Lotus Motorcycles

Being a traditionalist, I hate to say it but the green and yellow scheme doesn't look very good in relation to the other two.

It doesn't say who makes the engine, but whenever I see a large-capacity vee twin, I suspect Harley Davidson, which would ruin the whole thing for me.
 
From what I have been able to find out, the engine is a modified KTM and the claimed weight is "under 400 lbs". Not a hint of price anywhere, but you can bet it will be stratospheric.
 
Oh dear lord, that is just porn. I suddenly feel the urge to buy a motorbike.

LotusC01_blksmall.jpg
 
I like my bikes to be a little bit more naked than that, I like to see a flirty bit of engine and exhaust pipe, that one looks like John Wayne has draped his saddle bags over the fuel tank, also it doesn't look road legal to me where are the lights and where would you hang the number plate without making it look ridiculous...
 
I like my bikes to be a little bit more naked than that, I like to see a flirty bit of engine and exhaust pipe, that one looks like John Wayne has draped his saddle bags over the fuel tank, also it doesn't look road legal to me where are the lights and where would you hang the number plate without making it look ridiculous...
WTF? 4Q Daddio! Who needs lites 'n' plates on this ole mofo? Kiss my invisible tailpipe granpappy!
 
Honda-RC162-Martin-Dyke.jpg


I'd much rather have this one. It was ridden by, IMHO, the greatest rider of all time, Mike Hailwood.

If I should forget to mention it later on, March 23 marks the sad anniversary of Mike's and his daughter's deaths because of an oblivious truck driver. So sad, in so many ways.
 
My first impression is the bhp figures are quite optimistic. AFAIK, the highest bhp 2014 production V-twin is the KTM 1190 RC8 @173 bhp, with near as makes no difference the same displacement. 200 is rather fanciful, even for the 4-cylinder, 16-valve crowd, so I rather rather doubt they can approach it in a twin without either 16 valves (8/cylinder, a la the Honda NR500) or forced induction. And aren't the EU still imposing a 180-bhp ceiling?

What really strikes me odd is this seems to be on offer, not from Lotus Cars, but from Lotus LMP2 LeMans racing team, Kodewa GmbH & Co. That is, if ownership of the web site is to be believed. Proton seem to be Balkanizing the ACBC trademark.


Looks like a modern take on the greatest sports bike of all time.

Yoshimura%252520Katana%2525201135R.jpg

A mate of mine built one of these out the arse. I took it out for a spin once and the only thing I ever have gone faster in on land was the TGV. It was too wheelie-happy so he'd added two teeth to the countershaft sprocket, and the stock 160-mph speedometer could not contain it. I got it up to very nearly a tachometer-indicated 180 mph. Which is commonplace among modern sport bikes these days, even middleweights, but back then was utterly outrageous. Shortly after, he added NOS to it and I never mustered the courage to throw leg over it again.

Another mate took one look at it and termed it "the elephant bike," which I thought apropos, especially since he wasn't a motorbike chap.
 
Back
Top Bottom