French company Furion has unveiled the Taran, an electric motorcycle with 326 hp, all-wheel drive and a motor built directly into the front wheel. Some of its figures are based on real measurements, others so far only on simulations.
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Technology
In this category you will find articles covering technical topics related to motorcycles. This includes developments in engines, chassis design, electronic systems, aerodynamics, as well as new construction and production solutions from manufacturers.
The list below brings together reports on technical innovations, patents, concept studies and detailed analyses of specific components. Background information on regulations, emission standards and technical trends in racing may also be covered.
This section provides an overview of current technical developments and explains how new technologies and engineering concepts are influencing the motorcycle market.
Eleven new patent filings from China reveal in detail for the first time how the V4 engine of the CFMoto V4 SR-RR is built. One of the documents also explicitly describes a turbocharged variant.
Honda is apparently working on a revival of the Motra, a small utility motorcycle from the early 1980s. New patents show a platform that can be built with either a petrol engine or an electric drive.
Chinese manufacturer Benda is working on a supercharged motorcycle engine and has filed a new patent for it. The technology differs significantly from the concept Benda already had protected a good three years ago.
A production Zero DS has covered 436.5 kilometres on a single battery charge, setting a new Guinness World Record. The ride took place at night on public roads from the French Alps to the Mediterranean, with the last 100 kilometres in heavy rain.
Cameras that detect phone use, seatbelts and following distance in addition to speed already exist. Whether they are allowed to issue fines, however, varies widely across Europe, and in France they still lack approval to this day.
From ABS to emergency brake assist, motorcycle electronics have changed dramatically in almost 40 years. Which systems demonstrably prevent crashes, where the technology creates its own problems and what prototypes and patents hint at for the future.
Yamaha is replacing the shift shaft on the MT-09 and Tracer 9 with Y-AMT because it can break due to frequent shifting. The campaign is already under way in Japan and Finland, but there is no official recall in Germany yet.
On Suzuki’s endurance GSX-R1000R, the mudguards, fairing and winglets are made of flax instead of carbon. Swiss manufacturer Bcomp openly names the strengths and weaknesses of the material, and a crash at Suzuka showed how the parts behave when it really matters.
Chinese manufacturer ZXMoto has shown its new 1000 cc boxer as a real prototype for the first time. Liquid cooling, shaft drive, installation position and many details are strongly reminiscent of the BMW boxer.
At CIMA 2026 in Chongqing, Voge showed the CU-X, a power cruiser with a plug-in hybrid drive. Above all, the concept is a rolling showcase for a new technology platform that is set to find its way into production models step by step.
A motorcycle tyre only holds on the asphalt because it slips a little across it. Temperature, tyre pressure and the condition of the road then decide how much of that grip is ultimately left for braking and lean angle.
ZXMoto’s new V5 engine is said to be on show at EICMA in November, with the Superbike World Championship named as the target for 2028. Yet a five-cylinder does not appear in that series’ rulebook at all.
ZXMoto founder Zhang Xue is working on a five-cylinder engine in a V configuration with around 1,000 cc. Between the official announcement and the figures circulating about it, however, lies a wide gap.
The first test drives for a driverless taxi service begin in Munich in the coming weeks, and other operators are already on the road there. For motorcyclists that pushes one question to the front, and there is still no solid European answer to it: how reliably does this technology detect a single-track vehicle?
Qianjiang, the parent company of QJMotor, has protected a single-cylinder engine in the US that looks like a V-twin at first glance. The second cylinder produces no power, it houses a dummy piston intended to replace the balancer shaft.
BMW Motorrad has filed a patent for a newly designed rear swingarm intended for the coming superbike generation. What matters here is less the shape than the process used to make the part.
After the severe earthquake in Kyushu, Honda has been building complete motorcycles at its Kumamoto plant again since 24 August. The group’s most important two-wheeler factory in Japan stood still for around four weeks.
GoPro is evidently working in earnest on its own motorcycle helmet. Newly published patent documents show a blind spot warning that relies not on radar or cameras, but on microphones and machine learning.
A newly published patent application shows for the first time how the four-legged Kawasaki Corleo is meant to work in detail. The documents describe a rider outfit with built-in sensors, room for two people and several riding modes.