EICMA Motorcycle Show

Kawasaki hit 2019 EICMA with a number of interesting items, but I think the most notable entry may be the sleeper-hit of the year; the EV Project. That’s right sports fans, Kawasaki Heavy Industries is showing us that they are looking at displaced-carbon/electric motorcycles, and the “Electric Concept” gives us our first glimpse of what the concept is like moving forward.

Kawasaki has finally spoken up. For a long time, the Japanese Green Team has been silent about their electric plans, despite being poked by the media a gazillion times. OK, for a moment of honesty here. The manufacturer had unveiled an electric Tron-ish concept bike - the Kawasaki J-Concept back in 2014, and again in 2018. A truly far-fetched idea, but nothing for the current bunch of masses. Now though, they is something cooking up.

Tethered to the elements of a Ninja 300 and a Ninja 650, Kawasaki showcased an electric powertrain concept at the recently concluded EICMA, 2019. While they released a video featuring the Ninja 300 EV pacing on the tracks, the Ninja 650 EV’s bones bolted with the electric powertrain was the attractive element at the Kawasaki stall during the unveiling of six new machines for the 2020 lineup.

So, there are days when you wake up and rub your eyes to clear out the haze and see things clearly. Well, this is one of those. The haze is not the water in my eyes, but this all-electric motorcycle that is calling itself the HyperTek.

A gorgeous sci-fi machine built by the famous carbon-wheel supplier – BST (Blackstone TEK), the HyperTek has been designed by Piere Terblanche who’s visions have given us multiple Ducatis, Cagivas, Moto Guzzis, and Confederates. This time though, Terblanche has consciously gone bonkers with his design, creating a robotic machine on two-wheels that reads out data on an integrated heads-up display in the bespoke helmet.

It had been over a couple of weeks that we’d learned about the Japanese Green Team’s acquisition of the celebrated Bimota brand from Swiss-Italian entrepreneurs Marco Chiancianesi and Daniele Longoni. But little did we know that this hostile effort would turn out to produce a no-holds-barred hyperbike powered by most powerful motorcycle engine in production in a jiffy, and we’ll get to see it in the flesh.

Imagine the thunderous H2’s 998cc supercharged mill harnessed in a Bimota Tesi chassis with the state-of-the-art electronic wizardry. That, my friend, is what the Bimota Tesi H2 is all about. It is the best of Japanese engineering and Italian architecture the modern world is going to witness and was unveiled at the recently concluded EICMA 2019. The universe is so kind.

At the 2019 EICMA show in Milan, the Bar & Shield brand pulled the curtains off their brand-new, strategically developed machines that will bring them a new bunch of riders, ones who’ve never looked inside its shops before. Behold the “Bronx” and the “Pan-America.”

Paving the company into the Streetfighter and the ADV touring category, the Bronx and the Pan-America are the first babies of Harley’s “More Roads to Harley-Davidson” growth plan through 2022, though it all started with the launch of its first electric, no-clutch “twist and go” LiveWire.

These new motorcycles will be powered by the company’s new 60-degree V-twin Revolution Max engine that is supposed to be like nothing seen on a Harley before. The Milwaukee brand hasn’t divulged much information, but enough to just keep us excited through to their launch sometime towards the end of 2020. We’ve gathered them around here for a pre-production review of the Pan-America 1250 Adventure Tourer.

2020 is the year the Bar & Shield brand will be aggressively trying on new markets, and the first leg is already underway with the launch of its first electric, no-clutch “twist and go” LiveWire. As part of its “More Roads to Harley-Davidson” growth plan through 2022, this year’s EICMA witnessed Harley-Davidson unpacking their first-ever models, paving the company into the Streetfighter and the ADV category.

Rightly called the “Bronx” and the “Pan-America,” these new babies will be powered by the company’s new Revolution Max engine. Harley hasn’t divulged much information, but enough to just keep us excited through to their launch sometime towards the end of 2020. We’ve gathered them around here for a pre-production review of the Bronx. The Pan-America will follow suit.

Woo wee sports fans; it’s show season once again in Milan, Italy, and as always there’s plenty to see on the world stage at EICMA 2019. This year we see the return of Bimota in partnership with none other than Japanese giant Kawasaki, new EV bikes and scooters, and new adventure bikes from both Husqvarna and Harley-Davidson with the latter checking in with a new sport/street machine as well. There just ain’t enough hours in a day to cover every single detail, so today I’m going to grab a handful of the most significant bikes to be revealed so far.

As much fun as it is to see all the new bikes that are already slated for production and release, it’s the [concept bikes-<mot297] that really do it for me. The EICMA show presents a number of such items, so join me while I give a run-down of some of my favorites.

Continue reading for a look at my favorite concept bikes from 2018 EICMA.

