8 Concept Bikes That Never Made It To Production [2023 Edition]

Why We Picked It:

It's kind of hard to believe, looking at the picture above, that the Sachs Beast, sometimes called the Beast 1000, concept bike was revealed in 2000. It looks like it's a bike that would be hitting the road in 2030, not just after the turn of the millennium, and it also used material engineering to remove the one constant of every bike ever made: The frame.

The Beast instead used all the components that a frame would hold, such as the engine, suspension, swingarm, and the like as stressed members of a chassis. The 998cc V-Twin at its heart was made of extremely strong aluminum, around which was built the split fuel tank, saddle, suspension tree, swingarm, and underslung radiator in a semi-monocoque style that some supercars still use to this day.

Depending on how it was set up, it would provide between 100 to 150 HP, and was calculated that it could have achieved and maintained 120 MPH. It was even slated to be going into production as a limited series in 2003, but it could not pass road legality testing and was therefore never actually made. Too bad... it would have been a sight to see attacking some twisties!

Why We Picked It:

The Stratosphere was a relic from the power wars that ended at the turn of the millennium. It brought together the original design for the Katana from the early 80s, modernized it, and then, after some working through the numbers and talking to the engineering department, came to concept form in 2005, when it was debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show.

Of course, as is evident in the picture above, the biggest talking point was its massive 1,100cc transverse narrow-bore 24 valve inline six, which was rated to produce 180 HP and over 100 lbs-ft from idle all the way to redline. It also managed to be 3/4s of an inch narrower than the inline four from the Hayabusa, and was made of materials that also made it lighter than that monster of an engine.

It was such a hit with show attendees that Suzuki filed for, and was approved for, production, slated to hit the road in 2009. It was to be the bike that would be the big brother to the B-King, and was to be one of the crown jewels in Suzuki's crown. However, in 2008 the global recession hit hard, and decisions had to be made about what bikes to continue producing. One of the bikes that hit the cutting room floor was the Stratosphere, and perhaps one of the greatest sport naked bikes of all time was ultimately left as just a concept.

Why We Picked It:

When the Kawasaki J three-wheel concept was debuted in 2013, there was absolutely nothing in the real world that even looked remotely like it. The only thing it even closely resembled were the lightcycles from the movie TRON and its sequel, TRON: Legacy. What it was, however, was a totally new way of thinking about motorcycles.

The biggest thing about the J was that each "suspension fork" was independent, and not attached to any type of tree or clamp at the top. Instead, at the top was one of the grips, and they would move up and down relative to how much the bike was leaning into a corner.

The other thing that impressed about the J was that it was a transformer. For the track or canyons, it would stretch down and out into a low tuck position called "Attack Mode," but for longer distance rides or just pootling about town, it would shorten and lift the grips to a comfortable standard position called "Upright Mode." There was even purported to be a luxury setting.

Too bad it was only a design and engineering exercise, and not a real production bike, as it would have likely sold in the thousands. Some would have bought it for the fact it's a Kawasaki so it would be packed with tech and rider aids, but many more would have bought it because it looks like a bike from TRON, and we don't think we'd be able to resist it either!

Why We Picked It:

The Ducati XDiavel is one of those bikes that already has enough power and enough going for it to be a monster of a motorcycle. So, when the Ducati Style Center got their hands on one, they decided that it enough wasn't... well, enough.

That is what bore forth the Ducati Draxter, a literal Godzilla-level kaiju of a motorcycle. The XDiavel was stretched out, and then given the suspension and brakes of the Panigale V4 R superbike. The handlebars are dropped to clip-ons, the same style used on Ducati's racing bikes. The Termi exhaust is unbaffled and is a straight shot directly out of the massive V-Twin at the heart of the bike.

Power supposedly hovers around 160 HP, which is just a little above the XDiavel's 152 HP, but the Draxter also gains Pirelli slicks for tires, meaning that most if not all of that power is going to be shoved into the road to push the bike forward. However, the Draxter was only really a "this is what we can do if we want to" concept, and was made specifically for the 90th anniversary of Ducati, without any intention of production.

Why We Picked It:

Most of the time that a concept bike is designed and made, it is at the manufacturer's HQ, where the design and engineering departments are most often located. The 1999 Honda NAS, on the other hand, was developed not in Japan, but right here in the good ol' United States of America.

