Despite rising inflation in 2023, there are still cool new motorcycles under $5,000
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2023 Honda Monkey: $4,249
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2023 Honda Rebel 300: $4,749
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2023 Kawasaki KLX230: $4,999
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2023 Royal Enfield Classic 350: $4,799
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2023 Yamaha MT-03: $4,999
From Center for Industrial Progress by Alex Epstein
Last week we looked at the need for a process of producing energy that is cheap, plentiful, and reliable—and we saw that solar and wind cannot produce cheap, reliable energy.
How Germany embraced solar and wind and ended up in energy poverty
Let’s take a look at this in practice. Germany is considered by some to be the best success story in the world of effective solar and wind use, and you’ll often hear that they get a large percentage of their energy from solar and wind.
You can see here on this chart how this claim was made and why it’s not accurate.
First of all, this is just a chart of electricity. Solar and wind are only producing electricity and half of Germany’s energy needs also include fuel and heating. So solar and wind never contribute half as much to Germany’s energy needs as this chart would imply.
But that’s not the biggest problem. What you notice here is that there’s certain days and times where there are large spikes, but there are also periods where there’s relatively little. What that means is that you can’t rely on solar and wind ever. You always have to have an infrastructure that can produce all of your electricity independent of the solar and wind because you can always go a long period with very little solar and wind.
So then why are the solar and wind necessary? Well, you could argue that they’re not and that adding them onto the grid will impose a lot of costs.
In Germany, electricity prices have more than doubled since 2000 when solar and wind started receiving massive subsidies and favorable regulations, and their electricity prices are three to four times what we would pay in the U.S. (Because of its low reliability, solar, and wind energy options require an alternative backup—one that’s cheap, plentiful, and reliable—to make it work, thus creating a more expensive and inefficient process.)
Nuclear and hydro
Fossil fuels are not the only reliable sources. There are two others that don’t generate CO2 that are significant and are more limited, but still significant contributors. Those are hydroelectric energy and nuclear energy.
Hydroelectric energy can be quite affordable over time, but it’s limited to locations where you have the right physical situation to produce hydroelectric power.
Nuclear is more interesting because nuclear doesn’t have the problems of hydro but it’s been very restricted throughout history so today in the vast majority of cases it’s considerably more expensive than say electricity from natural gas. This may change in the future and one thing we’ll discuss under policy is how we need to have the right policies so that all energy technologies can grow and flourish, if indeed the creators of those technologies can do it.
The reality of energy poverty: a story
To illustrate just how important it is to have cheap, plentiful, and reliable energy, I want to share a story I came across while doing research for my book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. This is a story about a baby born in the very poor country of Gambia.
The baby was born underweight and premature, but not in such a way that would be a big problem in say, the United States. In the United States, the solution would have been obvious: incubation. This technology would almost certainly bring this baby up to be completely healthy, and if you met the baby later in life you would never know that there had ever been a problem.
Unfortunately, in the Gambia, in this particular hospital, they needed something that billions of people in the world do not have, and that is reliable electricity.
Without reliable electricity, the hospital didn’t even contemplate owning an incubator, the one thing this baby desperately needed to survive.
Without access to this technology, the baby could not survive on her own, and sadly, she died. I think this story reminds us of what it means to have access to cheap, plentiful, and reliable energy, and how having more energy gives us the ability to improve our lives.
To summarize what we discussed, if you can’t afford energy you don’t have energy, and if energy is scarce or unreliable, then you don’t have energy when you need it. It’s not just enough to have energy, the energy and the process to create it has to be cheap, plentiful, and reliable.
By Alex Epstein From Center for Industrial Progress
When making energy choices, there are three major criteria that need to be considered:
1. Is it cheap? Simply put, if you can’t afford energy, then you don’t have energy.
2. Is it plentiful? If energy is scarce, then many people will have little to no energy.
3. Is it reliable? If energy is unreliable, then you won’t have it when you need it.
In other words, energy is only valuable to the extent that it is cheap, plentiful, and reliable.
