A look at some weird motorcycles
Posted by Ben Baker on Feb 27th 2017
| You are now entering the Twilight Zone. |
| Rod Serling may be long gone, but his visions of alternative reality live on. Alternate reality also lives in the motorcycle world. Here's a look at some of the weirdest motorcycles ever to hit the road. |
| HONDA CBX |
| Jalopnik puts the Home CBX at No. 10 on the top 10 list of odd bikes/ Why? How about six exhaust ports on the front and that's just the start. "Equipped a twin cam straight six with the crank in the middle, this Honda was the Hayabusa of the 1970s. No replacement for displacement, right?" If you want more info, check out Motorcycle Classics for a review of this short-lived bike. |
| ANIMALIZE |
| You may have seen pictures of the Black Jaguar bike (and you did if you follow us on Twitter @Jafrum_com.) Here's more info about this stretched bike with a serious body mod. Not your thing? How about the Red Bull. |
| ARMADILLO OR MOTORCYCLE |
| Spanish company SunRed debuted a bike with foldaway solar panels in 2007. It never made it to market. |
| FOR THE DOGS |
| Never mind horsepower. Here's DOG POWER! It's doubtful any of these rides were very built. |
| CHAINED |
| Chain drive bike? Yeah. But the Chainsaw motorcycle has a belt drive… and 24 pull starts. Whew. We're tired thinking about it. |
| WOODEN YOU RIDE THIS? |
| How about a bike made from wood? Turns out, there's more than one. This one is a work of art. One from Hungary is more of a trike but still cool. |
| STEAMING |
| Steam-powered rides are not that unusual, more than 100 years ago anyway. The Roper was one such bike. One went on the auction block in Las Vegas in 2012. It did not sell and has not reappeared in any other auction. Makes you wonder what might be hiding in those barns you pass on a road trip. |
| Hot Oddity has this video of the "Black Pearl" a steam-powered bike made a few years ago. We keep thinking 2-wheeled train. Here's another steam-powered ride. |
| UNIBIKE |
| The Uno Dicycle or Dycycle is a one-wheeled ride. So the operative question is: Is this a motorcycle at all? The answer is: We'll get back to you on that. Comment below on what you think. A later version, the Uno II has two wheels which the inventor says makes it more stable at high speeds. It appears the company no longer makes this ride. |
| ROADOG |
| Imagine a bike that weighs more than some compact cars. William "Wild Bill" Gelbke did and make it come to life. The Roadog. Jalopnik says Wild Bill made more than one and sold them. Makes you wonder about those barns again. |
| 48 CYLINDERS |
| How many cylinders do you really need in a motor? Simon Whitlock said more is not enough. The Whitlock has 48 cylinders. When you get past 12 cylinders, you are into very high-performance sports and racing cars, planes, big equipment and tanks. Guinness World Records still pegs the Whitlock as the most cylinders ever in a motor. And, "the engine is so large it has a complete single-cylinder 2-stroke engine to serve as a starter motor." |
| SELF STABLE |
| The bike world went slightly agog when BMW unveiled a concept electric bike that's self-righting. Yep. Won't fall over. Big deal. The Shilovsky Gyrocar came out 100 years ago. Jalopnik has a detailed article about this ride. In case you wonder, it was kept stable with a "1,344 lb gyroscope sitting in the middle of the chassis." Wow. |
| This is just a short list. If you'd like to read another installment of the world's weirdest motorcycles, let us know. |