Visual Gratification - CONFEDERATE C3 X132 Hellcat

The Confederate C3 X132 Hellcat Dynamicist Edition

This third generation of our staple, the Hellcat, represents
an exponential confluence of learning that spans over twenty years of time. The idea of designing and creating a fiercely American machine that proves the utter effectiveness and absolute sufficiency of the inclusionary American cultural way is actualized.
There will only be one introductory offering of history's most unique, iconic and well-made American machine - a machine that we are certain will go down in the annals of history as one of the greatest street motorcycles of all time.
It would be our highest honor to hand craft your bespoke C3 X132 Hellcat.
He who hesitates is lost.

FYI, 23 of the only 150 to be produced arealready booked

- To reserve your Hellcat, choose an available serial number and add click "Add to shopping bag".
- Bikes will be built in sequential order.
- Your 5% prepayment of $2,250.00 USD will reserve your C3 X132 Hellcat.
- You will receive an automated email confirming your reservation within 24 hours.
- Within five business days, one of our salespeople will follow up with you to discuss all options available to you (color, wheelbase, etc.) as well as the estimated delivery date for your Hellcat.
For any questions, please call 877.324.9888 or email sales@confederate.com

For more info, contact these websites, CONFEDERATE & WORK & CYCLE

Close Look - CONFEDERATE P120 Black Flag Video

A close look at the $72,000+ Confederate P120 Black Flag. A decent review done by LA Times. I would suggest you to watch it in full screen. The resolution is quite good.

Visual Gratification - The CONFEDERATE P120 Black Flag

The pictures are courtesy CONFEDERATE which came specially to Confederate Email subscribers.

In The News - Ninja400 in Canada, Ducati cruiser spied and others

Kawasaki Ninja 650R too big? Ninja 250R too small? Then the 2011 Kawasaki Ninja 400R should be juuussst right. Mechanically identical to the 650R with the exception of a smaller 399cc engine, the second littlest Ninja brings a useful price and performance drop which combines with the slick styling and reasonably high mechanical spec to create exactly the sort of appealing, unintimidating, affordable, broadly capable bike. The Ninja 400R was released in Canada where it's priced at $7,499 (CAD). Looking at the numbers, it's the torque to weight ratio that most separates the 400 and Kawasaki Ninja 250R, the larger bike will be less work to ride and less high-strung as a result. It also comes with a higher level of mechanical specification, namely two petal front brake discs, nicer suspension and a GP-style underslung exhaust. Visit the official Canadian Kawasaki Ninja 400 website.
Source: HELL FOR LEATHER

For those that think the standard P120 FIGHTER isn't quite macho enough, American motorcycle manufacturer Confederate has just released an all-black version of the muscle-bound 160bhp brute. Dubbed the 'Black Flag, Confederate's stealth-like machine is mechanically identical to the standard P120, using the same 160bhp engine and aircraft-grade aluminum monocoque backbone chassis.Other top-notch stuff includes carbon ceramic brakes, carbon wheels, fully adjustable suspension and a hand-built close-ratio five-speed gearbox. View the limited edition P120 Fighter in the Confederate website
Source: VISOR DOWN

News of the Vyper first emerged a year ago, with a clay styling model appearing in MCN. That model appeared to adopt styling cues straight from the Monster. Recently, a radical new Ducati has been spotted prowling the streets of Italy, complete with dual-stacked exhaust and super-fat rear tyre. Complete with trellis frame, chunky single-sided swingarm and upside down forks, the covert machine is decked out in Ducati's not-so-covert tiger-stripe 'undercover' paint scheme. Could this be Ducati's much-rumoured big bore cruiser, or possibly a Desmosedici-engined Monster? It's a pity the driver didn't have the nouse to get alongside for a better look.
Source: MOTO BLOG

THIS DUCATI Hypermono concept has been produced by Italian design house, Sak Art in the hope that it will gain popularity and Ducati will seriously consider a modern day Supermono.Inspired by the road-legal Supermono Strada by Alistair Wager and the original Supermono designed by Pierre Terblanche in 1993. This modern concept is based around the original Supermono engine with a desmodromic four-valve cylinder head with a 549cc capacity pushing out 80bhp in a 130kg package. Essentially the Hypermono is based on the chassis of a Monster. Sak Art say their mission: 'is to create a harsh, challenging, stimulating bike designed to give the rider the nearest thing possible to a genuine motorcycle racer.'Sak have created the Hypermono concept with five different paint-schemes.