And to make it that way, we have to discover cheap, plentiful, reliable processes for generating energy.
Energy is a process
Energy is a process. Whether it’s coal, oil, gas, solar, wind, we describe them as materials, but they’re really processes. The materials are just one part of the process, but the whole process can include things like mining, refining, manufacturing, transportation, operation, maintenance, and disposal.
And then you have to look at how the whole process adds up. When we see something in the marketplace being cheaper or more expensive that reflects the whole process.
The general reason why certain forms of energy are not adopted is because the process to produce them is too expensive or it’s not reliable.
Let’s look at some examples of this.
Jimmy Fallon’s irrefutable case against “renewables”
For this first example, I’m going to let comedian Jimmy Fallon do the talking.
“New Scientist Magazine reported on Wednesday that in the future, cars can be powered by hazelnuts. That’s encouraging considering an eight ounce jar of hazelnuts costs about nine dollars. Yeah, I got an idea for a car that runs on bald eagle heads and Faberge eggs.”
So you may be thinking, “Isn’t hazelnut energy renewable? Doesn’t it come from the sun? Isn’t the sun free and forever? What’s going on here?” It’s all about the process.
While we don’t have to pay the sun, we do have to pay for the land, the labor, and many other inputs necessary to make hazelnut energy. And with hazelnuts, the process to produce them is very costly. The same turns out to be true for many alternatives.
by Todd Halterman from https://www.autoevolution.com
Hub-center steering is one of several different types of front-end suspension and steering mechanisms used in motorcycles and cargo bicycles. It is essentially a mechanism that uses steering pivot points inside the wheel hub rather than a geometry that places the wheel in a headstock like the traditional motorcycle layout.
Perhaps the most venerable example of the idea came in the form of the 1930 Majestic. This Georges Roy design used a novel pressed-steel monocoque chassis, and it incorporated an automotive-type chassis with hub-center steering. Other bikes had already used the configuration in such machines as the Ner-A-Car and the Zenith Auto-Bi, but the Majestic made it lovely to behold.
Another bike, the Vyrus 984 C3 2V Razzetto, was one such motorcycle that used hub-center geometry.
Vyrus is a small Italian motorcycle manufacturer based in Coriano, Italy, and their bikes such as the “Tesi” – Thesis in Italian – had their designs originate from a university engineering project linked to the motorcycle legend Massimo Tamburini. The Tesi, and the Vyrus 984, were instantly identifiable by their use of their hub-center steering front suspension and steering arrangement.
Those fabulously expensive bespoke motorcycles have been called “functional works of art,” and they look a bit like something you might see in a video game.
In hub-centered bikes, the front wheel is attached to a swingarm with a shock and an internal pivot point. Steering is achieved using those linkages to turn the wheel on a pivot point. Hub-center steering has been employed on motorcycles for more than a century, but the design, despite what some engineers say offers a distinct advantage, never took hold.
But the founder of Vyrus, Ascanio Rodorigo, once worked for Bimota as a race mechanic and engineer during the 1970s and his tenure there lasted until 1985. When Rodorigo finally left Bimota, he started his own company but partnered with Bimota on the hub-center-steered Tesi. He then went on to take the steering concept deeper and refined it for his own company’s motorcycles.
A Ducati dual spark bored out to 1,079cc and making 100hp L-twin provides the power for the 319 lbs (145 kg) Vyrus 984 bike, and it’s delivered to the road for via a six-speed transmission.
Now builders like Bryan Fuller of Fuller Moto, Revival Cycles, and others have built beautiful machines which harken back to the hub-centered glory days of the Majestic. Builders such as Stellan Egeland used a hopped-up 1200 boxer engine from a BMW HP2 Sport. He also added his own hub-center steering setup from ISR to a frame he made from a 2391 steel tube. The ISR kit is a thing to behold.
