Hot on the heels of Future Shock, here’s another bike straight out of the future. Yesterdays future. I saw a pic of this bike somewhere recently, and it reminded me of the classic 70’s Bond Bug I posted about on my original CrocodileJock blog way back. I vaguely remember it, probably from Tomorrow’s World, or the original Top Gear with William Woollard.

Anyway, my usual cursory ‘research’ has revealed it was a British bike,  designed and built in 1975 by Malcolm Newell and Ken Leaman. Although it had much to commend it, particularly the build quality, it also had its problems. Its long wheelbase led to it having an enormous turning circle, and the fact that your feet were up on running boards, made stopping a problem, apparently. Although it’s never really been a problem with scooters…

It was a project that never really lived up to it’s early promise, and only 22 Quasars were built. But it was a bold, innovative and interesting idea, and one that, in more recent years, has reappeared in more successful (but, in my opinion, far duller) models such as the BMW C1. 

More info here and here, and that’s where I nicked the pictures from too.