Honda R&D America (HRA) took a completely new approach to a sportbike, so much so that the NAS stands for "New American Sports." Built around the V-twin from the VTR1000F, the frame was built up to be as lightweight and rigid as possible, and mounts a single sided swingarm that has a central monoshock. That, however, is where similarities to conventional motorcycles ends.

The front suspension was a massive single cylinder cantilever shock, which was also single sided. The rear brake was a standard disc brake, but the front was had the brake rim mounted, not hub mounted, and had two separate calipers that extended either side of the hub carrier. On top of that, each wheel was carved from billet aluminum! Each cylinder of the V-twin got its own cold-air intake snorkel, and the muffler and exhaust were actively cooled by passing through an aluminum shroud to reduce backpressure.

It also looked the business, an aggressive, angular, attacking motorcycle ready to rip your face off if you gave it an odd look. It showed up at a few industry shows in 2001, and then simply seems to have disappeared...

Why We Picked It:

The Yamaha Tesseract is, for all intents and purposes, a quad bike. However, what separates it from an ATV and makes it a motorcycle is how the four wheels are set up. Instead of relying on a handlebar turn to point the front wheels, the Tesseract used lean-sensing to pivot the wheels into the direction of the turn the rider was requesting, keeping all four wheels on the ground as it carved a corner.

It was a quad bike with very narrow wheels and tires, and had the two pairs of wheels set up much narrower than an ATV, just outside the width of the main frame. It was innovative, looked the business, and actually worked in the few demonstration runs that the bike went through. It was powered by a small V-twin and hybrid electric motor, which also gave it excellent mileage and fuel efficiency on top of being a neat idea.

Those that know Yamaha history can see where this is going, but for those that are not too familiar, the leaning side-by-side wheels were actually brought to production bikes, at least at the front, in the Yamaha Niken motorcycle and TriCity scooter. It was an innovative concept and an ingenious new technology for steering, and we are secretly hoping that Yamaha will someday actually make the Tesseract into a production bike, if only to try it out and see what it feels like!

Why We Picked It:

At the end of the 2000s, there was really only one company that seemed to be taking sporty electric motorcycles seriously, that being Zero Motorcycles. No one else was really paying any mind to the emerging market segment, so when Honda suddenly announced the RC-E supersport in 2011 as a concept, everyone sat up and paid attention.

Mixing the hybrid motor from the Insight road car, combined with a large battery that was mounted low down in the frame, it had some serious sporting potential. It had industry partner parts all over, including Ohlins suspension and Brembo brakes, and was reportedly just as fast, if not faster, as the CBR600RR petrol powered supersport.

The concept was introduced as a potential contender for the Isle of Man TT Zero class of electric race bikes, and it could have been seriously competitive had Honda not shelved the bike. Instead of producing the RC-E as viable competition to Zero, they instead focused on hybrid powertrains for their cars, and began development of the electric PCX-E scooter that was released in Japan in 2017 as a 2018 model. Oh, what could have been...

Why We Picked It:

Way, way back in the 1980s, supersports and superbikes were following the blocky, cyberpunk aesthetic of the times, with sharp angles and only mild considerations for aerodynamics. To us today, the looks are "classic," "vintage," and speak to the progress that has been achieved through the intervening years regarding slippery, aerodynamic body shapes and our better understanding of very-high-speed stability.

However, at the 1986 Tokyo Motor Show, Suzuki revealed the Nuda as a potential 1987 model year bike, and as you can see from the picture above, it was anything but blocky. Using the frame and underpinnings of a contemporary GSX-R750, an ultra-smooth, aerodynamic body influenced by the shape of a bullet, of all things, it was low, lean, mean, and hugely advanced. It used two shaft drives, one to the front wheel and one to the rear, as well as adopted a single-sided swingarm to reduce sprung weight. What more, the Nuda concept actually worked, in that it was fully rideable and had done multiple test rides on multiple circuits around Japan.

In the end, the concept proved to be too costly and too "far out there" to make it to production, but the influence of its body styling was not lost on to the designers and engineers. After fiddling, adjusting, and modifying the body shape, in 1995, almost a decade later, the new GSX-R body shape debuted for the 1996 model year, and it bore a strikingly similar resemblance to the Nuda, albeit a bit more road-legal friendly.

Suzuki hasn't looked back since, and the look of their supersports can honestly be traced back all the way to a single concept bike in 1986