Revival’s ‘The Six,’ which features a ballsy Honda CBX motor, is another take on the hub-steer geometry. It was commissioned by museum owner and bike collector Bobby Haas for his Haas Moto Museum in Dallas and made by Revival’s Alan Stulberg and his crew.
Stulberg said the commission was aimed at paying homage to the Art Deco classic Majestic and added that he and the team became “obsessed with its design language and flow” since they first saw the bike at the Barber Museum.
Hub steering systems don’t dive as much under braking and hard cornering as do conventional telescopic fork setups. They push braking forces back into the chassis more efficiently rather than transferring immense bending forces to a pair of upright forks. The ride experience is exceptional as braking performance throughout corners is greatly enhanced.
It works like this: A wheel hub pitches back and forth on a central pivot and is supported by two large steering arms actuated by handlebars. The handlebars connect to the front steering and swingarm using complex linkages. A fixed arm connects a pull-and-push rod on either side of the hub-center to help steer the bike. The geometry also includes a second pair of static rods to ensure the axle stays level with the bike’s mass.
While hub steering has a number of clear advantages, its downfall is that it is considerably more expensive to manufacture and maintain and requires exceptionally experienced mechanics to tune and repair.
But it does look good, works more efficiently from an engineering standpoint, and directly addresses the most important factor in the motorcycling experience: braking.
The Majestic – Artistic Design from the 1920s
from https://www.odd-bike.com
While the engineering of the Majestic might have been relatively conventional, what was unprecedented was the styling, the hallmark of the Majestic to this day.
All the oily bits were fully enclosed under louvered panels, with partially enclosed fenders covering the wheels at both ends. The rider was completely isolated from the grime and muck of the running gear and powertrain, perched upon a sprung saddle and controlling the machine via levers and bars that poke through the all-encompassing body.
Presented in 1929, the prototype Majestic (which was reported as Roy’s personal machine) featured an air-cooled 1000cc longitudinal four-cylinder engine from a 1927-28 Cleveland 4-61. This would not remain for production, however.
While at least two Majestics were built with a 750cc JAP V-twin (arranged, like a much later Moto-Guzzi , with the Vee transverse and the heads poking through the bodywork) and records note that JAP singles, a Chaise Four, and at least one Gnome et Rhone flat twin were also employed, the majority of production machines coming out of Chartenay featured air-cooled Chaise engines.
These were overhead valve singles featuring unit two or three-speed gearboxes operated by hand-shift, available in 350cc and 500cc displacements. Distinctive for their single pushrod tube that resembles a bevel tower (but contains a pair of tightly-spaced parallel pushrods) and external bacon-slicer flywheel, these powerplants were a favourite of French manufacturers during the interwar period and were used by a variety of marques in lieu of producing their own engines.
The base price of the Majestic was 5200 Francs for a 350 with chain final drive; an extra 500 Francs netted you optional shaft drive.
An additional option that is rarely seen on surviving examples was a fine “craquelure” paint option that was applied by skilled artisans. It involves a process of deliberately screwing up the paint job in the most controlled and flawless way possible, applying a contrasting top coat over a base using incompatible paints that will cause the top coat to crack in a uniform fashion, something like a well-aged oil painting or antique piece of furniture.
The result is spectacular – and perhaps a bit tacky, giving the machine the appearance of a lizard skin handbag. (Maybe a later Rock Star would have loved to ride it as the “The Lizard King” ? )
The Majestic was impeccably stable at higher speeds compared to the other motorcycles of that era.
It was also agile and light footed in a way that similar machines, like the Ner-A-Car, were not.
The relatively low weight, around 350 pounds, carried with a very low centre of gravity made for tidy handling that was more than up to the meagre output offered by the powerplants.
Majestic was targeting a clientele that didn’t really exist: the gentlemanly rider who might desire a superior (read: expensive) machine as a stablemate to their elegant automobiles.
