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Report: motorcycle design
Motorcycle design
Ugly or beautiful?
Why do we like a motorcycle at first glance and not another one at first glance either? Not easy to answer. Good design is difficult to define and even harder to create.
Clemens Albrecht
04/12/2012
jkuenstle.de
BMW R 1200 ST.
Design accompanies us everywhere in everyday life, often without our being aware of it. The English term means “design” or “shaping”. But design is much more than that; it should stir emotions and arouse desire – two properties that are inevitably associated with the motorcycle. It is often the first sight, the must-have effect, that decides on a purchase. Nobody would buy an ugly motorcycle, no matter how good it drives.
Tastes are different, but there are models in every motorcycle category that are undoubtedly highly successful. Icons like the one created by Massimo Tamburini Ducati 916 or the MV Agusta F4 are considered beautiful by almost everyone, while a BMW R 1200 ST (right) is often classified as a visual derailment. Why is that?
Professor Lutz Fugener teaches transportation design at Pforzheim University. The motorcycle design division also falls under this generic term. Although Fugener mostly deals with automobile designs, the 46-year-old is a passionate collector of motorcycles.
When asked what constitutes good motorcycle design, Fugener explores something: “As a rule, a motorcycle always generates its aesthetics from technical parts. For us designers, this is a positive starting point, as the old sentence about form, which should follow function, is still absolutely correct. It is the designer’s task to aestheticize the technical details, to bring them into order and to supplement them with suitable cladding and functional parts. “
In the process of creating the design, inspiration is extremely important. “The first ten lines are crucial,” says Fugener. “If they are not perceived as coherent, you can forget about the design.” For a new motorcycle model, hundreds of designs are first created as “sketches” on paper and then on the computer. The designers have to work closely with the engineers, which contains potential for conflict. Not everything that the designers envision can also be technically implemented. Conversely, for the sake of technology, aesthetics must not suffer too much. However, Fugener does not see any really new concepts in motorcycle design: “Many models are becoming more and more similar, which ultimately leads to conformity,” he criticizes. “Take about four current superbikes, remove the company logo and paint them identically. You will have great difficulty distinguishing the models or even assigning them to the right brand. “
Although he can gain a lot from the retro design of a Triumph Bonneville or Kawasaki W 800, they are just old, warmed-up concepts – naturally rather uninteresting for a designer who wants to create something new. However, Fugener rates the idea of the supermoto as positive. The cross between motocross and street motorcycles has led to some original models such as the Husqvarna 900 Nuda with its angular shapes, which the design professor also praises.
How does a designer who works in industry see it? Kiska-Design is inseparable from KTM connected. Gerald Kiska has been responsible for the external appearance of the Austrian brand for 20 years, but has also designed products that have nothing to do with two-wheelers, such as skis, bottles or headphones. “It can be very helpful to think outside the box,” says Kiska with a smile. In the sleek building in Salzburg, the Upper Austrian, showered with design prizes, sits in front of a cup of coffee and shakes his head when asked what makes a beautiful design: “There is no beautiful or ugly design, only right or wrong”.
For him, motorcycle design is the three-dimensional expression of a company philosophy. “KTM builds sporty and light motorcycles, so the design must appear aggressive and light. There must be nothing superfluous, it has to be an honest construction, ”explains Kiska. Elements such as open struts in the wings should optically implement this lightweight construction. There are no useless cladding parts or covers, and there must be no fakes, such as steel frames that are trimmed to an aluminum look. “Even when stationary, a motorcycle has to express how it should be used”.
Ergonomics is extremely important to Kiska: “The motorcycle is a workplace. The easier the device is to use, the better you can concentrate on driving. This is especially true for sports motorcycles. ”Kiska has always shown courage in his designs, and success has usually proven him right. He often wanted to polarize in a targeted manner when he introduced the emphatically angular design: “You can discover style elements in the current models of the competition that we introduced years ago”.
KTM
KTM study stunt.
Today, however, Kiska is moving away from the hard lines and introducing curved elements, as his latest creation, the 690 Duke, proves. It was a difficult balancing act from the supermoto to the street machine, so it had to look different: “It is based on a show bike that we presented as a ‘stunt’ three years ago. It was very important to us how people reacted to the idea before we finally implemented it. ”In fact, the Kiska company is not only a design agency, but also a communications agency. In the run-up to the 125 Duke, extensive market research and surveys were carried out on what 16-year-olds think and like today.
Jens vom Brauck approaches the subject of design from the other side. The trained industrial mechanic takes existing models and converts them. Or at. Because afterwards they impress with minimalism. Vom Brauck never studied design, but he lives the motorcycle theme. The draftsman and tinkerer removes everything that means too much ballast for the motorcycle, but also for the eye of the beholder. With the Flat Red, the conversion of a Ducati Monster, he created an extreme bike that won the international Ducati Design Contest in 2004. It put the engine at the center and conveyed tremendous dynamism through the flat tank and the short tail. “My motorcycles should be timeless,” explains von Brauck in his small workshop in Cologne. In his opinion, there is no ideal formula for designing a motorcycle: “You have to try a lot and then critically question whether it fits the character of the motorcycle. The details have to harmonize. “
His bikes always represent a synthesis of functionality and fit, simple shapes that impress with their simplicity, in which the viewer should immediately and intuitively recognize the meaning of each component. With computers, Apple was extremely successful with it.
0815design has made new interpretations of old forms its task. Behind it are the qualified designers Georg -Godde and Holger Maninger from Gelsenkirchen. You’ve designed concept cars for automakers, but your particular love is the motorcycle. Your design called SCOOTR is intended to show how minimalist, but at the same time innovative, a two-wheeler can be.
Georg Godde provides an astonishing answer as to why a motorcycle is perceived as beautiful: “A two-dimensional view from the side is enough. If the proportions are not right there, you can forget about the motorcycle. ”He draws a comparison to humans:“ If a face is symmetrical and the eyes, cheeks, nose, mouth and chin have certain proportions and distances, the brain automatically recognizes it as classified as attractive. It is similar with motorcycles: If the front or rear is too long or too bulky or the middle is too voluminous when viewed from the side, it appears disharmonious to the observer ”- the reason why many would reject the different sized headlights of various BMW models , called “Karl-Dall-Blick” by nasty tongues. Godde uses a Yamaha to show how the proportions can still be set incorrectly. The bestseller XT 600 Tenere from the 1980s still appears to be timelessly attractive, while the modern interpretation of the XT 660 Tenere looks more like composed of a Playmobil kit, so it doesn’t help that it is absolutely functional.
The designers will have to look further for the perfect formula for beautiful motorcycles. But all the experts agreed on one thing: the driver should be the focus when designing the model.
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