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Apex Predator Is One Sportster Harley-Davidson Should Start Making

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com At the beginning of April, Harley-Davidson announced the winner of this year’s King of Kings competition, a mashup of the best 15 previous winners of the Battle of the Kings. Its name is Apex Predator, and with it we’re kicking off a series that will bring to light over the following days all the participants. Known in the industry as BOTK, Battle of the Kings kicked off in 2015 as a custom build competition for Harley dealers worldwide. It is, if you like, a competition of ideas Harley itself was incapable of having, but recognized by the bike maker as possibly game changing for the custom industry. The rules of the competition are simple: the base motorcycle needs to be a Harley-Davidson bike, the customization must not cost over €6,000 ($6,500) and must have at least half of the parts used taken from the Harley inventory, and the final bike must be road legal. Over the years many competed in the Battle of Kings, but in April 2020 Harley crowned one of them ruler of the pack. And as fate would have it, that King of Kings is the Apex Predator. Built by a dealer in Mexico called Harley-Davidson Queretaro, the Apex is based on the Sportster XR1200 with the stock engine, and it is supposed to be a “retro-futuristic XR-based track monster meets street fighter.” Featuring custom parts like front fork covers, dual air intakes, and wave-style brake rotors, the bike does not shy away from making use of materials not often used in the motorcycle industry, like the Alcantara on the seat. Aside from the visual upgrades made to it, the Sportster also got a full color TFT Bluetooth instrument panel, and a hand built 2-1-2 exhaust system. As for the Sportster line, […]

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Segway tries to be sexy at CES, presents new electric motorcycle

by Chris Matyszczyk from https://www.zdnet.com/ Will this be the great victor at CES? Oh, please let that happen. Admit it, you’ve pitied them. The tourists, the mailpersons, the mall cops, the aging techies who now resent the future, they’re all regularly seen on Segways. Some, perhaps in a vain attempt to salvage their image, even wear a crash helmet while they ride the much-derided machine. In recent times, though, Segway was bought by China’s Ninebot. It’s started to develop robots. Well, robotic heads that ride on Segways. Now, though the company wants to make you drool and not because you’re laughing so much. It wants every attendee at CES 2020 to be talking about nothing other than the enormous strides Segway has made toward being alluring. Just before Christmas it released a (possibly) dynamic video of its new Apex. This is an electric motorbike, one that you can ride on a track. Yes, with no one else there but a camera crew. Some may be moved that there is only one wheel at the front and one at the back. More may be excited by the idea that this seems like a bike they’d actually be happy to be seen on, even beyond an enclosed track. It is alleged to be capable of going of going from 0-60 in 2.9 seconds and reaching 125 mph. Some bike aficionados may, however, endure qualms. The Apex sounds less like a bike and more like a one-person metalwork factory. Moreover, the rider in the video doesn’t make it look quite like the muscly monsters that occasionally overtake me on the freeway going 100 mph. (I’m going 65, honest.) He doesn’t lean over very far, does he? Perhaps, though, it’s a fine bike for our precarious times, one that melds dynamism and sanctimony