Georges Roy’s previous design produced under the name “New Motorcycle”
Georges Roy’s earlier 1927 brand called New Motorcycle was a far better barometer of things to come, predicting the style and design of machines that would emerge during the 1930s and beyond. The Majestic has far less impact and was more of a curiosity than predictor of trends to come.
Georges Roy’s brilliance as a designer is unquestionable, and deserves more praise than he ever earned during his lifetime.
Majestic is a little bit of elegance floating on the sea of staid machines that clutter up the history books.
Georges Roy was a French industrialist and engineer born in 1888 who achieved success in the textile business – specifically in knitting and sewing equipment. He was, however, an early adopter of motorcycling at the turn of the 20th Century – reportedly his first machine was a Werner, a Parisian machine that introduced the term “Motocyclette” in 1897.
In August 2020, 43 years will have passed since Elvis Presley, the king of rock ‘n’ roll, or simply The King, died of an overdose on prescription drugs. To this day, he remains one of the most iconic figures in pop culture.
Even after all these years, Elvis is still considered a top artist in music. He made dozens of movies as well and, while they’re all popular in their own right, they do not speak of his artistry but rather of his desire to capitalize on his music career. In short, he made too many of them, of too questionable quality.
Even in death, The King is still a top-selling artist, which drives up the price to every item that he owned, ranging from his clothes (the flamboyant outfits from his final years, in particular), to his guns, letters and photographs, and last but not least, his impressive car and motorcycle collection. As you probably know, the richer Elvis got, the more he liked to splurge on fancy riders, be they on two or four wheels, and occasionally on three.
Another thing that Elvis was famous for where his car and bikes collection is concerned is the fact that he hardly kept any item around for too long. He would often buy stuff in the spur of the moment, enjoy it for some time and then pass it along, either by gifting it to friends and associates, or reselling it.
This brief introduction is necessary when talking about the last motorcycle he ever bought, which is also the Harley-Davidson mentioned in the headline: a 1976 FLH 1200 Electra Glide that aimed to set a new record for the world’s most expensive bike sold, back in August 2019. It failed.
In the summer of 2019, Kruse GWS Auctions’ Artifacts of Hollywood announced the upcoming auction of a new lot, containing, among others, Presley’s last bike. It was a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide that was still functional and with all the original parts from the moment of purchase, having been stored in a glass museum-quality display at the Pioneer Auto Museum in Murdo, South Dakota, for 30 years. Visitors were never allowed to touch it, so it remained in pristine condition.
In the listing, the auction house highlighted the bike’s impressive pedigree: Elvis himself had bought on August 11, 1976, after visiting a Harley-Davidson dealership to buy a Sportster 1000 for a friend – as a gift, of course. With the Electra Glide, he was very specific about what he wanted: a two-tone paintwork in black and baby blue, hand-stitched leather seat and chrome accents.
He had the bike delivered to his home, Graceland and, in true Elvis form, would pass it on after a while, when he grew bored with it. He sold it to a local Harley-Davidson dealership only days before his death, with just 126 miles on the clock. From there, it passed to the museum, where it would remain until 2019.
This impressive history, and the fact that the Harley was in top condition and with all-original parts prompted the auction house to estimate it would fetch between $1.75 million and $2 million. Which, if you think about it, is not too far-fetched for a piece of Elvis history.
Had it been able to meet this mark, it would have become the world’s most expensive bike ever sold, beating previous record holder 1951 Vincent Black Lightning used by Jake Ehret to set a speed record on in 1954, which went for $929,000 in 2018.
Surprisingly though, Elvis’ Harley not only failed to meet the lowest estimate but fell short by it by a several hundreds thousands: it went to an unknown bidder for a “mere” $800,000.
This still makes it the world’s third most expensive bike sold, but it also shows that, even when it comes to The King, there are some things you can put a price on. And it’s much lower than you think, especially if the butt of said King hardly ever touched it.
by Elena Gorgan from https://www.autoevolution.com
Like with everything else in this world, there are bikes and then there are… bikes. The Harley-Davidson we’re going to talk about today falls in the latter category, of machines that are so expensive they are more like objects of art than actual rides.
