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Thursday, March 17, 2011
Labels: Amazing , Cars , Cars and Vehicles , Cool Bikes , Curious , Motorbike , Motorcycle
Monday, March 14, 2011
Alongside being a pretty cool mode of transport and fitting in with a rock and roll lifestyle, motorbikes are the perfect paparazzi dodging vehicle, which means they’re a favourite for a celebrity get away. Well paid as these following male celebrities are, we wonder just how much they folk out on their bike insurance! Keanu Reeves must surely win the award for the most expensive motorbike insurance due to his past history on motorbikes. In terms of cheapest motorcycle insurance, Ewan McGregor must win this hands down with the amount of miles under his belt! So without further adieu, here’s our guide to the top ten motorbike wielding superstars.
David Beckham
Beckham has been sporting the grease monkey look for a few years now, it was just a matter of time until he eventually invested in a bike to suit his attire – he’s recently been spotted cruising LA on a £50,000 F131 Hellcat Combat.
Brad Pitt
Pitt is a complete motorcycle devotee and is often papped out and about on his bikes; his collection includes a Ducati Desmosedici RR, Monster 696, Harley-Davidson choppers, BMW R1150GS Adventure, Triumph Bonneville and Yamaha R1 amongst others.
Ewan McGregor
Joined by his friend Charlie Boorman, McGregor has circumnavigated the globe and travelled from John O’Groats to South Africa on two wheels, a third instalment of the Long Way series is planned for 2011, where the two are expected to ride up through South America. For leisure he rides a cream-and-black Moto Guzzi arou.
Orlando Bloom
Part of the LA biker set, Orlando Bloom has been spotted on bikes the world over; riding a new Norton Commando 961 SE at the Festival of Speed, custom models in Australia and a 1941 WWII Army relic in Buckinghamshire, UK.
George Clooney
Despite a crash in ’07, in which George broke a few ribs, he’s still a two wheel fan and has been spotted most recently on his beloved Harley Davidson cruising the LA circuit.
Ryan Reynolds
The Canadian actor Reynolds gets his kicks from riding fast and is renowned for taking to the open road for long trips with his brother in Australia. His bike of choice in recent years has been a red Triumph Bonneville.
Keanu Reeves
Another old school rider, Reeves is known for his classic choice in motorbikes, including his Norton Commando. A motorcycle crash in Topanga Canyon, whilst on a ‘demon ride’, landed Keanu in hospital with broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and an increased bike insurance premium!
Gerard Butler
In July 2010, Gerard Butler won the role of Sam Childers in the movie Machine Gun Preacher, playing out the story of the ex-biker and reformed drug dealer. A biker in real life, his personal collection includes a newly purchased Harley.
John Travolta
One of Travolta’s first jobs was in a Honda motorcycle commercial, he rose to prominence as the motorcycle toting greaser Danny Zukko and played a disenfranchised middle aged American in Wild Hogs in the ‘00s. His private collection includes the obligatory Harley.
Tom Cruise
The man who rose to huge worldwide stardom whilst riding a Kawasaki Ninja in Top Gun, is one of the biggest motorcycle collectors on the LA scene - it's rumoured that Cruise was the first American to get his hands on the uber Ducati in 2008.
Labels: Cool , Cool Bikes , Cool Pictures , Motorbike , Motorcycle , Top 10
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Labels: Amazing , Cars and Vehicles , Motorbike , Motorcycle
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Earlier this year (see Part 1), we examined some of the cool, the fascinating, the unusual and the utterly weird designs for motorcycles that have appeared for over the last century or so. Here’s another look the wild and wonderful world of motorcycles.

Brough Superior motorcycles were made in Nottingham, England from 1919 until 1940 and were known as ‘the Rolls Royce of motorcycles’. Very expensive at the time, they were available only to the wealthy. This model dates from 1931.
T. E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, owned several of these machines and died from his injuries after crashing on one in 1935... Another beautiful bike is this Imme (Germany), with a single side suspension:
The Megola motorcycle was produced in Munich in the 1920’s. Some 2000 were built, but only 10 fully working examples are still in existence, one of which is in the Guggenheim Museum in New York:
In 1935, the Killinger and Freund motorcycle was an attempt to make an improved version of the Megola, but the advent of World War Two put an end to any further development:
Some sources point out that "in 1940, when Indian's skirted fenders appeared, several questioned the manhood of Spingfield's designers". It seems that aerodynamic shape of Killinger & Freund bikes influenced the Indian designers:
This streamlined torpedo is the French-made Majestic, 1929:
Speaking about "Custom War Bikes", here is one that was fashioned after World War Two style (modern concept by Kogisama):
The previous wild concept was not so wild, after all - take a look at the real WW2-period 1936 BMW Schneekrad
Another front-wheel tracked motorcycle prototype from 1937
Modern all-terrain tracked version is proposed by Hyanide & Baal:
After the war, the Moto Guzzi 500 cc V8 race bike was seen on the world’s high-speed racetracks from 1955 to 1957.
Modern version of the hubless wheel can be seen in the recent concepts for Harley Davidson, by designer Miguel Cotto
Many of us remember the lightcycles from the 1982 movie Tron. The long awaited sequel, Tron Legacy, is set to hit theatres in late 2010 and will feature this splendid looking specimen:
Swordfish concept chopper:
Rats & KustomsThis custom built motorcycle, called Iceman II, was made by Walz Hardcore Choppers of Germany for Formula One world champion Kimi Raikonnen:
Rat bikes are usually defined as motorcycles that are decades old, in a poor state of repair, but still maintained and kept roadworthy by their owners on a shoestring budget. Survival bikes do resemble rat bikes and the two are often confused, although survival bikes are usually modified in much the same way that cars are customized. Here are some great examples of both of these types of machines.Imagine seeing this coming up behind you in your rear view mirror (below left)? On the right is the rounded green beauty, also seen at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally:
Not sure what kind of a view you’d get of the road ahead on this one (image below left)? On the right you can see a really inventive fuel tank -
On the left image below is The Survival Bike from some sort of Zombie Apocalypse... Whereas the owners of the bike (below right) decided to actually attach the coffin as a sidecar:
We featured what we had speculated might be the world’s largest motorcycle in Magnificent Motorcycles Part One, but the biggest one on the planet may actually be this one.
This bike is pretty big too and apparently this machine, called the Gunbus, is perfectly capable of being taken out on the road.
Want to travel in style? Why not try this Harley Davidson and limousine combination?
Concept BeastsFinally, here’s a selection of concept motorcycles, which may or may not see the light of day at some point in the future. Here’s the Akira concept bike:
FuturA was designed by Mario Malagrino of the Florence Design Academy (left)... Romanian 3D artist Adrian Baluta created this cool bike called Darklight (right):
Above image, bottom row: the Suzuki Biplane and the Victory Vision 800 concept bike produced by Victory, a division of Polaris ATV's.William Woods designed the Fallout concept motorcycle in 2009 (below left). The Wrath concept (below right) by Alexander Barnard is dubbed a ‘future modern retro chopper’ for the year 2083:

So there you are, another look at cool, fascinating, unusual and weird motorcycles from around the world. Stay tuned for more from the wild and wonderful world of these magnificent machines in future
Cool Pictures
Labels: Cool , Cool Bikes , Cool Pictures , Design , Largest , Modern , Motorbike , Motorcycle , Unusual , Weird , Weird Pics , Wonderful
































