COOL CONCEPT MOTORCYCLES

-PHOTOS-

Mach Ness

Motorcycle manufacturer Arlen Ness crafted this metal monster powered by a gas-turbine helicopter engine. The aluminum outer shell with noticeably large rivets gives it a sort of steam punk edge that you just won’t get from carbon fiber and plastic. The body has been shaped entirely by hand, which lends to why it’s not being mass produced.

Icare Bike Concept

If we had access to all the possible concept designs for Batman’s motorcycle the Icare Bike Concept would certainly be on the list. We could just imagine the Dark Knight leaning into a tight turn on this sleek black bike. Icare isn’t just a cool concept, but a real working design. It’s powered by a six-cylinder 1.8 liter Honda engine with dual exhaust. Right now it’s still up in the air whether or not it will go into production.

Swordfish Motorcycle Concept

Any concept bike you’ve ever thought of as sleek has nothing on the Swordfish. The Swordfish Motorcycle concept by Alexander Kotlyarevsky sports an aggressive futuristic design and hubless wheels. The overall look has interesting mix between curves and sharp angles that earn this bike its name.

Halbo Future Duo-Wheel BMW

If you’re looking for an incredibly small and fast motorcycle and could care less about your personal safety then we’ve got a bike for you. Designer Pierre Yohanes designed the Halbo for eco-minded people who want something compact and electric powered. The front wheel is stationary and the back tail turns so it’s kind of like riding a motorboat.

Jaguar M-Cycle

This isn’t one of those concept bikes with a name like Jaguar that’s meant to represent it’s speed. Its name is pretty literal in this case. The Jaguar concept by M-Cycles draws inspiration from the Jaguar car manufacturer logo. The bike measures 8 feet in length and features ebony lacquered fiberglass over stainless steel.

Scarab Motorcycle

While the Scarab sounds like a bike you’d likely drive around in the desert it’s actually designed with urban situations in mind. The bike can adapt to sit completely upright while parked so it takes up as little space as possible in a crowded city parking lot. In fact you and 3 of your friends using scarabs can fit your motorcycles in a standard sized space for a car. Designer David Miguel Moreira Gonçalves envisions the Scarab to be used as a rental vehicle as a convenient and eco-friendly transpiration solution. 

Dodge Tomahawk Motorcycle

The Dodge Tomahawk Motorcycle may be the only motorcycle listed here that technically isn’t actually a motorcycle. Based on a Viper V-10 bike, it’s got a beefy 500 horsepower engine and 4 wheels. According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration anything with more than 3 wheels on the ground doesn’t qualify as a motorcycle. That probably has something to do with why this beast of a bike never made it into mass production. Shame because this awesome machine is basically just an engine and some wheels that provide raw speed and power between your legs.

ENERGYA Motorcycle

Since we discovered that technically anything with 3 wheels or less qualifies as a motorcycle then technically the ENERGYA Motorcycle fits the bill. With two wheels in the front and two full seats it almost looks like a racecar, but it only has one rear wheel. The designer Higgins-Aubé actually calls it a “motomobile” since it’s sort of a car/motorcycle hybrid.

Ferrari V4 Motorcycle Concept

If Ferrari made a motorcycle to match the car this would be it. Industrial designer Amir Glinik took the sexy curves and sleek lines that make Ferrari so fiercely desirable and put them in bike form. The design takes the best aspects of vintage and modern Ferrari projects based on aesthetics and performance to create the perfect Ferrari Bike. For instance the Ferrari V4 Motorcycle Concept features hand controls adapted from a F-16 Fighter Jet and buttons based on the Formula 1 racers. 

nUCLEUS Motorcycle Concept

The nUCLEUS takes everything you think you know about motorcycle design and turns it on its side. Truly unlike any other bike design out there NONOBJECT designed this bike to stand on its own in terms of design rather than take inspiration from every other bike concept out there. When not in use the motorcycle looks like a weird box but when in motion the wheels extend and the saddle rises showing off its function.

Magic Tricycle

The Magic Tricycle sounds like something your four year old daughter might drive in the back yard, but it’s actually an amazingly clever transforming motorcycle. When you’d rather be in a car, say on the highway for instance, it lies on its side and uses 3 wheels as sort of a car. But when you just want pure speed its stands upright with the third wheel on top which supposedly helps keep it balanced.

Speed Racer Alien Motorcycle

The folks over at Gizmodo kindly pointed out that the “Speed Racer” motorcycle concept by Dan Bailey looks like something that came out of the Aliens movies, and we have to agree. Based around the Kawasaki Ninja the bike has some solid foundations, but was designed to look intimidating yet sleek. There’s no word as to whether or not it will see production but considering how bad ass it looks we hope it does.

Ghost Motorcycle Concept

Anyone else on the road will only have a small glimpse of you as you fly by them at top speed and wonder if maybe they’ve seen a ghost. Well, in a way, the sort of did. The Ghost Motorcycle concept puts the rider in an aggressive forward position that feels incredibly fast. The design draws its inspiration from the speed demon Ghost Rider as well as a flying falcon.

