For example, there’s the Slovenian exhaust companies unique looking ‘Akrapovic Full Moon Concept’ that features a body and frame made entirely of sheet metal which is an extension of two custom-made Akrapovič exhausts and a S&S Knucklehead 1,524 cc engine.

Then imagine a bike that when you command “MOTOROiD, stand up!”, as if waking from a sleep its chassis starts gyrating and slowly brings itself up off its side stand to stand upright on its own. Then with a beckoning gesture or call from the rider, the Yamaha Motoroid moves forward, and sometimes rotates its chassis as if engaged in a friendly frolic with the rider, a bit like a dog. All this is to promote Yamaha’s exclusive AMCES (Active Mass Center Control System) self-balancing technology, and it’s touch based human-machine interface (HMI) that wraps around the hips which is all aimed at fostering non-verbal communication between rider and machine. 

Then there’s the electric Kawasaki “Concept J” three-wheeler that takes its design from the 19th century into the 21st by way of enabling the machine to adapt itself to us rather than the other way around. Bikes of today demand that we adapt to them, not vice-versa, so it’s fascinating to see how the Concept J changes its physical layout as its rider decides to go from sport bike to touring bike or in-town cruiser.

Call me old school or maybe sick, but the one I love is Ludovic Lazareth’s LM 847 which is built around a gigantic, 4.7-liter Maserati V8 engine. This monstrous tilting quad bike picks up where the notorious 2003 Dodge Tomahawk concept bike left off, with four single-sided swingarms, rim-mounted brakes, dual hub-centre steering and a bunch of other crazy touches. Oh, and 470-odd horsepower tearing up the bitumen through a single-speed viscous clutch automatic transmission. It’s just a beast and I’m sure not the least bit environmentally friendly