Tag Archives: Harley-Davidson

This custom Street Bob crafted from forged carbon fiber rolled straight out of a Metaverse world

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Cooler Master is better known for its jaw-dropping PC cases and peripherals but a motorbike link seemed unlikely until now.

A customized Street Bob from the Harley Davidson camp comes as no surprise, but one that’s modernized for a sci-fi look is rare. Fusing the cool lighting of a Cooler Master case and the freedom of a 2020 Harley-Davidson Street Bob getting dapper customization is the highlight of this edgy cruiser bike.

Designer: Rough Crafts

Taiwan-based Rough Crafts is the team behind this build specially crafted to celebrate Cooler Master’s 30th anniversary. The red cherry on the top is a matching computer case. To mark the occasion, the custom shop chose forged carbon fiber for the meticulous texture of the bike. The aluminum fins on the fuel tank and the rear section add contrast to the hyper-realistic creation. According to Winston Yeh of Rough Crafts, the idea was “to combine the signature elements of both worlds.”

Attention to detail is undeniable as Winston leveraged 3D printing to digitally design the fairing tank and tail from a high-end polymer material. Wrapping the carbon fiber parts with eye-popping marble texture on the bike parts is something to behold here. Rough Crafts leveraged the expertise of his trusted collaborators like MS Pro and CT-Garage to handle the fabrication and final assembly respectively.

Meaning, the Cooler Master’s identifiable purple lighting setup (nod to the PC heat sink) and the sharp looks of their geeky computer cases, fused with the fin details of the custom shop’s builds and use of lots of forged carbon fiber. The LED projector headlights, taillights, and turn signal lights all come courtesy Koso.

Chassis upgrades include the Öhlins forks connected to the custom yokes and Öhlins shock mated to The Speed Merchant swingarm. The in-house handlebars and finned air filter along with the switches from Rebuffini directly integrate with the Street Bob’s CAN bus system for plug-and-play functionality. To put it precisely, a balanced mix of cool and cliched aesthetics with riding superiority to boast.

The post This custom Street Bob crafted from forged carbon fiber rolled straight out of a Metaverse world first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Harley-Davidson Street Fighter concept brings streamlined car-like proportions to motorbike design

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The reason the Harley-Davidson Street Fighter concept looks nothing like your average motorbike is that it wasn’t designed keeping one in mind. Created, instead, with the template of a car, the motorbike concept’s body comes with a more square-ish cross-section, defined edge lines, and a fully faired bulky-yet aerodynamic shape that can generally be attributed to automobile design. You’ve got to admit, it does look interesting… but more importantly, it unlocks a new design direction for motorbikes in general.

Designer: Yan-Xuan Lai

The Street Fighter’s streamlined shape starts with its headlight, which takes a continuous curve right into the fuel tank in what I can only describe as a TRON Light Cycle or Dodge Tomahawk-inspired direction. This does an important thing in giving the Street Fighter a strong silhouette, making it immediately recognizable. Speaking of being unusual but recognizable, the concept also sports a minimalist version of the Harley-Davidson logo on the side. Everything about the Street Fighter challenges notions without straying too far away from tradition.

The Harley-Davidson concept takes on a hybrid engine approach, making it potentially the first hybrid Harley. It comes with your traditional fuel tank, but also sports a battery right under it. Although this is just a concept, the thought of having a flammable battery right below the fuel tank does quite bother me. In fact, it’s probably the only thing I’d immediately change about this motorbike.

The riding position is closer to a racing bike, allowing riders to ride more freely on the race track or mountain roads. While Harley-Davidsons have a reputation for being suburban or highway creatures, the Street Fighter, as its name suggests, prefers any sort of road – even a racetrack.

The rest of the bike is a combination of old and new car-design sensibilities. Of course, the curved tire covers and the rather traditional-looking leather seat give it an old-world charm, but the rest of the bike is quite certainly modern and out-of-the-box. The fuel tank has sculpted details that feel very ‘car-like’, the bike’s full-fairing body feels rather automotive-inspired too, and the dashboard, which pops right out of the bike’s continuous upper curve, is decidedly minimalist.

The Harley-Davidson Street Fighter comes from the mind of Taiwanese designer Yan-Xuan Lai, who uses the term “elegant and fierce” to describe his creation. For Lai, his prime objective was to try and combine the “features of the classic streamlined car shape with the strong vision of sports street bikes” to create a radical new aesthetic. Personally, it works purely on a visual level, although aerodynamic considerations need to be made if Lai really envisions this concept to be a racing bike.

