The Bike With The Upside Down Engine Ready For Production

In the world of motorcycles, there are a few (many) widely accepted and rarely challenged conventions. For instance, a motorcycle has two wheels (obviously), with an engine mounted at the center of its frame with a gas tank positioned on top, power is sent from the engine to the back wheel via a drive member (chain, belt or other), etc. As soon as you break one of these “rules”, all eyes are on you, so you better make it count. Nembo challenged one of the motorcycle standards when it introduced the 32: a prototype featuring an upside down engine. They’re now done with the testing—the company says it's ready to go into production.

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The Nembo 32 isn’t a new idea—the bike has in fact been around for a number of years, debuting the bike in 2013. It has since been put through its paces, going through numerous rounds of testing on the track. Its most striking feature is its inverted engine, with the head-down cylinders and the crankshaft up top. This quirky layout was apparently designed to concentrate the mass of the bike within a very tight area, the team judging that a low center of gravity wasn’t necessary: the mass only needs to be condensed into the smallest space possible.

The engine, a massive 1995cc, 3-cylinder mill, is rated at 200 horsepower and 158 lb-ft of torque for a dry weight of 352 lb. Above the inverted engine, a familiar café racer silhouette with a slightly elongated swingarm.

Now confident in its product, Nembo is ready to hit production—it’s only missing one thing. Yep, money. In order to get that taken care of, the company has turned to crowdfunding via Indiegogo. The pledges vary between $20 in exchange of a thank you note from the founder (in case that’s all you’ve ever dreamed of) and $36,000 for the chance to get the “unique chassis #32”. It’s unclear whether the $36,000 also goes towards the reservation of your own Nembo 32—all the campaign says is that this pledge will grant you the unique perk of having access to the #32 chassis. You might want to clear that out before you throw your money at them.

Pricing is expected to hover around $68,000 (€59,000)—it all depends on how much money the campaign receives. The more pledges they get, the lower the price will be. Deliveries are expected to happen in December 2020. I think. Again, that’s also unclear.

Source: Nembo Motociclette, Motociclismo, New Atlas