OT SO LONG AGO, GOOD

Naesthetic design used to be an advantage in motorcycle sales. Now, it’s essential; there’s hardly a flange or a bracket that isn’t exquisitely styled. The overall look of the bike is often paramount during the initial conception stage, sometimes to the detriment of other factors, and a huge amount of effort goes into the detail. Even so, either due to cost savings, production methods, or sheer incompetence, the end result is not always what it could have been. As a designer of some 32 years with the motorcycle industry, my job, in addition to creating entirely new directions, has been to improve existing models. ‘Face-lifting’ is the industry term, which mostly involves bringing older designs cosmetically up to date. But sometimes, it can also mean righting wrongs that should never have been released on an unsuspecting public in the first place.

Given the freedom to play god with other people’s designs, there are a few screaming examples of stuff that should never have gone on sale in their current state that I’ve been itching to address. So without the legal restrictions of a formal contract, the micro-management of an R&D chief, or the dangling carrot of payment somewhere down the line, here are some suggestions as to how a few current models could be improved.

First off, let’s address Royal Enfield. The Continental GT, the bike that catapulted Royal Enfield into the 1960s, has been a big success, and has helped the company’s production numbers jump 10-fold in just a few years. But while the basics are all in place, the proportions are not happy. And as someone whose job it is to spot the faults in everything (which makes me real fun to live with, ask my wife), here’s my slant on how to put it all right. Most times, we’re talking proportions rather than styling The Continental GT looks too tall for its wheelbase, but I