If Bentley was a bike brand, this would be their Continental GT

Frenchman Thomas Angebault, an automotive designer by profession, has imagined how an electric bike from Bentley from the future could look like. EVW connected with Angebault to learn about the inspiration of the bike and here are the excerpts:

Inspiration for this motorcycle and the different design signatures captured with the motorcycle:

This came as a challenge on Instagram and it was about designing a motorcycle of a brand who don’t make motorcycles. I really love Bentleys and there’s this car, Bentley Blower from 1925, a very old Bentley and a long car. My inspiration comes from this big car to build a motorcycle around it. I want to keep the big front grille from the original Bentley and also the two round headlamps. I started with these features, then I did the arches and designed the side view in 2D. I played with the lines and until I found the right proportion and went directly to 3D. As I said, this is just a concept and there is no technical feature behind the creation.

I started this project almost six months ago with a lot of different designs and different profiles. I started with the posture of the bike with a more cruiser style and finally finished the bike that can be roadster and a cruiser bike.

Thoughts behind the hubless front wheel:

The hubless front wheel comes from the desire to build something we don’t see a lot. Wheels are really a custom feature and there’s no easy way to build it; it’s a challenge. Bentley is a luxury brand, so why not have technical featuring in the bike and the hubless is one of them. It’s luxury and why can’t we do more? That’s why I designed this hubless front wheel. Also, I want to have something empty in front of the bike; the front wheel can be detached from the bike.

What does the number 8 connote?

Often we see number 8 on the Bentleys and sometimes it is the number 9. From my inspiration car, the Bentley Blower, there is often a number 8.

On the quilted seat and signature green colour:

It is inspiration from Bentley because it’s really a part of heritage of Bentley to have this quilting on the seats, sometimes on the doors or the dashboard. The British Green is also an aspect of Bentley that I have applied on the electric motorcycle. I tried other colours but I finally chose this one for display on Instagram. I already have the yellow that we have seen on the Mulliner Bacalar and also some Burgundy because that’s often the colour for Bentley and also Dark Blue.

Is the front suspension a functional element or just a visual trick?

I take inspiration for the suspension from a custom bike. I didn’t study the suspension but it could work!

Status of Bentley electric vehicles

Bentley has introduced hybrid technology but it could take until mid-decade to see a pure electric vehicle from the Crewe-based Volkswagen Group brand. Bentley is unlikely to take the path of repurposing an existing vehicle to achieve its EV ambition and would use one of Volkswagen’s electric vehicle platforms to reach there.