Sept. 28, 2025

Exploring Oddball Motorcycles

In this episode of the Throttle and Roast podcast, host Niels Meersschaert is exploring oddball motorcycles that challenge conventional design and riding norms. Drawing inspiration from a famous Apple commercial, he highlights how unconventional bikes often drive innovation and change in the industry. The discussion includes the recently announced BMW Vision CE and its predecessor, the C1, both of which incorporate unique features like enclosed seating and safety elements. Niels reflects on how these unusual designs create new opportunities for the evolution of motorcycling, encouraging listeners to appreciate the genius behind the "crazy ones" who dare to redefine the ride.

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00:00 - Introduction

01:38 - BMW Vision CE

03:15 - BMW C1

05:50 - Triumph Rocket 3

10:29 - Ural Gear Up

13:32 - Piaggio MP3

15:11 - Yamaha Niken

17:14 - CanAm 3 Wheeler

20:17 - Polaris Slingshot

23:56 - Wrap up

WEBVTT

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Weird is a side effect of awesome.

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Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. BMW recently showed a concept bike called the BMW Vision CE. It's essentially their electric scooter, the CE, but with a roof on It is definitely one of the weirder bikes to be introduced. Now, Apple had a commercial many years ago that celebrated these sorts oddballs, saying, here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, about the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to change the world are the ones who do. And in today's episode, we'll be looking at some of those oddball bikes, because maybe they do actually change the world. Maybe they do create a new opportunity for motorcycling to continue to evolve Some of the bikes that we're gonna cover today are still on the market and some you may not have ever heard of So we'll look through a few of those.

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So let's start with the BMW Vision CE, because that's, that's the one that just was announced in a way. It's certainly what spawned me thinking about this, this topic.

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And it's funny that when you look on the site and I'll put the link in the show notes for where they're highlighting this.

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It's really showing the the motorcycle from the side. And the thing that keeps popping into my head as I look at this bike is a golf cart. It is quite angular in shape. And this is a byproduct, a little bit of the original CE scooter. But then even the bars that are put on top of it are very, very angular.

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It's not an organic shape. It's a, it's a much more straight edged and, and evokes, at least to my eye, a lot of that golf cart kind of feeling. it's interesting to see that they've, they've brought this together.

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You know, when you look at it from sort of the three quarter angle or whatnot, it looks a little bit more, almost I'd say off road, in a sense, it's a little bit more tough, but just from that side view, it really does look a lot like a golf cart to me. And it's an aspect ratio because it's very tall. And this is to basically fully encompass the rider with that sort of roll bar sitting on the top. And it has even a full backrest with a headrest on it as well. So it's, you sit in it more like a car in that sense. And it's a really, it's a, it's an odd looking motorcycle. So I hope you take a moment to look at it.

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But what's really fascinating to me about this particular bike is this is not the first time that BMW has actually done a scooter with a roof on it. In they not only had a concept for this, but they even released it as a production vehicle. It only was on the market for about two years, but this was the BMW C1. And this existed from 2000 to 2002. Now, relative to the CE, the C1 was a far more organic shape. It was a much more rounded. It actually had a very curved windshield up in the front complete with a windshield wiper. it was interesting. The same sort of premises that we see with the CE were in that bike in that it was a full seat with a backrest and everything on onto a normal sort of like a car would be But the intention was you had a seat belt on there as well, and you could essentially sit in the scooter and you didn't need a This is how it had been set up for various jurisdictions within Europe was that it did not require a helmet because it was fully enclosed. And this made it a little bit more appealing to, let's say people who were commuting to work. They didn't have to worry about getting a helmet hair. They didn't have to worry about a couple of the other aspects that one would have. And because you were far more enclosed, you also didn't necessarily need as much of the abrasion resistant riding gear.

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So it was a little bit more of the convenience and size of a scooter. But the benefits of not having to wear the gear it's an interesting approach to how you might have a vehicle. Now, this one, of course, had the telelaver, which, of course, is pretty common within a lot of BMWs of that era and even still today. And the thing that happened with it is it didn't really become that popular, but it was interesting to see them bring it to market. And even to my mind, even more fascinating that they're almost rejiggering it today. Although if you look the CE in juxtaposition, that I think, aimed a little bit more at rough and tumble sort of a crowd. It's, it looks more like a roll cage rather than a roof line. these two pairs of bikes from BMW are definitely oddballs.

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I wonder if they feel that the market is ripe again for reimagining this concept So we'll see, we'll see what comes of it. But it's, it's a really, it's fascinating just to see these bikes appear. now the next bike that I want to go to is actually still in production. And this is the Triumph Rocket 3. And if you've never seen the Rocket 3, it is, in a sense, think of the old street triple with the dual headlights up in the front, but super sized. And that's really what this bike is about.

