Home » Our Daydreaming Designer Creates The Minivan Of Motorcycles

Our Daydreaming Designer Creates The Minivan Of Motorcycles

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We try to avoid hackneyed story ideas here at the Autopian. The minivans-are-cool argument had been beaten to death, with everyone reluctantly accepting their mix of practicality and lack of sex appeal. You can look up some of these articles online and read the hundreds of comments, but the bottom line is that once kids enter the picture your priorities and lifestyle limitations in general are typically so severe that the cool level of your car is the least of your issues. Maybe the BMW X7 M Competition (or whatever it’s called) seven seater you bought is fast, but your old life is done; there’s no barhopping with toddlers in tow. Worse than that, riding off into the sunset on a motorcycle is also off of the table, or even riding much at all. I mean, they don’t make the minivan or SUV equivalent of bikes, and they never will since it would be a ridiculous vehicle. Who would even draw up such a thing?

Well, us of course. What did you expect? We have to at least try to make a bike for the whole damn family.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

In the U.S., there aren’t a lot of options if you want to carry more than two people on a motorcycle. Sidecars were a thing a century ago when a motorcycles might be the only vehicle that a family might have. Still, these were designed primarily to get from point A to point B around town; cornering at high speeds is sort of out of the question with a sidecar bolted on.

Sidecar
Bring A Trailer (bike for sale)

(Don’t bother telling me about that bonkers-ass sidecar racing; I’m already aware if its existence and this madness only proves how unsuited these things are to fast driving)

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A strange concept that appeared in 1986 was the Italdesign Machimoto. This thing was based on a concurrent VW GTI where the body was removed and replaced with two long. parallel motorcycle-like ‘saddles’ (and a sort of bench seat in back) could hold up to nine passenger. The whole concept was (I think) to create a motorcycle-like experience for multiple people. With the seating positions, low sides, and lack of weather protection, it must have sort of felt like riding a bike.

Machimoto2
Italdesign

Still, a bike is a bike and a car is a car. The Machimoto is a car that won’t lean in turns or be able to dart though narrow spaces in traffic; generally, I don’t see this thing replicating the motorbike experience. I find the same thing with three wheeled ‘trikes’ with two wheels in back, or those triple wheelers with a single wheel like a CanAm. When you get into things like a Polaris Slingshot you’re now just a three wheeled car with no roof; something where you’d probably be better off getting a used Lotus Elise. What’s worse is that none of these things carry more than two passengers at most.

Slightsot 2
Polaris, Motorado

No, to add more passengers and still be a bike it has to be longer. Some Harley dealer in Wisconsin must have seen tandem bicycles and realized that his skills with a welder would allow him to replicate something similar in the motorcycle realm, so he’s made several examples (including one that has an example of each of the HD engines over the years):

Doc
Doc’s Harley Davidson

The results are absurd, but if we could turn the Stupid Meter down from 10 to around 4.5, we might be on to something. Okay, maybe six on the Stupid Meter.

Our concept- the Honda GoldVolt XV Grand Adventurer– can carry two adults and three small kids on Honda BikeSafe child seats. With woodgrain side trim, this thing is as close to a minivan or giant SUV wagon as a motorcycle can get. Let’s take a look:

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Img20230430 22501529 2
Honda

The GoldVolt could also carry four adults (with a different rear seat cushion/base setup that easily snaps in). This crazy mega-bike would also showcase a few different, rarely or never before tried technologies.

Img20230430 22501529

First, Honda would use their latest EV capabilities with battery packs running along the bottom of the full length of the chassis for a low center of gravity. This would leave space under all of the seats for covered cargo area. Another innovation is the lack of a front fork, and idea that’s been used before on just a few bikes like the Bimota Tesi and unsuccessful 1993 Yamaha GTS. Supposedly this has the advantage of better stability under braking and theoretically more isolation for the rider, but the cost to benefit ratio never seemed worth it. The handlebars turn the wheel though a pivoting arm, which has electrical assistance so the bike in effect has power steering (there’s optional rear steering too at low speeds for tighter cornering). Both front and rear wheels are attached to swinging arms with an air spring at each end to allow for height adjustability (so it really is like an SUV bike) and to accommodate for the fact that total passenger weight can vary by hundreds of pounds.

