Motorcycles

Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer Tacita is preparing to launch a new rally-focused bike in early January – and has just announced that it'll take the T-Race Rally out for a public debut at the world's greatest and most historic rally event.

The motorcycle business has gone to some interesting places in 2019. We may not have seen 3D printed frames, or adaptive cruise control, or thruster rockets make it through into mass production, but 2019 had its own crop of ideas. Let's take a look.

Just over a year ago, UK startup Zapp revealed an eye-catching electric scooter called the i300 that promised enormous torque and fast acceleration. Now the city roller has entered production, with the first deliveries expected to start in late Q4.

Electric powertrains require no air intake, and are completely weather-sealed, so many of them are capable of riding along underwater. Here's a video of a high-powered Russian motocross bike doing just that.

These active noise-cancelling earbuds are claimed to kill engine and wind noise to an adjustable degree, while offering full Bluetooth comms and an intercom, in a zero-installation format that works with any motorcycle helmet, or without one at all.

French company Efesto has built a kit that can take your 205-odd horsepower Ducati Panigale, and turn it into a 300-horse hybrid widowmaker, with a 40-minute all-electric commuting range. Unfortunately, it looks like a Hyosung with a tumor.

Kiwi company UBCO has worked over its 2WD electric utility bikes for 2020, including a street-legal version, and it's also pulled the covers off its FRX1 e-trailbike, a 20-horsepower, silent mud flinger that looks like an absolute riot.

This outrageous machine from South African carbon specialists BST has to rank as the most shamelessly futuristic electric motorcycle design we've ever seen. Penned by ex-Ducati design chief Pierre Terblanche, it's an 80-kW, wheelie-happy stunner.

Melbourne-based startup Savic Motorcycles has hit the Australian Motorcycle Festival with a very sweet-looking production prototype of its upcoming electric cafe racer, a significant update to the first prototype we saw this time last year.

In a foggy and wet Milan, the Euro 5 class made a thunderous debut at EICMA 2019 with bigger and more powerful engines. The show demonstrated increasing competition from the Far East at all levels, and was garnished with some exciting announcements.

KTM brought a bumper crop of new goodies out for EICMA 2019, including a capable-looking new 390 Adventure bike, a faster, firmer Duke 890 R to go alongside the "scalpel" Duke 790, and a fresh chassis overhaul for its 1290 Super Duke R flagship.

This curvy, flat-helmeted thing is the result of an all-British partnership between Aston Martin and the revived Brough Superior brand. Built on a 180-horsepower turbo V-Twin, the AMB 001 is Aston's vision of what a cutting-edge motorcycle should be.