Art In the Machine
ART IN THE MACHINE
WHERE DO YOU GO TO find truly unique ideas in motorcycle styling? If Aprilia’s refreshing Shiver and 6.5 are any indication, you turn to the industrial design firms charged with making appliances such as personal computers and electric toothbrushes look attractive.
The latest graduate of this school of thought is the Machineart MK9. Created by Machineart Product Design (66 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030; 201/714-9846), the MK9 exists as testimony to company principal Andrew Serbinski’s vision of what he calls a “Gentleman’s Express” motorcycle.
Serbinski owns two streetbikes-a BMW R90S and a Ducati 900SS-and laments the lack of similarly appealing mounts coming out of Japan. (Honda’s VFR750, he says, comes closest.) He confesses to being dissatisfied with the design of the Big Four’s offerings (“Enough of lumpiness, awkward proportions and camouflage graphics!”) while simultaneously respecting their advanced engineering.
His solution was to redesign an existing motorcycle, in this case, a 1995 Kawasaki GPzl 100.
“Kawasaki makes some real hotrods, but doesn’t seem to emphasize that visually,” he says.
Serbinski set that right. Starting with a simple shape“a rising arc, like a spray of water thrown back by a spinning front wheel”-the MK9 was designed to be as thrilling to look at as it is to ride. The shapely orange bodywork is complemented by stainless-steel mesh cowl liners and a wraparound cordura-nylon seat that is color-matched to the sand-blasted, then clearcoated, engine cases. The stainless-steel exhaust system with its oddly bent, oval-section muffler was also made inhouse. Serbinski is especially proud of the fairing: Besides looking great, each of the three molded plastic pieces is secured with just four bolts.
What’s next? As far as the MK9 is concerned, Serbinski has no plans to put it into production; it was simply intended to show what his company could do with a motorcycle. This does not mean, however, that we won’t see more Machineart designs in the future. Serbinski thinks a streetfighter kit for Honda’s popular CBR600 might sell well, and is currently trying out his ideas on a Yamaha FZR400. One element he’d like to incorporate in this project is bodywork that wouldn’t be damaged in a tipover-or, more accurately, that wouldn’t look bad if it was. He cites the oddly shaped, panel-beaten aluminum fuel tanks of 1950s roadracers as a style that wouldn’t look any worse for wear.
Whatever the outcome, it’s sure to be innovative. And, most assuredly, stylish.
Brian Catterson