Img20230430 22501529 4

 

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Finally, the electric motors can mount high up on the swinging arms to reduce the weight at wheel. You noticed that I said ‘motors’ as in plural, right? One big advantage of electric motors means that you can get a two wheel drive bike rather easily, or at least far more simply than systems that have been used on existing all-wheel-driven bikes like the Rokon, the Yamaha WR450F, or the Christini (all of which you can read about in more detail here from a real bike author, Mercedes Streeter). I somehow think that all wheel drive might be a great choice for this giant bike; if that rear end started to wayward I’d want to have the front wheel help to pull you out of a mess, which the traction and stability control could certainly help with as well.

I’d hate to lay this thing down or even have to hold it up at a light. I looked at a technology that’s actually been patented by Harley Davidson- the gyroscope. This spinning weight fits near the front of the bike (where the gas tank would typically be) and keeps this heavy-as-a-small-car thing stable. The bike also features ‘training wheel’ stabilizers that could pop out just before the thing came to stop and retract quickly once you start to roll again (or when it’s parked). It would even have reverse since this thing’s too big to push.

Screenshot (551)
Harley Davidson via Cycle World

At the back there’s a standard illuminated cargo trunk, but you could add saddle bags and such if desired (though the space under the seats would hopefully eliminate some of the need for that). The rear cargo trunk could come with an optional diaper changing station. Amenities would abound:

Safety
Cornering Lamps
Active LED headlamps (four of them)
Radar adaptive cruise control
Lane change detection and brake assist
ABS (twin front disc brakes) and stability control
Backup light and CHMSL

Comfort and Convenience
Keyless start and unlocking of cargo bins
Power adjustable windscreen
Buffalo leather seating surfaces
Heated seats and hand grips
Electrically sliding front seat and foot rests
Heads up projector on the windscreen
Two 12 inch monitors for the driver
Video screen for the ‘second row’ of seats
Bluetooth intercom and communication headphones
Satellite radio
Apple or Android Carplay and phone vault/charger

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Img20230502 20110732

As long as a car, likely extremely expensive, and probably wickedly fast: this thing’s a monster, y’all. Still, it would indeed be able to serve the purpose of true motorcycle riding adventure for the entire family on one machine. It occurred to me that you’d look pretty silly riding this thing alone with the rest of the behemoth empty. Then I realized how silly I look driving alone to work or the store in our 6,000 pound eight seat SUV. Just like all of our neighbors.

Hey, maybe this thing would sell.

 

topshot- Barn Finds
All illustrations by The Bishop

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Sampson Jackson
Sampson Jackson
10 months ago

Amateurs. I’ve seen a family of 4 on a 50cc scooter in Taiwan several times. It’s not uncommon to see 3. My favorite is the guys delivering LP gas cylinders on motorcycles.

Myk El
Myk El
10 months ago

There was a family that had a 5 person custom bicycle. They were on a fun ride I was on in Denver. There was another rider that took a bad turn and took them out. No injuries to speak of, but I did stop to offer help. It’s quite the machine. They might have gone for that motorcycle.

Wordguy
Wordguy
10 months ago

It’s a stretch Pacific Coast!

Paul Magno
Paul Magno
10 months ago

I wish I could buy one of these Philippine tricycles here in the US. It would be the perfect vehicle for me to drop off my kids to school and other short trips around the neighborhood.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/118501033915597147/

Collegiate Autodidact
Collegiate Autodidact
10 months ago

From 1924 to around 1939 a Czechoslovakian motorcycle manufacturer known abroad as Böhmerland and as Čechie at home made pretty astonishing motorcycles in eye-popping colors with some impressive technology such as all-welded tube-chassis, built-up leading-link front forks, and solid cast aluminum wheels as well as some primitive technology such as exposed overhead valves; they produced a number of different models including one, some 10.5 feet (3.2 meters) long, that could seat up to four people:
https://images1.bonhams.com/image?src=Images/live/2018-09/17/24800946-1-30.jpg&height=430&quality=90
And they also had some lovely sidecars:
https://silodrome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/bohmerland-motorcycles.jpg
(meaning the Langtouren model could’ve been capable of seating five people if so equipped.)

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
10 months ago

As a motorcycle, no thanks.
As an Autopian branded waterboggan?
You have yourself a customer.

Last edited 10 months ago by Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Old Busted Hotness
Old Busted Hotness
10 months ago

Bohmerland-Cechie beat you to it. In 1929 they built (and sold) 4-person motorcycles.

