BMW V12

Bigger seems to be better. If eight cylinders are good then 12 cylinders are better. And that seems to be the line BMW is taking.

The German manufacturer had built a V8 sometime back and now it has gone a step further with its V12 motorcycle.

The new 5.5 litre V12 is a drag race bike and features twin turbos and is fired by NOS. As of now the builder has not revealed the speed and other specifications, but one thing is sure - this is not a bike to mess around with. An inexperienced rider on the seat will surely get a complimentary one-way ticket to hell (or heaven).

Kettenkard-the motorcycle tank

This is one of those strange vehicles that did duty in World War II. It is a strange combination and the success rate of the Kettenkard, built by NSU is not known. This construction had a front end of a motorcycle and the rear tracks like a tank.

The front end did not make sense but it is said it was for stability at high speed. The front end could also be removed while travelling through really bad terrain.

The Kettenkard was powered by a four-cylinder, 1478 cc petrol engine by Opel and had a top speed of 80 kmph. It was meant to haul a trailer or a small field gun over mountainous terrain.

There were 8400 Kettenkard built during the war and quite a few of these survive today.

Hydrostatic drive diesel motorcycle

Jeff Parker and Brian Okeefe work around hydraulic machinery and have built some pretty interesting equipment and their interests run into motorcycles also The bike in the picture belongs to Jeff and has a custom-built frame that houses a Kubota 3-cylinder diesel engine. What makes the bike more unique is the hydrostatic drive system, no belts, no chains, no gear drive and transmission is just hydraulic pumps and motors.

Throttle is conventionally placed on a twist grip and there's a front brake lever too on the right but the clutch lever actually opens a bypass valve to let hydraulic fluid recirculate instead of driving the bike.

Mind you, the bike is no showpiece, and Jeff rides it regularly. The diesel engine has a displacement of 1123 cc and it is not actually a guzzler. One tank full enables Jeff to cover 560 km. Not bad for a bike that weighs 700 pounds. There is also a two gallon tank of hydraulic fluid below the tank to drive the bike forward.

In spite of all the pipes, hoses, pumps, mechanicals and the huge diesel engine, the bike still looks cool.

Wakan 1640-V Twin motorcycle

Waken Motorcycles is a French company and its first product looks pretty impressive. The Wakan 1640 is a single seat, V-Twin powered sport bike built around the AC Cobra idea of dropping a big American powerplant into a sporty European frame.

Joel Domergue, who used to make excellent trial bikes, is behind the project. The Wakan 1640 has a single spine oil carrying frame, a 54 inch wheelbase, with inverted Ceriani forks mounted at 22 degrees. The V-Twin producing 115hp and 155 Nm of torque and those horses are moving a motorcycle that weighs only 180 kg with oil and no fuel. The engine sports a single Keihin flatslide carb that gets ram air through a blower-type scoop situated above the airbox cover.

The fuel tank is below the seat, moulded to double as a sort of rear mudguard with the filler mounted on the tail section. This is not a prototype bike. It is ready for production with pre-orders already trickling in.

This is another move by a European manufacturer to produce big torque, sport bike. It is more of a beautiful and less of a weird bike and there are many who will fall for it.