HUGE trade deal set to drop bike prices!

Designs show weird front-end is on the way, but which motorcycle will we see it on in the near-ish future? And why?

The cost of motorcycles sold in Europe could fall by as much as 8%. An historic trade agreement between the European Union and Japan has blown away price-hiking tariffs on 99% of Japanese goods – including motorcycles and motorcycle parts.

Okay, hands up people – we’ve got no idea what this patent design filed by the Japanese company is for – but it’s weird and has had us scratching out heads for a couple of hours now, so we figured we’d leave it to you to tell us.

These patents have just appeared from Kawasaki showing a very odd looking, hub-steering front end with detailed images of the bike’s front wheel and how it works.

There are only two things we can be sure of (largely because it’s mentioned in the patent itself ) and they are that this design is going on to a motorcycle at some point and that it’s currently not like anything we’ve seen that’s heading for a production motorcycle from Kawasaki so far. Except, that is, for the Concept J bike which was shown five years ago.

Okay, so these patents are a long (production-based) way away from the funky, impossible loveliness of the Concept J bike, but if you look at the side-on design of the front of the bike and view it as looking at the inside of the right front wheel (as if the left hand front wheel and unit had been removed altogether) then there’s a similarity here. Kind of.