Australian Motorcycle News — January 30, 2018

THE FUTURE
WHILE CONFEDERATES
all featured muscular
engines as loud in action
as they looked at rest, the
debut model Curtiss – the
Hercules, scheduled to be
unveiled in May – will waft
along in silence.
It’ll be powered by
two electric motors
from California’s Zero
Motorcycles, linked in a
patented modular system
to deliver massive torque
and vivid acceleration.
Curtiss will focus on a
range of electric-powered
two-wheelers which
Chambers (pictured) says
will “fi t every pocketbook.”
This should mean a
sub-US$30K sticker price,
which contrasts with
Confederate’s status as the
mucho expensivo boutique
brand of motorcycles for
America’s rich and famous.
Hollywood A-listers Tom
Cruise, Brad Pitt and
Nicholas Cage, rockers
Bruce Springsteen and
Steven Tyler, and country
music star Tim McGraw, are
all on Confederate’s list of
high-profi le owners, often
with more than one sitting
in their garages.

THE PAST
TERMINATING THE
Confederate name
comes amid American
re-evaluation of anything
linked to the Civil War
Confederacy, though
Chambers had already
planned to ditch the name.
“We’d come to recognise
that the Confederate brand
was no longer viable
in the current political
atmosphere,” he said.
“And because of it we’ve
surely missed out on retail
and publicity opportunities.
So it’s time to retire it – while
striking out in a completely
new direction. The era of the
great American muscle bike
is coming to an end, and we
need to move with that.”

riding the switchback, swoopy country roads

in the Alabama hills in something approaching

anger on a bike that, like the Fighter I tested a

couple of years ago, is improbably good-handling

by cruiser standards, and positively urges you to

ride it hard. I’m so easily led...

Straddling the Bomber you realise it has a subtly

different stance to the Fighter, with a slightly

lower riding position and your feet are marginally

further forward, quite close to where the crank is.

The Bomber’s stance is completely different

and much more rational, with a f lat handlebar

dictating you lean forward slightly, with your feet

easily finding the still relatively rearset rests. It’s a

comfortable stance aided by the plushly-padded

736mm high seat, well-nigh ideal by sportcruiser

standards. It’s about as close to a classic Bobber-

style motorcycle as a Confederate could ever get.

Because the whole bike is essentially no

wider than the rear tyre, it feels agile – with the

reduced gyro effect of the BST carbon front wheel

and downsized quartet – yes, four – Beringer

brakes helping speed up the steering, the f lat

’bar needs little more than a light tug to make

it switch direction easily. Its steering is light, if

lazily so, thanks to the 1588mm wheelbase and

conservative steering geometry, with a 27.5-degree

rake to the machine-hewn girder fork, and 106mm

of trail. Even though you can’t grip the spine frame

between your knees, you feel at one with a bike

which steers and handles very capably.

It felt super-stable when braking dow nhill into a

bend, as the girder-style fork of the type favoured

by John Britten, here machined from solid

This is mechanical eye-candy

which functions better than

you might expect

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42 amcn.com.au