The EICMA bike show is in full swing, and so far, fans of the burgeoning EV sector have a lot to be excited about. Besides its limited range, one of the biggest challenges for the EV bike builders is the lack of diversity, but this year at the Milan show, it’s clear that issue has been addressed. I’ve picked out six interesting models that cover three genres, so let’s get to it.

Continue reading for my picks among the electric bikes at 2018 EICMA.

Oh boy sports fans, the new show season is in full swing and KTM is taking advantage of the 2018 EICMA show in Milan to gain some exposure for some exciting new stuff that’s headed down the pipe.

Continue reading for more on the new KTM models.

Kawasaki has been busy ahead of MY19, and it hit the 2018 EICMA show in Milan with a handful of exciting new machines that are headed for our shores sooner rather than later.

Continue reading for more on Kawasaki at EICMA.

Built by engineers with years of experience and dominations in production-based Superbike, Superstock and Endurance races worldwide, and most importantly the WSBK MotoGP technology, the 6th gen 2017 GSX-R 1000 was the most compact, the most aerodynamic and the best-handling GSX-R 1000 ever.

The folks who made it themselves are upping the ante for 2019 and will be showcasing a new edition of their “King of Sportsbike” at the upcoming EIMA show in Milan. It is going to be a much more brutal version of the already potent GSX-R 1000R and Suzuki Italy has published a couple of pictures on their social media platform giving us a glimpse of this new weapon, probably in conjunction with Yoshimura.

This is the second teaser we received in a span of a couple of weeks proving that Triumph is on a path to rule the popular scrambler category with their upcoming brand-new weapon, the 1200 Scrambler. This second teaser shows us more of what we can expect from the Hinckley chaps.

The 1200 Scrambler boasts of the new high torque engine used on the Brit’s Bonneville lineup, and to handle all that additional power, this Scrambler gets equipped with bigger wheels, bigger brakes, and bigger suspension.

2014 was the year Ducati started rolling their Scrambler editions, and after almost half a decade, Scrambler is no longer just a model, but now it is a brand. Till today, Ducati has been making Scramblers which could have been abused, but it pleased the urban way and masses, and hence they became glorified street bikes.

And the most successful model is receiving a much-needed update for the year 2019 ‘Scrambler Joyvolution’. The Ducati Scrambler Icon – will now come with modern equipment, revised riding ergonomics, new paint schemes, and better safety tech to keep both wheels planted in all situations.

If Vitpilen means "White Arrow’, Svartipilen (shwar-ti-pi-len) means "Black Arrow." The Svartiplen 701 was showcased as a concept version at the EICMA last week along with the production model of the Vitpilen 701.

Formed in 1689, the Swedish Husqvarna were into firearms manufacturing and other metal items like sewing machines. Then in 1903, the company built its first motorcycle using imported engines and by 1919 they were making their own ones.

They have introduced their new ’Street Models’ that will hit the roads in the summer of ’18 and the first one will be the Svartipilen 701. Designed to strike, this machine has pure and progressive styling cues from the future. It gets sleek and aggressive bodywork forming clean lines and carries a unique single element body panel.

The internal organs and the bone structure of this bike remain similar to the KTM Duke 690 including the engine, trellis frame, complete with the alloy swing arm and WP inverted telescopic front forks and Brembo braking systems.

The 693cc single puts out 74 horses and 53 lb-ft of torque, enough to propel the 370 lbs wet bike to the stratosphere. Throttle by wire, switchable two-channel ABS and slipper clutch gets borrowed from the brand’s famous enduro models.

Since the time Husqvarna showcased its ‘Real Street’ Vitpilen 401 and the Swartipilen 401 concepts at the 2014 EICMA, the industry is abuzz to see some bonkers design unlike anything seen before on the streets. The following year saw the Vitpilen 701 concept showcased at EICMA and it wasn’t until this year that we get to see the production models for 2018.

This Vitplilen 701 will be the first of the Husqvarna’s ‘Real Street’ motorcycle lineup that is headed to bring in the Swedish company’s name into the world stage followed by the Vitpilen 401, Swartipilen 401 and Swartipilen 701.

No, I haven’t spelled it wrong. It is called as ’Electtrica’ with two ’t’s.

Although Piaggio took its own time to offer an electric vehicle, it is late by no means. Unveiled at the EICMA last week, the Electtrica is the electric version of Vespa’s Primavera scooter with a lithium-ion battery and a 4kW motor that is guaranteed to get you 62 miles on a single charge.

Benelli was finding it difficult to locate its identity amidst the modern and competitive world, even more after it was acquired by a Chinese firm. But now, it seems like a thing of the past, more of a ‘myth’ one could say.

Benelli is trying to revive its fortunes by showcasing products designed by CentroStile Benelli and slowly helping their reputation get back to their original charm. But that is the problem.

They are not trying to build their own reputation, instead, they seem to take on cues from another Italian maker, Ducati.