 +0000

Motorcycle design can be divided into two eras: before the Suzuki Katana, and after. Although a commercial failure, perhaps no single other motorcycle did more to change the philosophy of motorcycle styling and industrial design than this odd Japanese model, conceived in Germany 40 years ago. In the 1980s the future was epic. Every day introduced things that made the status quo look medieval — and most of those things were Japanese. ‘Made in Japan’ meant manufacturing excellence and innovation. […]

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2019 EICMA Motorcycle Show Design Trends

Michael Uhlarik — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 09:35:00 +0000

Is a motorcycle a consumer product on the cutting edge of design, or a fetish object? Walking through the halls of EICMA, the motorcycle industry’s most prestigious trade show in 2019 revealed that both are true as a battle rages for the very soul of the motorcycle itself. Motorcycle design has always been about satisfying fantasies. The unique experience of three-dimensional cornering is common to all two-wheelers, but the right design can add powerful, subjective emotional social and historical associations. […]

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Three Lessons in Iconic Car Design

Pierre-Paul Andriani — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 09:00:00 +0000

The car gods have smiled upon us lately. In July, General Motors unveiled the 8th generation Corvette in California. In September, Jaguar Land Rover took the wraps off the long-awaited Defender. Both cars are quite at opposite ends of the vehicular spectrum. Yet they are identical in one unique way: they are icons. It is an extraordinary dichotomous situation for the people in charge of creating those vehicles. It’s a great honor but it is quite a pressure cooker. Public expectations are sky high and some […]

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In Pictures: EICMA Motorcycle Show 2019

Eric Gallina — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 09:01:18 +0000

The annual EICMA (Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori) motorcycle trade show&nbsp... LOGIN OR SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW

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Honda CB4X Concept Blends Attributes of 3 Bikes Into 1

Eric Gallina — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 09:03:00 +0000

Honda’s R&D team in Italy has done it again. For the fifth consecutive year, the Italian design outpost is debuting a new concept motorcycle in the ‘Design Studio’ area of the company’s EICMA stand: the bold Honda CB4X concept. The experimental machine – developed under the theme of ‘fun seven days a week’ – blends elements of Sport and Touring with a healthy dash of Crossover. It’s a design from the imaginative pen of Valerio Aiello, and his team of young designers, and is born from […]

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In Pictures: Bike Shed 2019

Eric Gallina — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 11:55:23 +0000

Form Trends covers the transportation design industry, not just car design. In this rapidly evolving – and challenging – age of mobility there are a lot of new modes of transportation being developed, all of which are relevant in their own right. From bicycles to yachts and VTOLs, there seems to be a mobility device to cater to every conceivable scenario. Personally, I’ve always been partial to cars and, increasingly, motorcycles. Bikes – both traditional ICE motorcycles and electric motorbikes […]

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Designing the Ducati Diavel 1260

Eric Gallina — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 07:29:58 +0000

Ducati has released a video that highlights the design process of the new, second-generation Diavel. Featuring the key players in the design development process, the video provides insight into the three-year-long process, which saw designers and modelers create the sportbike endowed with Ducati design cues using a conventional sketch and clay method and digital tools. The second-generation Diavel draws on the key aesthetic concepts of its predecessor and brings them up to date. The Diavel 1260’s design hallmarks include the […]

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Royal Enfield Concept KX – Designing the Company’s First Ever Concept Motorcycle

Eric Gallina — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 01:29:15 +0000

The annual EICMA show is the largest motorcycle show in the world. And Royal Enfield, a company steeped in heritage... LOGIN OR SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW

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Auto Fabrica Type 11: Three Yard-Built Customs Based on Yamaha’s Triple

Eric Gallina — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 08:00:53 +0000

I’ve been following Auto Fabrica for a while. The three-man operation — founded by brothers Gazmend and Buhar Muharremi — has been building custom bikes since 2012, right around the time I launched Form Trends. A mutual friend put us together in 2015 and I went out to Bike Shed to check out their work. I was amazed. A lot has happened since then. What started out as a passion for bikes and design became a fully-fledged venture; the realization […]

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