Whereas most luxury cars and motorcycles remain practical, this one is less much so. Many rides cost a fortune either because of one-off customizations or the fact that they’re limited edition, or simply just that awesome. This Harley-Davidson is pretty much the same as it was when it left the factory, but coated with a new layer of paint.
Make that more than 37 of them. This is the Harley-Davidson Cosmic Starship, also known as the Million Dollar Harley-Davidson or artists Jack Armstrong’s bike. It’s actually a 2002 V-Rod that has been painted in Armstrong’s Cosmic Extensionalism style.
In other words, this Hog is a rolling, roaring piece of art, a painting on the move. If you can afford to risk damaging it by actually taking it on the road, that is.
As of the time of writing, the Cosmic Starship is back on the market, with an asking price between $15 million and $30 million, since it’s a one-off. It’s been listed for sale by its current owner since 2017 and, should it ever find a buyer, it will go down in history, officially, as the world’s most expensive motorcycle.
Even if it doesn’t, based on the last price it changed hands for, it is still among the top five most expensive bikes in the world: $3 million.
So what’s the deal with it? Why is it so pricey?
As noted above, there is nothing outstanding about the bike itself. It’s a V-Rod without any modifications, chosen because Armstrong, a vocal Harley enthusiast himself, believed it was the perfect, most luxurious canvas for his revolutionary painting style, which took 30 years to perfect.
“The style of the 2002 Harley V-Rod was revolutionary, and it was the most futuristic creation in motorcycles I had ever seen,” he said ahead of the introduction of the bike. “For several years between 2003-2004 when I lived in Switzerland I rode V-Rods with seven-time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher. So the V-Rod was my only choice for the most expensive motorcycle in history.”
The Cosmic Starship was introduced in October 2010 at Bartels in Marina Del Rey, California, in a ceremony that saw it being dropped from the sky while lit up by $100,000 worth of lights. It was billed the Million Dollar Harley from the start, based on the fact that Armstrong painted it.
In 2012, it sold for $3 million, and it popped up on the market again in 2017: Cosmic Harley says it’s asking price is of $15 million, but Star Global International (which actually commissioned the work) puts it at $30 million. They both seem to agree, however, that its value will go up in the coming years: the figure $250 million is casually being thrown around.
It took Armstrong (who is Neil Armstrong’s nephew) 6 years to complete the job. You wouldn’t be able to say by just looking at it in pictures, but there’s an elaborate technique about this style of painting. It reportedly involved lots of acrylic paint and no less than 37 coats of clear coat on top, a method Armstrong needed 3 decades to master.
What makes Armstrong stand out among other artists is his belief in “the energy that coexists in inter planetary and multi-dimensional extensionalism,” which is reflected in his work. In more specific terms, his work stands out for hidden messages when viewed at different angles or in different lights, and extreme use of color, texture and light. Reportedly, Andy Warhol, with whom he was friends, dubbed him “The Last Wizard.”
What also drives up the price on Armstrong’s art, including this Hog, is the fact that he vowed to never make more than 100 pieces to showcase it and never to touch canvas. He’s never used an art dealer either, so he deals directly with the most exclusive clients. With all that, not much is known about his personal life or his body of work, and there are suspicions about claims he made about the former in the past. Either he’s onto something as an artist, or he may just be a major con who has been able to talk his way to the top by selling the illusion of exclusivity.
Back to the bike, even if never sells for the kind of money it’s being listed at, it’s still very expensive at $3 million. The Cosmic Starship is currently being held in a climate-controlled vault and remains in pristine condition. Whether anyone’s ever ridden it remains a mystery, but for this kind of money, would you risk damaging that which makes it so expensive by taking it out on the road?