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Everything is just increased.

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the reason why it's such a, odd bike in a lot of ways is this bike is a triple, thus the name Rocket 3. And the Rocket is meant to kind of convey the almost obscene amount of power and torque that this motorcycle has. This bike is 2,500 cc's technically 2,458 cc's, but basically 2,500 cc's of engine in a three cylinder inline. Of course it's driven by a shaft drive, because that just allows for the alignment of the way the, the crankshaft is rotating. But here's the specs that really make this stand out. it has 180 horsepower, which yeah, in today with the, all the super bikes, you'd say, oh, well that's, that's on the higher end, but it's not the maximum end. But mind you, this is not a high end super sport bike. This is more of a muscle cruiser in a lot of ways. And the one that's the most fascinating about it is it has 166 foot pounds of torque. I don't believe that there is another bike that comes close to it in terms of this level of torque. but just a obscene bike that this even exists is just remarkable. I love that triumph had the guts to bring it to market. it's not the first time that they've had this bike. Of course they had a previous generation bike, that was not quite as large as it. It was about 2,300 cc's and this was the rocket three, but instead of it being number three, it was more of the Roman numeral style of three. And that came out, you know, around 2004 was when it first came out. So it ran from 20, 2004 to 2017. And then that was replaced by this newer rocket three, but it had the same sort of. Genesis of it had 150 horsepower, had 145 foot pounds of torque. So still an insane amount, but the styling of that original rocket three was a little bit more of a cruiser. Where as the newer one looks more like a street fighter, sort of a design aesthetic to them. But no matter what design it is, the fact that it exists and is available and you can go and see it in the showroom. You can buy it today. It's just so out there. It's so strange of a motorcycle, but so cool at the same time because of it. Uh, it's comical in a lot of ways, and the design of the modern one will perhaps be a little controversial. Some people will love it and others will think, eh, not really my thing, but you can't deny that it isn't a unique motorcycle and really just something that's fascinating out there. And there's, in fact, there's two variants of the current one. As I said, they really do play into that sort of street fighter, power cruiser style bike, but what you have is, you have the, the regular GT and the R would be the two different versions that they have. And what, what's really the differentiator is one of them, the R is really meant to be more of a roadster whereas the GT is a little bit more of a cruiser. So the big difference that you'll have between these is going to be in the ergonomics.

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So the R will have shorter handlebars, so you're a little bit more leaned forward. The foot pegs will mid-side. sets, so they'll be directly underneath your body. So it's a little bit meant for, if you want to be a bit more aggressive as you're riding, it's a perfect bike for that. If you want to take a little bit more laid back approach, you have the GT. And the GT will have handlebars that come a little bit further swept back so that you're a little bit more sitting straight up. And the foot pegs will be pushed forward so that you have almost forward controls on the bike. So a very different, almost layout that you'd have between these two bikes. Being the bike itself though, but just with different ergonomics. But just so cool that they exist. really, to my eye, I think it's a quite handsome looking bike, but it is a more modern style. So if you're not into a modern style, this is perhaps not the bike for you, but if you want something that's maybe a little bit more on the old school design side and still something that's a bit oddball, then maybe you could look at the Ural gear up. Now the Ural is a motorcycle, which for a long period of time, which for a long period of time was built in the Ural Russia. So they moved production to Kazakhstan. Now they, the company's actually based in Washington state in the U S but the factory is still based in Kazakhstan. But what's really cool about this particular bike is fundamentally, they took a BMW from the forties and just kept making the same bike over the years. So it has a BMW style boxer and it has a sidecar. And what's unique with the gear up specifically is it is two wheel drive. And what that means is it drives both the normal drive wheel of the motorcycle But then there's a shaft running between that and the sidecar's to provide two wheel drive. And this is why this motorcycle, you'll see all these images of it riding around in snow, because it's an all year round bike, because it doesn't matter. You've got the balance of three wheels anyway.

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But then you have the traction provided by both rear wheels of the, of the sidecar unit being driven. And it's just a old school looking bike. I mean, it looks like it's 70 years old, even though it's a 2025, but really cool that it still exists.

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it's one of these bikes. it's not going to be the fastest bike under the sun and that's not really what the intention is with a sidecar rig. The side car rig is meant to be a unique experience. And if you need to carry more stuff, it can be really cool because you've got, in addition to the side car where you can put stuff inside of the side car seating area, if you didn't have a passenger, there's actually a trunk on the backside of the side car. So you can fit some stuff onto there.

