We've seen plenty of futuristic-looking concept motorcycles over the years – the BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100 and Yamaha Motoroid prototype, to name just two. The Rocket One fits comfortably amongst such offerings, with a massive LED headlamp that looks like a jet engine inlet or the Argo’s wave motion gun from Star Blazers.
Built by Toulouse-based company EyeLights, which touts it as "production ready", the electric Rocket One generates 180 horsepower and 885 lb-ft (1,200 Nm) of peak torque and allegedly goes from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in just 2.6 seconds. Incorporating elements of a café racer in its design, particularly the low-slung, downward angled, clip-on-style handlebars, the bike is almost a work of art.
The curvy silhouette, that scooped-in single seat, the massive Brembo front disc brakes... That extraordinary headlamp dominates the design, but what caught my eye was the weird, glowing, circular EyeLights motif sticking out from either side over the footpegs. They seem perfectly located to push the rider’s feet off the pegs. Yikes.
From a simple sketch to a functional prototype, EyeLights says it took three months to make the Rocket One a reality. It was designed by Alan Derosier, whose goal was to achieve an ideal mix of style and functionality for this concept.
“It was something new for me and I had no experience in that field. I decided to approach it exactly the same way as with cars,” explained Derosier. “The bike’s initial design revolved around fine-tuning the proportions and silhouettes. The result is a performance-oriented ride that houses huge batteries for power delivery and a respectable range.”
On the subject of range, EyeLights claims the Rocket One can go an enormous 248 miles (400 km) on a single charge. Take this number with a pinch of salt, though, as we all know how widely concept stats can vary from a production bike (assuming this "production-ready" bike ever makes it that far, which is probably a stretch).
For comparison, the Energica Ego+ shipped with one of the biggest batteries in the motorcycle world, a 21 kWh monster that enabled a 261-mile (420-km) claimed range. So it’s not like EyeLights is making impossible claims here, but it'll need a massive battery and a pretty ginger right wrist on the throttle. Expect that 248-mile range to drop significantly if you have too much fun, or plonk this machine on the highway.
Not that it matters; EyeLights isn't a motorcycle company. Rather, the company makes the EyeRide Head Up Display (HUD) and a Bluetooth audio kit, both for motorbike helmets. So the Rocket One is a kind of companion concept, designed to leverage augmented reality (AR) through integration with the EyeRide HUD.
EyeRide's aftermarket HUD kit has been on the market since 2018. The kit consists of an outer module that houses the electronics and battery and a nano OLED screen, which displays information including speed, battery level, remaining range, driving mode, and so on.
You'll have your own opinions about motorcycle helmet HUDs – we're not that enthused about the idea at this point. Audio headsets like those from Cardo and Sena have been giving us as much information, communication and entertainment as we've wanted for more than a decade now. Early HUDs we looked at did little to convince us that the visual element was worth the extra weight, complexity and obstruction of view, and the EyeRide doesn't strike us as a radical leap forward in those respects.
Credit where credit is due, though. EyeLights has certainly come up with an eye-catching, fully realized and "production ready" concept bike. No mean feat for a company that makes helmet add-ons.
I don’t see the Rocket One being produced though… ever. Designing a concept is one thing. Making it through all the safety and reliability tests required to turn that concept into a homologated bike available to Joe and Jill Public is another thing altogether.
So it’s a bit of a stretch to see a Rocket One on the road anytime soon. However, that hasn't stopped EyeLights creating a waiting list for interested customers ever since the concept was revealed at EICMA last year. I just think they'll be waiting a while.
Source: EyeLights
