Welcome to Friday Fudge. If it’s weird, funny, or strange motorcycle news, or it just plain won’t fit anywhere else on the site – you’ll find it here.
I wanna ride my bicycle
A man from Guelph (sounds like the start to a limerick) is facing charges after his homemade motorcycle landed him in hot water.
According to police, this guy was out for a ride on one of those homemade motorcycle kits – you know, the kind where you strap a motor to a bicycle and go for a cruise. Sounds like fun, but not if you accidentally run a stop sign and get hit by a car, which is what happened to this individual.
Police officers attending the scene were less than impressed with the fellow’s DIY engineering and less than sympathetic about his plight. Saying the bike failed to meet safety standards, officials slapped him with a load of fines. Good thing he didn’t buy a real motorcycle – now, with all the money he saved, he can afford to pay off Johnny Law.
Source: CBC
Gooning up
Remember The Goon? His previous exploits in Friday Fudge showed him replacing his powerband with the “aftermarket purple ones.” He’s an Ontario off-road legend. Here he is again, now wearing a bit more gear, the big sissy.
A faster Vee-Dub
Volkswagen does make some fast cars, but they’re best-known for vehicles like the diesel-powered Golf or Beetle – slow, economical, unexciting grocery-getters.
So the question is – how do you change that image? With the Volkswagen XL Sport concept car, the designers took out the XL1 turbodiesel hybrid that allegedly gets 271 mpg and dropped in the motor from a Ducati Panigale. That’s right – they went from super-frugal to superbike.
Of course, that motor puts out 197 horsepower, which isn’t a lot for a car, although the XL Sport’s low weight and high aerodynamic efficiency makes it much more exciting. It now hits 0-100 kph in 5.7 seconds, instead of 5.7 minutes (maybe a bit of a stretch, but the diesel wouldn’t be that peppy), and has a top speed around 270 kph. Not bad!
Will they ever actually build this car? Hard to say – they only plan on building 250 of the hybrid version, and you probably couldn’t afford one anyway. And if you could, wouldn’t you rather just have the Panigale? Maybe this could be your winter ride, though, if you’re a true Ducatista …