That being said, it isn’t far-fetched to think of an electrified Harley. The company did announce the LiveWire in 2014, their first electric endeavor. The LiveWire series ended up being spun off into a separate company in 2021, so even though Harley-Davidson is pretty traditional with their motorcycle designs, their sister-company could certainly push out a hybrid beast like the Street Fighter!

The post The Harley-Davidson Street Fighter concept brings streamlined car-like proportions to motorbike design first appeared on Yanko Design.

The ‘Tough Turban’ uses a fabric 15x stronger than steel, to empower Sikh motorcyclists to ride safer

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Given the turban’s cultural and religious nature, Sikh motorcyclists are exempt from wearing helmets. The Tough Turban hopes to be a helmet-alternative, allowing wearers to protect their heads from impact.

The Tough Turban is a one-of-a-kind fabric with an open-source turban design that can be worn in any style. Unlike most turbans that are just made by wrapping/pleating/folding a cotton cloth multiple times around one’s head, the Tough Turban’s fabric is much more specialized, offering superior impact-resistance while looking just like a turban. Designed as a no-compromise solution, the turban allows Sikh riders to safely and confidently drive motorcycles, knowing that they’re safe.

Designers: Zulu Alpha Kilo & Spark Innovations for Pfaff Harley-Davidson

Tough Turban - Protective Cultural Headgear for Sikh Canadian Motorcyclists by Pfaff Harley-Davidson

The fabric comes with 3 internal layers that help cushion impact – a Dyneema layer, a flexible 3D-printed chainlink, and a non-Newtonian foam. On a weight-for-weight basis, Dyneema is up to 15x stronger than steel and 40% stronger than high-strength aramid fibers. It’s used to make bullet-resistant vests, armor, helmets, and even in panels on tanks to protect against stronger ballistic threats like anti-tank projectiles. Underneath it sits the 3D-printed chainlink-inspired armor, harking back to the use of chainlink headgear historically by Sikh warriors in battle – owing to its strength and flexibility. The third is a non-Newtonian foam that’s fluid and flexible but immediately hardens on impact, helping act as a tough barrier to protect the skull.

Tough Turban - Protective Cultural Headgear for Sikh Canadian Motorcyclists by Pfaff Harley-Davidson

The Tough Turban comes as a folded piece of long fabric, allowing its wearer to don it in multiple styles. Turbans can change in shape and size depending on cultures, ancestry, festivals, or plain and simple age. Designed to accommodate any turban-style, the fabric gives the wearer the freedom to choose, and the Tough Turban website even has design blueprints for enthusiasts.

Created in collaboration with the Sikh Motorcycle Club of Ontario, the Tough Turban was designed by Zulu Alpha Kilo and Spark Innovations for Pfaff Harley-Davidson as a bid to bring the motorcycling world a step closer to inclusivity – something that has yet to be achieved across Canada. Helmet exemptions were first granted to turban-wearing riders in British Columbia and Manitoba in 1999. Close to 20 years later, in the fall of 2018, Ontario passed Bill 194, exempting Sikh motorcyclists from Ontario’s helmet laws. However, all other provinces in the country have failed to adopt similar legislation. Concerns about safety are most commonly cited in discussions about helmet exemptions, but 22 years of riding with turbans have yielded precisely zero fatalities among Canadian Sikh motorcyclists. The Tough Turban hopes to bridge that gap, working as a traditional cultural garb while fulfilling the need to protect oneself while riding a motorcycle.

Tough Turban - Protective Cultural Headgear for Sikh Canadian Motorcyclists by Pfaff Harley-Davidson

Tough Turban - Protective Cultural Headgear for Sikh Canadian Motorcyclists by Pfaff Harley-Davidson

Tough Turban - Protective Cultural Headgear for Sikh Canadian Motorcyclists by Pfaff Harley-Davidson

Indian billionaire plans to revive and electrify a classic UK motorcycle brand

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One of the world’s most iconic motorcycle makers could soon get a second life as an EV manufacturer. In an interview with The Guardian, Indian billionaire Anand Mahindra said he plans to resurrect Birmingham Small Arms (BSA). In the 1950s, the compan...

Harley-Davidson unveils a stunning e-bike that pays homage to their iconic 1903 design!

