The bikes of EICMA 2019 – Concepts

CONCEPT bikes are an interesting subject, while most have to be taken with a pinch of salt, none appearing at EICMA should be ignored as they will almost always offer a glimpse into a brands future direction.

EICMA is a great place to catch these glimpses, as the biggest motorcycle show is awash with motorcycle design musings from the future. Like we said above, most should be taken with a pinch of salt, but none should be ignored.

Husqvarna Norden 901

The Norden 901, if it makes it to production, could be the first adventure machine from Husqvarna since it’s tie-up with KTM. As expected, the bike borrows heavily from the Austrian manufacturer, with the 890 Adventure forming the basis of this cool looking mid-weight adventure machine.

Honda CB4 X

The Honda CB4 X is a very interesting proposition indeed, although we can’t completely make out what it’s supposed to be – adventure bike, sports-tourer, high-performance motard… It seems to cross a lot of genres.

We’d expect that this bike is less of a glimpse at a potential new model from Honda, it’s more likely to be the design ethic behind a range of bikes that cover the above genres using the chassis and engine as a common platform.

Ducati DesertX

Where the Honda above looks to be a long way from production, the Ducati DesertX looks like it could be rolling out of a showroom in the coming weeks! Paying homage to the Ducati powered Cagiva Elefant that contested and won the Dakar rally in 1990, the machine takes the Scrambler 1100 engine and frame as a base and ads Dakar-spec bodywork and a faithfully recreated ‘Lucky Strike’ inspired paintjob.

Ducati Motard

Not content with letting the Scrambler 1100 get all the glory at the show, the smaller 821cc Scrambler also showed an interesting concept in the form of the Motard.

No relation to the Hypermotard, this machine is lower, less lanky and much sleaker looking than the Hyper’. Again, it is just a concept but given the response it gained – it’d seem silly not to see it go into production in one form or another.

Aprilia Tuono 660

Launched in the same manner as the RS660, the Tuono 660 follows the Tuono bloodline perfectly – take a Noale sportsbike and streetfighter it to within an inch of it’s life.

With little in the way of official specs on this machine we can only assume it’s matching its faired cousins for tech and performance figures – 100bhp and all the electronics under the sun!

Although this is purely a concept, it’s almost nailed on that we’ll see the bike in production form in about 12-months time.