Motorcyclists celebrate opening of London bus lanes

There are plenty of happy campers in London now that the city's bus lanes have been opened up to motorcyclists looking to ride safely while saving a little time and using a bit less fuel. To celebrate Transport for London's recent decision, a group consisting of local Honda motorcycle dealers, members of the Motorcycle Industry Association, the Institute of Advanced Motorists, the British Motorcyle Federation and the Metropolitan Police BikeSafe squad decided to take a first commemorative ride through the city, ending at the historic Ace Café in Wembley.

Pro-motorcycling groups have created a Code of Conduct that all cyclists are urged to follow while using the bus lanes. As it is, just 5 percent of London's roads are made up of red bus lanes, but the impact on the city's traffic should be much larger. It's hoped that if things go well over the 18-month trial period that the Mayor of London has instituted, other London boroughs may make similar allowances for bikers.

KTM partners with University to design eco-friendly concepts

Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM has seemingly made a successful introduction to the four-wheeled world with its X-Bow roadster, and the company has assured us that there is more to come. While we anxiously await production electric and hybrid motorcycles along with small city cars from KTM, we can at least feast our eyes on a few eco-concept vehicles that were designed by industrial design students at FH JOANNEUM University with the assistance of KTM designers.

All of these concepts are amazing, but two of them in particular caught our eye, since they are intended to be run on electricity and they seem fairly production feasible.

• KTM sr 85 Deuce - An environmentally-friendly lightweight vehicle
• KTM 360° - A super-light, silent electric bike

Ina addition to the two electric vehicles, there is an off-road-ready four-wheeler, two water-bound machines and one that flies. See 'em all in our gallery below.

MotoCzysz working on new green motorcycle?

Michael Czysz has been working on a new American sportbike for the last few years, one that he hopes will someday compete with the best machines in the world. Oddly, despite being a huge market for motorcycles and for motorsports, America doesn't really have a competitive presence at the world's top levels of two-wheeled racing. There have been efforts in the past, but nothing sustained. MotoCzysz hopes to change all that with the radical C1 prototype, but there's still a long way to go and funding is tight.

Is there another way Czysz could attack the problem that might attract more investment? Sure, he could try and go green. In fact, the team is already working on a green motorcycle concept, though it doesn't seem to be taking center stage at this point. We're unclear as to what's powering the prototype, but Czysz says it's not electric - yet. Diesel? Could be, as Czysz mentions oil-burners by name along with direct injection. We're pretty sure all of this is in the early planning stages, but it's something we'll keep our eyes on in the future.

[Source: Superbike Planet]