2015 Honda CB750 Concept

This blocky bike feels like a vision of the future as imagined by a video game designer from the mid 90s. The carbon fiber, aluminum and titanium frame gives the 2015 Honda CB750 enough strength to carry heavy riders. It’s powered by a four cylinder liquid hydrogen engine and features on board computers controlled by an OLED touch screen. It also features radar technology that will slow the bike automatically if it detects an oncoming collision, a feature which you can of course disable if you like to live dangerously.

BMX FLATLAND

ABOUT BMX FLATLAND

Flatland is a freestyle BMX riding style performed on smooth flat surfaces that do not include any ramps, jumps or grind rails. It is sometimes described as a form of artistic cycling with a blend of breakdancing. Flatland as a discipline also encompasses certain aspects Martial Arts.

Flatland occupies a position somewhat removed from the rest of freestyle BMX. People who ride in the above disciplines will generally take part in at least one of the others but flatlanders tend to only ride flatland. They are often very dedicated and will spend several hours a day perfecting their techniques.

Flatland also differs from the others in that the terrain used is nothing but a smooth, flat surface. Tricks are performed by spinning and balancing on the bike in a variety of unexpected positions. Riders almost always use either knurled/grip taped aluminum or plastic pegs to stand on to manipulate the bike into even stranger positions.

Flatland bikes typically have a shorter wheelbase than other freestyle bikes. This shorter wheelbase requires less effort to make the bike spin or to position the bike on one wheel. One of the primary reasons flatlanders often ride only flatland is the decreased stability of using their shorter bikes on ramps, dirt and street.

A variety of options is commonly found on flatland bikes. The most unifying feature of flatland bikes is the use of four pegs, one on the end of each wheel axle. Flatlanders will choose to run a front brake (or a dual front brake, one front brake with two brake levers using one brake cable), front and rear brakes or no brakes at all depending on stylistic preference.


STYLE

In competition, talent and skill are judged by the ability to maintain coordination, and balance while performing a variety of difficult and elegant moves. There are usually several categories for judging purposes which can include:

• number of touches where the number of times a trick is not completed and/or the number of touches of the foot to the ground
• number of tricks completed in the allotted time
• difficulty of the tricks which can be very subjective, as flatland techniques have in many ways become as refined as those in figure skating or breakdancing.
• originality of the tricks performed, which again can be somewhat subjective
• style and flow or how smoothly and/or stylishly moves are performed during the contest run
• showmanship the ability to present your routine to the crowd. Hugo Gonzales and Dave Vanderspek, while not the top pros were known for their elaborate showmanship and antics.

Flatland is an involving, time-consuming discipline in which the rider learns different balance/counterbalance points and center-of-gravity in motion techniques through repetition and trial-and-error. Some tricks can be learned in hours, while others may take years to master.

Various riders emphasize different aspects of the discipline: the artistic nature of flatland and the originality of tricks, the number and difficulty of tricks or the simple enjoyment of the activity. Only contest riders need to be concerned with the competitive side of the discipline as there are many riders who prefer doing shows, taking parts in videos or simply riding with their friends and enjoying themselves.

Riders usually pedal a few times for speed, and then perform various stunts often involving difficult and/or awkward stances on pegs, mounted to the axles of their front or back wheels. Pegs are aluminum or plastic tubes, which are bolted onto both sides of the front and back axles. When flatland riding first began, most riders would do one trick and then return to the pedals. However, by combining different body and bicycle positions into "combos" and "linking" them together, riders began to do several tricks in a row without stopping between each move. Flatland riding is now usually a combination of many different kinds of moves, often linked together non-stop as the rider goes through as many as 10-12 consecutive moves and position/direction changes, before returning to the pedals.


PICTURES

TOP 10 MOST EXPENSIVE FOOD

10. Matsutake Mushrooms – $1000 per pound

Matsutake Mushrooms

Matsutake is the common name for a highly sought after mycorrhizal mushroom that grows in Asia, Europe, and North America. It is an important element of Japanese cuisine. Matsutake are hard to harvest and therefore the price is very high. The Japanese matsutake at the beginning of the season which is the highest grade can go up to $2,000 per kilogram. In contrast, the average value for imported matsutake is about $90 per kilogram.

9. The Zillion Dollar Frittata – $1000

The Zillion Dollar Frittata

Culinary craziness has reached new heights in New York with the debut of the $1,000 omelet! Le Parker Meridien hotel on W. 57th St. recently added the bank-breaking breakfast dish to its menu, charging patrons what it costs to buy about 200 omelets at your local greasy spoon. It is apparently no ordinary omelet of a mix of eggs, lobster and lots of caviar.

8. Chocopologie – $2,600 per pound

Chocopologie

The tastiest and most expensive chocolate in the world is Chocopologie by Knipschildt. At $2,600 per pound, this handmade chocolate truffle is available only if ordered. It contains a black truffle and 70% Valrhona cacao.

7. Wagyu Steak – $2800

Wagyu Steak

For your next after-work social, you might try taking your associates to New York City’s Craft steak, where a full Wagyu rib eye was served up to a private party for $2800.