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Harley-Davidson’s journey started more than a century ago putting power to two wheels – surviving the great depression, and evolving new ways to hit the roads in style. The motorcycle brand is synonymous with two-wheeled motoring in virtually every corner of the planet and the test of time has eventually urged the brand to branch out into a new e-bike division aptly named the Serial 1 Cycle. Going back to the roots when the first-ever motorcycle, the Serial Number One, was crafted in 1903 – Harley-Davidson has again risen like a phoenix to resurrect the way the world moves!

Inspired by the pioneering spirit of Harley’s heritage, the spin-off brand sprung out of the company’s skunkworks Product Development Center has crafted Serial 1 Cycle. This at a time when the demand for e-bikes is rising exponentially in the US and other parts of the globe. Obviously, Harley will have to go head-butting with trusted e-bike names like Giant, and Trek; while also make their way past the expanding brands like Rad, Pedego or X-Treme Electric Bikes. Add to this the iconic automotive brands, the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes who are also looking to dominate the e-bike segment.

According to Harley Davidson, Serial 1 initiated with “a small group of passionate motorcycle and bicycle enthusiasts working with a single focus to design and develop an eBicycle worthy of the Harley-Davidson name.” Now that things have kicked-off, the first electric bicycle is going to be launched in March 2021 which is not necessarily going to look exactly like this iteration, as this one is a styling exercise, but the production version will retain most of the design cues.

The company hasn’t either given any details about the specifications of the electric bicycle but from the look of it, there is a mid-drive motor and belt-driven system that is reminiscent of the Gates Drive setup that Harley uses on belt-driven electric motorcycles like the LiveWire. There are still many unanswered questions left to ponder over – what battery capacity will the production model carry, the power generated from these batteries and ultimately the cost? For now, we can bask in the nostalgia of Harley’s grandeur with this design that leaves a lot to be desired when it will finally hit the showrooms!

Designer: Serial 1

Harley-Davidson e-bike with swappable batteries is designed to bond with the millennials!

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Harley-Davidson embarked on their adventurous journey way back in 1903 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, managing to make it through the period of the Great Depression, later on, to become a motorcycle brand which is known for its cult following. William S. Harley envisioned a revolutionary design of an engine fitted bicycle and the rest is history! Over the years Harley Davidson has managed to become one of the most iconic brands of all time but lately, they have had trouble connecting with the young consumers who consider “Harley’s fan-base toxic” and think Harley bikes are “too large, loud, and expensive” for them to consider it as an option. This has resulted in a slight dip in the sales which demands a new motorcycle design which appeals to the young lot and infuses the same energy back into the brand’s fortunes.

To change this growing perception, and stay ahead of the growing demand for environment-friendly lifestyle products, designer Tanner Van De Veer in collaboration with DAAPworks has proposed a mid-weight Harley Davidson electric motorcycle, destined to revive the brand. The project goal is to bring a motorcycle to the streets which preserves the historical essence of the Harley design language while infusing contemporary trends. He calls it the “Harley Davidson Revival” and lends the bike an eco-conscious touch with the swappable electric battery pack. The electric powertrain of Revival will embody lightweight aesthetics, and yes, it will come sans any clutch or gears. Revival borrows its basic body structure design from the early designs of the motorcycle which shaped its destiny in the early years of development. Adding to the basic skeletal structure, the designer infused elements of muscular architecture for an urban appeal.

The riding position has been tweaked keeping in mind the kinematics and equal attention has been given to the design of sharp headlight, taillight, minimalistic instrument cluster, sturdy suspensions, adaptable footpegs and the ideally positioned leather handlebars. The motorcycle has a low center of gravity while the ride height is bumped up to take on any kind of terrain, not just the highways. Thanks to the sharp lines and a silhouette, Revival is the perfect visual amalgam of vintage and punk bike, destined to turn heads! But the question still remains, will it have that recognizable road presence owing to the Harley Davidson motorcycle’s distinct roar? A Harley Davidson missing the gearbox, will it appeal to a rider who is intrigued by the notion “Man and Machine”, a thought to ponder over, don’t you think?

Designer: Tanner Van De Veer

Harley-Davidson resumes LiveWire electric motorcycle production

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After a brief blip, Harley-Davidson says it has resumed manufacturing its LiveWire electric motorcycles. The company halted production and delivery of its first-ever electric bike last week after discovering an issue with the vehicle's charging equip...

Harley-Davidson suspends LiveWire production over a charging glitch

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Harley-Davidson has suspended the production and delivery of its LiveWire electric motorcycles. During final tests, the company discovered a problem related to the vehicle's charging equipment. The company told The Wall Street Journal that tests to p...