Source: VISOR DOWN

Strange name, but this is the 165bhp Brutale Cannonball, from Italian motorcycle manufacturer MV Agusta. The naked 1098cc, which is being touted by MV as 'exclusively for racing', produces 20bhp more wallop than the standard Brutale 1090RR, thanks to various engine mods (new ECU, cylinder heads, hotter cams) as well as the nifty handmade titanium exhaust. No word on price but expect the new naked to cost a healthy dose more than the standard £13,950 Brutale 1090RR.
More horses, and of course less weight with components specifically designed for this bike to create the kit Cannonball: magazine unit, as tested, valves, cams and exhaust, now completely titanium with low output. Dynamically can not only increase the already high sporting abilities of the model, note that the engine is derived from the sporty F4. The goal was t have a supernaked sport bike. Attention to detail is remarkable and the bike has a very high quality finish.
Source: MOTO BLOG

In The News - Hellcat CX3, now more lighter & more power

I recently saw CONFEDERATE has given a new look to their website which meant there must be something new. Well this is it. CONFEDERATE has further improvized on their awesome Hellcat engine. This is the new C3 X132 Hellcat or simply CX3. The main page reads,

"Introducing the C3 X132 Hellcat: America’s New Heirloom Motorcycle Architecture
When we accepted the challenge of re-designing and re-engineering, from a clean sheet of paper, our core Confederate architecture, we mandated that the result be: honest, standardized, utilitarian, overbuilt, simple, pure, strong, tough, powerful, elegant, timeless, and permanent. Each of these core architectural benchmarks has been dutifully achieved, without compromise. There has never been an American motorcycle foundation so true to concept. CX3 is the core of the most important motorcycle launch in our 20 year history."

Reading on futher,

C3 Hellcat: Target market and Production Schedule
The C3 X132 Hellcat will be the lightest, fastest, toughest, smoothest, most beautiful
Hellcat, ever. Further, it will be priced within reach of the top 10% of Harley Davidson buyers. We are targeting the American motoring purist and aficionado. First deliveries begin October 31, 2010, Halloween night, from our new facilities in the art district at 733 St. Joseph Street. This event will mark our first annual Halloween party as we celebrate production of the World’s finest road bike, and simultaneously, with humble gratitude, our return home, to our beloved New Orleans.
Press Downloads
The following are hi-resolution CAD image captures of the C3 X132 architecture. Click this link to download the images in a self contained zip file. Pleae contact Amy Calvert with any further press needs or questions.

What we know about the Hellcat specifications or rather about its engine is that this is one beautifully crafted unit which houses a V-Twin 4 stroke engine displacing 2146 cc (Bore & Stroke 4.4 x 4.4 inches) with a huge power output of 137 hp extendable upto 150 hp and more and an equally humongous 197 Nm of torque accelerated through a 5 speed gearbox to a top speed of minimum 135 mph and much more according to buyer's tweaking specifications. The engine is entirely machined from aircraft grade billet aluminum. with ultra high compression, ported and polished head design with special application camshift grind. Now if someone were to improvize on that, meaning adding more power while substracting its weight, this would be one hell of a mean machine. Lightest, fastest, smoothest Hellcat. Hmmm... no doubt. Most Beautiful Hellcat? and that too "ever"! Now, this I gotta see as it is diffcult to understand how can you make this bike look even more beautiful? And it says that the price will be probably a lit bit more than the HD Ultraglide flagship models which means it will be just touching the 30,000 USD mark. The original Hellcat was also similarly priced. So this year Halloween is going to be extra special for the road bike lovers. And since we still have half a year to go, maybe we need to start saving.

For the less informed, New Orleans was the original place of Confederate motorcycles. It was very badly affected by Hurricane Katharine in 2005 and now it seems Chris has built his factory back as they will be shifting to Orleans.