6. Samundri Khazana – $3200

Samundri Khazana

Called The Samundari Khazana aka Treasure from the seas, this one is tasteful mix of Beluga caviar, sea snails and a whole lobster topped with edible gold.The world’s most expensive curry has been launched despite the credit crunch – and costs £2,000 a portion. To celebrate the DVD release of Slumdog Millionaire, Bombay Brassiere packed this curry platter full of the most expensive ingredients they could find.

5. Pizza Royale 007 – $4,200

Pizza Royale 007

The auction ended November 19, 2006 with the highest bid by Italian lawyer Maurizio Morelli reaching £2,150 (approx. $4,200 in US dollars). Morelli is a charitable food connoisseur from Rome who also collects fine wines and truffles. The Guinness Book of World Records is reviewing the details of the pizza’s sale and it is under consideration for taking the record for “World’s Most Expensive Pizza” from a less extravagant white truffle pizza created by Gordon Ramsay’s Maze restaurant in London.

4. Dansuke Watermelons – $6,100

Dansuke Watermelons

Dansuke watermelons, a type of black watermelon grown only on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, are usually given as gifts due to their extraordinary rarity. There were only sixty-five of the fruits among the first harvest this season. According to the AP, “a jumbo black watermelon auctioned in Japan on Friday fetched a record $6,100, making it one of the most expensive watermelons ever sold in the country.”

3. Yubari Melons – $20,000

Yubari melon

The Yubari Melon is a very expensive Japanese melon. They had previously been judged the best pair and were purchased by the owner of a nearby seafood lunchbox and souvenir business. Prices range from 6,000 to 15,000 yen (which would be $60 to $150 in the US). The best ones are within the range of costing 20,000 yen ($200 US.) and the price record at auction was established in 2008 at 2 million yen ($20,000).

2. Almas Caviar – $25,000

Almas Caviar

Almas caviar. This caviar is white, and it comes from beluga which is over 100 years old. Beluga sturgeon, the largest fish and only predator in the sturgeon family, can take up to 20 years to reach maturity. It is believed, that the whiter the caviar the older the fish and the more exquisite the flavor. Almas Iranian caviar is extremely expensive. It is sold only in 24K gold tin for $2000 per 100 gram. The only known outlet is the Caviar House & Prunier in London England’s Picadilly that sells a kilo of the expensive Almas caviar in a 24-karat gold tin for £16,000 or about $25,000.

1. Huge Italian Truffle To Fetch – $216,000

Huge Italian Truffle To Fetch

The world’s most expensive food is truffle ever as was purchased by an anonymous buyer from Hong Kong for $2, 10,000. But it seems that there is its competitor that can beat it if got sold for $216,000. A 1.5-kg white truffle originated from Italian geography is expected to be sold for will be sold for 150,000 euros ($216,000) at a charity auction scheduled in Macau.

BREAKDANCING

History 

• Breakdancing first started appearing int he 1970s as part of the Hip Hop movement. Although it did not gain immediate recognition as a legitimate dance form, it became part of the intense "street culture" in big cities like New York and Chicago. In the 1980s however, breakdancing began to become more popular, especially because of exposure in movies like "Flashdance." As the culture spread, breakdancing became a more legitimate form of dance, and was eventually implemented into formal Hip Hop dance instructions. Although the popularity of breakdancing has waned since the 1980s, it is still a fixture in modern culture, and many performers in televised dance shows like "So You Think You Can Dance" and "America's Next Best Dance Crew" often use breakdancing in their routines.

Significance

• Breakdancing is significant, because it is part of the hip hop urban subculture. The dance requires a high amount of athletic skill and is a fixture of modern dance culture. Breakdancing is also noteworthy as one of the biggest "cross-over" elements of urban culture to make a mark in different industries, including fashion and entertainment.

Types

• Modern breakdancing consists of four different types of moves: Top Rock, Down Rock, Freezes and Power Moves. Top Rock moves are introductory style moves and are preformed standing up. These moves mainly consist of some stylized step movements or arm motions and generally are preformed before and after more complex moves. Down Rock, conversely, is performed with hands and feet on the floor, and showcase the breaker's ability to move their feet while keeping their body on the ground. Power Moves are the most iconic part of breakdancing and consist of highly athletic and stylized acrobatic moves. Everything from spinning headstands to high-jumping flares fall into this category. This is the hardest element of breakdancing and is also the most stylistic. Freezes are stylish poses that usually follow a power move or conclude the routine.

Misconceptions

• Although some people believe that breakdancing is limited to the urban scene in the United States, it actually has a very large international following, especially in Asian countries. Breakdancing groups like Tokyo Rock Steady and the Korean Expression Crew are fixtures in modern breakdancing and perform for captive audiences around the world.

Warning

• Because breakdancing is a very physical type of dance, it is important not to attempt it unless you are a professional or are being supervised. Some of the more technical moves require intense body control and serious neck and back injuries can result if you don't know exactly what you are doing.