At 134.5 square feet, the cost of the parking space breaks down to $7,209 ($56,505 HK) per square foot, which is three times the median price of a Hong Kong house.
HONG KONG: At the 73-story Hong Kong skyscraper “Center”, a pricey parking space reserved for executives and tenants was recently sold for an eye-popping $969,000 ($7.6 million in HK dollars), the media has reported.
Johnny Cheung Shun-yee, one of the 10 investors in the consortium that paid $5.15 billion last year for “The Center”, told that he had sold the last of his four car parks in the tower to someone who owns an office in the same building because “the buyer now needs a car park lot,” declining to identify the buyer, according to South China Morning Post.
At 134.5 square feet, the cost of the parking space breaks down to $7,209 ($56,505 HK) per square foot, which is three times the median price of a Hong Kong house.
The sale price, in a city where nearly one in five residents lived below the government-defined poverty line in 2017, underscores the wealth gap that has pushed Hong Kong into the worst political crisis in decades, the SCMP report added.
by Sean Szymkowski from https://www.cnet.com
by Luke Wilkinson from https://www.autoexpress.co.uk
The bike will be a collaboration between the automaker and Brough Superior.
Aston Martin is prepared to dive into the world of motorcycles, thanks to a collaborative effort between it and storied British motorcycle maker, Brough Superior.
Motorcycle fans will see the Aston Martin badge grace a two-wheeled contraption for the first time next month when the automaker and motorcycle maker unveil a carefully crafted bike. Aston Martin said Thursday the first motorcycle coming to life will debut at the EICMA show in Milan, Italy, on Nov. 5.
Details are, obviously, absent for now. However, the British carmaker underscored that it tapped into its decades of engineering and design expertise to help Brough Superior craft something only the two companies could create. It’s something of a passion project, too, as Aston Martin Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman and Brough Superior CEO Thierry Henriette are both motorcycle enthusiasts.
“The opportunity to collaborate with Brough Superior has given us the chance to bring our own unique views on how beauty and engineering can combine to create a highly emotive piece of vehicle design,” Reichman said of the project in a statement.
Aston Martin has continuously expanded its reach, and the upcoming motorcycle is the latest branch sprung from the British automaker. The company has plans for not one, but three mid-engine supercars in the near future, and a resurrected Lagonda brand will handle luxury electric vehicles. A DBX luxury SUV will also launch in the coming months.
We’ll see the limited-edition motorcycle in a couple of weeks and I expected it to be nothing but a grand piece of transportation.
Aston Martin and historic British motorcycle manufacturer Brough Superior will unveil a new motorcycle this November
Aston Martin has announced a new partnership with the iconic British motorcycle manufacturer Brough Superior, which will see the pair produce a limited edition two-wheeled project for this year’s EICMA Milan Motorcycle Show. The finished article will be unveiled on 5 November.
Details on the British brands’ collaborative project remain sparse but, given Brough Superior’s heritage, we expect the finished bike will be powered by a V-Twin engine. Judging by the sole teaser image released so far, it should also adopt a more contemporary design than Brough Superior’s current range of motorcycles.
Aston Martin and Brough Superior’s limited edition motorcycle will probably feature fairings for handlebars and engine, rather than the naked design employed by the latter brand’s current Pendine Sand Racer and Super Sports 100 models. The project will also mark the first time Aston Martin’s badge will appear on a motorcycle.
Aston Martin’s Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman, said: “The opportunity to collaborate with Brough Superior has given us the chance to bring our own unique views on how beauty and engineering can combine to create a highly emotive piece of vehicle design. We’re excited about the end result and can’t wait to see the reaction the motorcycle receives when it is revealed.”
Brough Superior was established in Nottingham in 1919, by George Brough. Throughout the early 20th Century, the brand produced the world’s fastest and most expensive performance motorcycles – such as the 1924 SS100, which was comfortably capable of reaching 100mph and cost the equivalent of £10,000 in today’s money.