Find out more about the CX3 here. Photos and news source - Confederate

CONFEDERATE Wraith... The Myth

In the mid 30s, you are supposed to get rid of infatuations. I think I have but it is really difficult for me to distinguish between infatuation and obsession. I really don’t know if I am infatuated or obsessed with this bike WRAITH or brand CONFEDERATE ( I guess it has to be the bike) but somehow this brand has 3 products on their line since it’s inception and the blog features around a dozen of posts on the brand and half of them on the Wraith. And all this while I have less than 300 posts. So probably it is a mixture of infatuation and obsession. Infatuation because like a teenager being infatuated my models in magazines, whenever I see it, my heart skips a beat. And obsession because somehow we relate obsession to things we cannot have, at least material things and since one cannot have it, one becomes obsessed. The Wraith is one such bike which I will probably never own, after all when you have a 100 odd bikes and Hollywood biggies and Sportsperson are in queue your chances of owning it are at best like finding peace in the Middle East and that too if you have the dough. So whenever I see a post on the Wraith anywhere I download the images and make a post of it. This time it is getting little difficult to write anything new, after all there has ready has been multiple posts on it glorifying its looks and performance, let us take a different approach to appreciate this beauty.
New Orleans will probably never be Milwaukee and that is probably the way it should stay. The Wraith will never make it to every street and corner around your neighbourhood and so it will always be exclusive and elusive. Umm… the bike comes onlyin the matt black colour so in case even if you have seen two of them, you won’t know. It is one of those good thing – bad thing types.

The Wraith is more than a custom bike. This is a hand built bike alright. This is a limited edition bike. Less than 200 people from the 8 billion population of god’s green earth will get to lay his/ her hands on it. So what’s the big deal, you ask. Custom Bikes are just one piece item, there is no other. Right, but we don’t even know how many custom built bikes are there in this world, do we? Hey man, there is a rider with a custom built motorcycle and there goes another. On the Wraith, it is like… OMG! It IS a Wraith! You are getting the difference right? How often do you see a Ducati 1098R or a MV F4CC? Rare, very rare. BUT you see lookalikes of these which are original factory built bikes. These limited edition Ducs and MVs are limited editions of existing models. For the Wraith, this is it! No lookalikes, nothing, no R and no CC versions, just Wraith. It is that exclusive.
Okay, so what is the importance of having a $60,000 bike on road when the world is going through recession and even if there is no recession, why invest in a bike that will give a performance like any of the superbikes? Recession, Superbikes, Performance, Invest… all these are words from different perspectives, words from a businessman, words from a sportbike enthusiast and others, these are all people’s perspective. The Wraith is not here to create a perspective, neither is it here to start any debate. The Wraith is like a myth, it is just there, there is nothing about justification or logic to it. It is beyond all that. It is not even a take-it-or-leave-it thing because most of us cannot even take it even if we have the moolah. No not because you are behind Tom Cruise in the queue, but because if we take it, we have to ride it everyday, look at it everyday, wash it every day because it has that infective character. Anyone who buys it just can’t think of keeping it in the showroom, it has the come-get-some appeal and in abundance so even if you are a millionaire and get buy a couple of these, the first question the Wraith will ask you if you have the time.

So the Wraith is a roadster, right? I don’t know, it does look like one but when you sit on it, you usually have your arms stretched out although the feet is not completely forward, but yes, the sitting posture somehow is similar to a cruiser. But for its performance figures, one has to be pardoned if the person mistakes it for a street fighter after having a look at its technical specification. So what is the Wraith? In every industry, there are entities which cut across different genres. In motorcycling too, you have bikes which are a mixture of genres like city and sports or tourer and enduro. The Wraith doesn’t try to cut any genre or lay between two genres. Why? Because it has his own genre and it stands alone.
So can we now sum up what Chris try to tell us by the Confederate motto: "The art of rebellion"? I think I am slowly getting it. The designs from Confederate are surely something which we couldn’t have imagined had these bikes not existed. Only when you see it, do you believe that there can be such a bike. But the why-did-no-one-try-it-before thoughts never come to mind because it simply doesn’t. It is difficult to conjure such an image in your mind, even after you see it, close your eyes and think where are the foot pegs or how is the handlebar attached to the frame? You cannot get it right. Why? Because you get mesmerized by the total product, the bike in totality is something to behold. And this is art. And since it doesn’t play with any given bike design perspective, it is an Art of Rebellion. Well, that is what I think, now you guys can sure make up your own story and we get back to a coffee table to start a discussion on the Wraith. Till then, let us just enjoy looking at the 21st century marvel.
Take a look at the Wraith official link and for all the Confederate posts in this blog, click here.