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most of the urals have all sorts of attachment points. So you can put like a shovel, you can put a spare tire onto it. You can put some additional lights, et cetera. And just creates utilitarian but still, this sort of go anywhere. And there's a little bit of a saying with Ural of, don't expect to go fast. And a lot of that has to do with that. You're going to be stopping because people want to ask you questions about it because it's such a unique looking motorcycle. And to be honest, there aren't really a lot of side car rigs that are available from the factory today.

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So this is really that sort of odd ball motorcycle. But this is what I would call more of the traditional type of a sidecar rig, where you'd have the normal motorcycle and then someone just slapped a sidecar on the side of it. So it's got that extra wheel on one side. It does create some weird dynamics when you're driving it. Because it'll pull to one side as you accelerate, it'll pull to the other side as you slow down.

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But I want to switch also into the next bike that's in our series. And this is also a scooter. But it's taking, again, another sort of an oddball approach to how you would produce a And this is sort of in that same vein, I think, of what BMW was attempting to do with the original C1 of how do we make a scooter or motorcycling in general a little bit more approachable to a lot of other riders. And this is Piaggio, which is the Italian scooter company. And it's the MP3. And what's unique about the MP3 and specifically why it's the 3 designation, it has two front wheels. sounds a little odd at first. You'd say, well, why do I need two front wheels? And the ultimate reason for this is it adds some as you're riding along and both wheels will actually lean with the bike. So it'll it'll still have the dynamics that feel like a normal scooter would be but it has a unique trait when you come to a stop it basically locks those wheels into that upright position, so you can keep your feet up. And the bike will just be standing still straight up. It's a really unique experience. And that's part of its effort to make it a little bit more of a almost a replacement for a car for people, where it's going to be more economical. It's going to be lower fuel costs but still have that comfort level if you're not ready for a full two wheeled motorcycle, Now, the next oddball bike I want to talk about is if you take that same premise of what we saw with the Piaggio MP3, but you wanted something that was maybe a little bit sportier than a scooter. Well, then maybe you'd want to look at the Yamaha Niken. what it is fundamentally is a leaning multi-wheel motorcycle. So the front wheels move in conjunction with each other, just like a normal motorcycle wheel would do. It's in line with the body. and their position relative to one another will always kind of create this parallelogram as it's sort of rotating through. And wheel actually does have a fork on it, but it's not a traditional fork of that the two tubes are on either side of the wheel. The two tubes are actually on one side of the wheel, on the outside edge of the wheel, and provide the suspension duties for each one. what's fascinating with this particular bike, driven by a three-cylinder engine, is it's really meant to have sort of the performance that you would have in more of a sporty type of a motorcycle, Now, conceptually, the bike, because of the two front wheels, is less likely to push and have the front end slide out on you because it has that extra grip from those two wheels. And because both of the wheels are leaning in a parallelogram, it ensures that they have the maximum amount of grip possible.

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So, it's, it's an, it's a unique bike it's definitely a weird I think in some ways, the market just was not ready for it because unfortunately, it was discontinued last year in 2024.

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So, if you do want to get one, you would have to buy it used at this It was produced from 2018 to 2024. So, really unique bike.

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Definitely an oddball one out there, but just so cool that Yamaha had the guts to bring it to market and make this kind of type of a vehicle and specifically more of a motorcycle Now, if you know the brand BRP, you probably know them as the makers of the ski-doo snowmobiles. And of course, they also make some watercraft that they call the Sea-Doo. Well, there's another brand under their umbrella called Can-Am. And Can-Am really focuses a lot on having three wheeled vehicles. And I think in a lot of ways, if you look at them, it's almost like they woke up one day and said, well, what do we do in the summertime with our snowmobiles? you know, they have this great line of snowmobiles under the ski-doo line for decades, but it does sometimes get a little warmer in Canada and they want to have something to do in the summer.

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So they said, well, let's replace the front skis with some wheels. And then track in the back, we're going to replace with another tire. And that's how the Can-Am three-wheeler kind of came about. And if you look at it, it really does look like a snowmobile with wheels.

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what's cool about it is that they've got a number of different models because it has actually become quite popular.

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it's been a great way for riders who maybe have some sort of physical difficulties of riding a traditional motorcycle, can't keep the motorcycle upright as they get to a stop and want to have something that's a little bit more easy for them to be able to And you still straddle it just like you would a normal motorcycle because it's just like a snowmobile but they have models running from as low as the Riker, which starts out at about $9, 600 with a 600cc engine and about 50 horsepower.