Dudeoutwest
Dudeoutwest
10 months ago

That red/yellow scheme they had (if memory serves) was quite fetching. I think I saw it at Art of the Motorcycle.

TexianRebel
TexianRebel
10 months ago

I didn’t even make it past reading the headline before screaming out “BRILLIANT!!” a la the old JibJab intro.

Leighzbohns
Leighzbohns
10 months ago

Just look at what xtracycle is doing with cargo longtail ebikes and there’s your answer, not this suppository shaped shame machine.

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
10 months ago

-Delete-

Last edited 10 months ago by Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
10 months ago

So I am thinking a good slogan for this would be “Id rather kill my whole family than give up riding my Harley.” I frankly don’t know why you would need space for 2 adults and 3 kids i am thinking you’d be dead before you could have a 3rd kid. Go ahead fight me on this.

Unclewolverine
Unclewolverine
10 months ago
Reply to  Mr Sarcastic

Not a bike rider I’m guessing.

Iwannadrive637
Iwannadrive637
10 months ago

Oh, look what you’ve started. Somebody is going to make fake wood grain for Gold Wings. I just smell it.

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
10 months ago

This should probably be named the Honda Angel Wing because that’s what the riders will be sporting before too long.

Last edited 10 months ago by Canopysaurus
Fix It Again Tony
Fix It Again Tony
10 months ago

Does the law limit how many people can ride on a motorcycle?

Fix It Again Tony
Fix It Again Tony
10 months ago
Reply to  The Bishop

If it is 3 wheels then it wouldn’t be much different from a sidecar. You can have 2 on the bike and 1 person in a sidecar and it wouldn’t look weird. 4 would be pushing it?

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
10 months ago

You ever see pictures of Asia? They have 5 people and a grand piano on a Vespa plus a weeks worth of groceries. They are more amazing than Circ de sole

Troggy
Troggy
10 months ago
Reply to  Mr Sarcastic

Or India, where if you see a single headlight coming at you at night, it could be a scooter, a truck with only one headlight, a truck with no headlights obscuring one headlight of the truck behind it, or two scooters transporting a wardrobe.

10001010
10001010
10 months ago

Honda could roll this out next year as the 2024 Goldwing and I wouldn’t even blink. It’s already a 2-wheeled Winnebago with reverse and an air compressor and airbags and nav screens and I think it even has an awning on one side and soft-serve ice cream on the other. Adding 2 additional seats is just the logical next step.

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
10 months ago
Reply to  10001010

I’m interested.
Chocolate or Vanilla soft serve?
These things matter.

10001010
10001010
10 months ago

Swirrrrrrrrrl

ThatGuyWithaFiero
ThatGuyWithaFiero
10 months ago

Throttle Out built a similar concept a few years ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o0C3mDtbJTk

CSRoad
CSRoad
10 months ago

As a motorcyclist I find this absolutely unappealing, but you get a star for trying this hard. (-;

Mike Harrell
Mike Harrell
10 months ago

As is so often the case, Bruce Baldwin Mohs covered this ground, on this occasion with his King O’ the Road from 1947:

https://www.hotrodhighusa.com/userfiles/image/Mohs_Scooter.jpg

Last edited 10 months ago by Mike Harrell
Mike Harrell
Mike Harrell
10 months ago
Reply to  The Bishop

It’s the same guy. The Safarikar and Ostentatienne Opera Sedan are his two flashiest creations, so they get the most attention, but he designed and constructed several other vehicles as well.

Sivad Nayrb
Sivad Nayrb
10 months ago

Bangladesh Bob says ‘ hold my बियर…’

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/305n0p/entire_indian_family_riding_a_motorcycle/

Carlos Ferreira
Carlos Ferreira
10 months ago
Reply to  The Bishop

I know that guy.

Uberscrub
Uberscrub
10 months ago
Reply to  Sivad Nayrb

I saw 3 men and a pig on a motorcycle in Bolivia. Sometimes you just gotta make it work.

TOSSABL
TOSSABL
10 months ago
Reply to  Uberscrub

I bet the pig was terrified, too.
sorry—but it had to be said

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
10 months ago
Reply to  Uberscrub

Okay maybe she wasn’t to your taste but no reason for name calling.

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
10 months ago
Reply to  Sivad Nayrb

Hold my Saki?

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