What a difference an inch or so can make. Just by reducing the size of the gas tank by an inch and a half, Herb Harris added about 20 mph to the top speed of a vintage Vincent motorcycle. Well, not really. But the design tweak creates the illusion of additional speed. The smaller gas tank “lets you see more of the engine, so the engine looks bigger, and that makes the motorcycle look faster,” says Harris, the owner and founder of Harris Vincent Gallery, an Austin, Texas, company that restores (“remanufactures,” says Harris) and sells Vincents.
Harris usually focuses less on the size and shape of a motorcycle’s parts than on their textures—their plating and polishes (or absence of polish). “I look for a mixture of color and texture,” says Harris. “I like contrasts. You can create contrasts with chrome and the different types of platings and unpolished metals. And those contrasts give a bike a lot of interest.”
But don’t confuse a contrast with a clash. Harris once added a set of polished aluminum alloy handlebars to an otherwise all-black Vincent. “They were great-looking handlebars, and they were the same size and shape as the originals, which were black, but they ruined the motorcycle. Who would have thought? Once I put black handlebars on, it looked fine. [The motorcycle] had the right balance.”
Balance is key to good motorcycle design, says Ian Barry, the cofounder of Falcon Motorcycles, a Los Angeles company that designs and builds one-of-a-kind bikes almost entirely from scratch around salvaged engines from Triumphs, Vincents, and other vintage British machines. “All the parts have to play together nice,” says Barry. “When you look at a bike, you have to see balance. Your brain understands that.”
Achieving such balance can be particularly challenging—and sometimes frustrating—when you build bikes by hand from sketches, as Barry does, without the benefit of CAD designs. “You can have a piece that looks great until you add it to the bike, and then you see that it’s not the right piece,” he says. “You have to have a degree of honesty to recognize when a piece has to be scrapped.”
Whatever parts are added, says Barry, they should enhance the function of the motorcycle. Going fast is the primary function of Falcon’s Kestrel, one of the bikes featured on these pages because of its compelling design. Thus the Kestrel’s exhaust mounts, for example, are brass because the metal works well to displace heat; the cylinders are aluminum because aluminum displaces heat and is lightweight. “At the end of the day, it has to be a motorcycle,” says Barry. “There should be function in the stuff you add, even the shiny bits.”
ECOSSE MOTO WORKS HERETIC
Ecosse’s flagship Heretic might be more industrial art than motorcycle. But if it’s art, it’s functional art. Every piece of bodywork is made of carbon fiber—which is painted with a clear coating that protects it from UV rays. The carbon fiber looks great, but its use also keeps the bike at a svelte 452 pounds. The crankcase has grooves machined into it, which might seem like a design indulgence, but they increase the cooling surface area. And while the look of the side-stand might have been inspired by the legs of a lunar module, its telescopic design was necessary to accommodate the Heretic’s three different ride-height settings.
Starting price: about $75,000
NCR M16
NCR takes a $70,000 Desmosedici DD16RR from Ducati, its Bologna, Italy, neighbor, tunes the engine so that it produces 200 hp (up from 175 hp), and then replaces most of the original parts with carbon fiber, titanium, or aluminum components to get the bike’s weight down to 319 pounds. With that power-to-weight ratio, the M16 motorcycle, which made its debut in June at the World Ducati Week in Italy, should be nearly as fast as a bullet discharged from an M16 rifle. That is to say, this bike promises to be as fast as it looks.
Starting price: Not yet available
BIG BEAR CHOPPERS RAGE
If there’s such as thing as a practical chopper, Rage is it. Based on a custom bike that Southern California–based Big Bear Choppers made for illusionist and TV star Criss Angel, Rage has a shorter wheelbase and less rake than the other bikes in the company’s fleet, allowing you to carve corners with a good degree of confidence. The seat sits only 20 inches off the ground, but the neck rake is a relatively tame 43 degrees, which positions the foot and hand controls comfortably close to the rider. This bike might be outrageous, but it’s not absurd.
Starting price: $29,900
DUCATI SPORTCLASSIC GT 1000
With lots of chrome—except on the engine—and spoked wheels, the GT 1000 is intended to recall Ducati’s original GT bikes from the early 1970s. Yes, it looks retro, and it also looks comfortable, as a touring mount should, and graceful instead of menacing, as most of the rest of the Ducati lineup does. But appearances are somewhat deceiving here, because the GT 1000 has a 92 hp engine and weighs only 407 pounds, so it offers the types of acceleration and speed that characterize its fiercer-looking siblings.
Starting price: $11,500
HARLEY-DAVIDSON CVO FAT BOB
With the possible exception of Sonny Crockett, tough guys don’t wear bright, sparkly colors. And so the CVO Fat Bob, a bad-boy bike powered by a 110 cu in twin-cam Screamin’ Eagle engine, features some new hues and textures from Harley-Davidson. A proprietary plating technique called Midnight Pearl gives most of the chrome parts a smoky rather than shiny appearance; their names notwithstanding, the Fat Bob’s choice of color schemes—Satin Pewter with Sandstorm Grind, Cryptic Black or Opal Blue with Hellfire Flames—are equally muted; and the saddle is covered in distressed leather. Together these design elements invite you to look but dare you to touch.
Starting price: $25,300
FALCON MOTORCYCLES KESTREL
The Kestrel is the second motorcycle in Falcon’s Concept 10 series, a collection of prototypes built around engines salvaged from vintage British bikes. The first, the Bullet, was based on the frame and engine of a 1950 Triumph Thunderbird, and number three, the Black, is being built around a 1951 Vincent Black Shadow engine. The Kestrel, which took two years and some 2,000 man-hours to build, began as a 1970 Triumph Bonneville engine. The Falcon crew designed and made nearly every component: the frame, the gas and oil tanks, the seat, the fender, the brakes and suspension, the exhaust pipes, and the handlebars.
Price: Not disclosed
MOTO GUZZI STELVIO 1200 ABS
Moto Guzzi classifies the Stelvio 1200 as a tourer, but others place it in the sportbike category. Perhaps it’s best to call it what it looks like and what it’s designed to be, an adventure tourer—a bike built to be ridden long distances on or off the road. The Stelvio appears to be powerful and comfortable and prepared to handle a few bumps along the way.
Starting price: $15,600