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Going up to a little bit more of a sporty model, the Spyder F3 is about 115 horsepower. And in fact, it actually even has Apple CarPlay and a backup camera. And then they have a variant called the Spyder RT. And this is about$27, 000, but it includes saddlebags. And if you love ADV bikes, if you remember, we just did an episode a couple episodes ago talking about getting your adventure bike a little dirty.

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Well, CanAm actually has a three wheeler that's aimed in that same sort of vein. If you want to get a little bit to get off of the paved path, you can look at the canyon. starts at about$25, 000 without luggage, but you can get packages with luggage onto there. And it has the same sort of style of aluminum panniers that you would see on the BMW GS Adventure. But it's just a really interesting take on how do we take a winter activity vehicle of a snowmobile and make it suitable to be available on all of these other styles of riding. And so it has a little bit more of a sporty style to it than, let's say, a traditional cruiser would if you got one of those trikes from Harley-Davidson. And if that style works for you, these are a really compelling option and just a fun, oddball bike that I'm just so happy exists on the market today.

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Now, all of the three-wheelers that we've covered thus far in this episode have been, what I'll call the traditional, typical motorcycle saddle, where you straddle the bike and you sit on it just like you would on a horse. And you'll typically have handlebars that you're using to control the steering of the bike. Well, this last oddball, I'll call it a motorcycle, that we're going to cover is the Polaris Slingshot.

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if you think of the Morgan three-wheeler, which some of our UK listeners will probably be very familiar with, This is a great classic car that has been produced by Morgan for 70-some odd years at this point. Really cool, old-looking car with the two wheels up in front, much like that Can-Am, and then a single drive wheel in the back.

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Well, the Polaris kind of is that same idea, but brought into a more of a modern aesthetic. So kind of like the Can-Am of looking more modern, but this definitely does not look like a snowmobile that was switched over. It looks more like a car.

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And in fact, the front wheels, rather than being exposed as they are on the Morgan three-wheeler or on the Can-Am, are actually a little bit more hidden behind some body work on the car. So it looks almost more like a sports car from the front.

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That's an open-top sports car, because what's unique with this car, and that's why I use the analogy of the Morgan three-wheeler, you don't sit on it like a saddle. It's normal car seats. So you actually sit in it just like a car and has that same sort of familiarity of it. It even has a full steering wheel. So it's more of the style of driving a car than riding a motorcycle in terms of how you sit in the ergonomics of it. But again, it's just one of these really sort of odd ball type of bikes out there. And this is from the company Polaris, And of course, if you know Polaris, then you're familiar with that.

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They'll produce things like snowmobiles, much BRP does.

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They'll also produce ATVs, side-by-sides. But this is really that sort of oddball one that they've released of just this... It's its own category that doesn't really exist out there. Now, Polaris, of course, is the parent company for Indian motorcycles. So they aren't completely outside of the realm of doing anything that's motorcycle-oriented. And of course, ATVs are a similar style of that you're going to be on a saddle with them just with four wheels instead of two. But this is just a really oddball bike.

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Now, what's great with this is if you have a significant other, because it's only a two-seater, who is not keen on riding on the back of a motorcycle with you, you might be able to convince them to ride in this because it is more seating like a car. but it is just a, it's again, one of these just oddball bikes that's out there. And they do offer some tops that you can put on.

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So you could have like sunshades for example. they do make, uh, almost sort of a, a hard top ish kind of a shade that they'll put onto it, which is quite expensive. It's a few thousand dollars, it's again, it's one of these just really weird bikes that it's so cool that they actually make it and have it available for so we covered the newly introduced BMW Vision CE, which of course was in many ways the inspiration for me for this episode, because it's just such an oddball looking bike being a scooter with a roof on it. And of course we covered the original version of the BMW C1 that was released around 2000 to 2002 was actually a production model. And then we looked at the largest production engine motorcycle you can buy today, the Triumph Rocket 3. we looked at the past and found a company that's been producing motorcycles with sidecars just like they did in the 1940s with few, if any updates in the Ural gear up. what fun it is to have a bike with two wheels in the back as in a sidecar. Well, what if we put two of them up front and that's where you got some scooters like the Piaggio MP3.

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You got more of a sport type of a bike like the Yamaha Niken.

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And someone decided to make a snowmobile with wheels, with the Can-Am three wheelers. And then finally, we looked at those who wanted an open top experience, but hope to save some money by maybe only having three wheels instead of four. And that's where you could get the Polaris Slingshot. So my question for you this week is what is your favorite weird motorcycle? Share your thoughts for the text to show link in the show notes or leave a voicemail at throttleandroast.com slash voicemail. Thanks for listening.

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I'll talk to you next week.