Organized by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc.(JAMA), the 2009 Tokyo Motor show opens its doors to the public on Friday, October 23rd. There's going to be plenty to see there but perhaps most interesting will be the motorcycles of course!

BMW has a new concept vehicle dubbed "SIMPLE" that combines some of the attributes of a motorcycle with some of the creature comforts of a car. Yet it is incredibly fuel efficient and judging from the video seems like it would be a lot of fun too.

There's no chance this vehicle will make it to production any time soon but it's an interesting concept nevertheless.

SIMPLE – light in weight, low on energy

Simple combines features and advantages from both automobiles and motorcycles. The concept owes its passenger cell to the car, providing protection from wind and weather as well as shielding the driver from exterior noise and offering occupants a high degree of safety in the event of an accident. The motorcycle inspired the slim design of the Simple (at just 110 centimetres wide) and its configuration for two people sitting one behind the other. Plus it boasts the dynamic driving style typical of a two-wheeler, allowing you to lean right into corners as desired. The designation “simple” is an acronym of the project name “A sustainable and innovative mobility product for low energy consumption”.

The BMW designers initially planned a small vehicle with low weight and minimal aerodynamic drag properties. Following a concept phase of several months, the pooled requirements and ideas gave rise in 2005 to a vehicle based on tilting technology. In contrast to other vehicle concepts in which only the passenger cell tilts during cornering, here all the driver has to do is determine a change in direction for the appropriate tilt to follow automatically. The stand-out feature of the Simple concept is that it activates the hydraulics only in exceptional situations, for example if the vehicle threatens to become unstable during extremely slow driving, when righting the vehicle during standstill or in extreme situations such as drifting. Otherwise, Simple rides like a motorcycle and, beyond natural gravity and gyroscopic forces, requires no energy whatsoever to lean into a corner. The passenger also benefits from this tilting technology as he feels no transverse forces and, particularly during rapid changes of direction, need not compensate for any lateral movements.

All that is needed to power this lightweight vehicle with a kerb weight of approx. 450 kg is a 36 kW combustion engine. Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h is estimated at under ten seconds and the vehicle has an excellent drag coefficient of 0.18. Using the electric motor and the combustion engine, the Simple would need just 6 kWh (equivalent to 0.7 litres of petrol) or two litres over 100 km.

Aprilia's Mana X was unveiled a little while back at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, Italy. The photo's that came out of the show didn't really do it justice though and Aprilia have finally released some new photo's with a higher level of detail that help you see all the interesting elements of the bike.

The Mana X is Aprilia's take on a stylish, fun, urban bike. It's based on the Mana 850 and seems to use most of the 850's frame, engine, and the CVT transmission. It adds some flat track-inspired styling which is so "Harley XR-1200" right now.

The styling is bold and sits much lower than the standard Mana. The seat is extended and covers most of the airbox (the fuel is under the seat), it gets large 17" wheels fitted with dirt-style tires and heat wrapped exhaust. The projector style headlights are reminiscent of high end camera lenses.

Don't look for gear and brake levers down at the footpegs either; you won't find them there. The Mana X uses a CVT transmission and so the shifting is performed automatically via buttons mounted on the handlebars. So, the rear brake to be moved up to the left handlebar position. This should appeal to riders transitioning from scooters to motorcycle.

Sales have been reportedly slow for the Mana 850 and Aprilia could be looking to breath new life into interest for the Mana engine and CVT technology. This is a concept bike but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to move it into production. Some changes would obviously have to be made, such as extending the seat and rear fender.

First up - this is a concept vehicle so the likelihood of it coming to Canada in the near future is very, very small. But, this concept is so interesting and a sign of where some alternative transportation is heading we just had to tell you about it.

Those who recall the BMW C1; a scooter with a roll cage and seat belts that didn't require it's occupants to wear a helmet. Well cross that (with an extra margin of cool), with a three wheeled scooter, with a hybrid and you might have something resembling the Peugeot HYmotion 3.

Just unveiled at the 2008 Paris Motor Show the HYmotion3 is really something! It's a two seater scooter with two wheels up front and a glass bubble roof. It's powered by a 3Kw electric motor located in each of the two front wheels with a 125cc gasoline engine in the rear (yes - it's a three wheel drive!).

The HYmotion3 has the option of being ridden in an electric-only mode, a gasoline engine only mode, or hybrid three-wheel-drive mode. It is able to hit 100km/h from a standstill in 11.2 seconds, with a maximum speed of 110km/h.

The engine itself isn't used to power the batteries; regenerative braking does that. It can run in electric mode only at low speeds and the electric motors themselves are in the front wheels.

The in-wheel electric motors are capable of producing 4bhp, and they power the front wheels independently of each other and the gasoline engine. The ride-by-wire system keeps everything in sync.

While the Peugeot MP3 has two front wheels in a similar manner, they aren't powered, still they reduce the possibility of front-end washout drastically improve braking distances. However the powered front wheels of the HYmotion3 increase performance, allowing more power to be delivered to the road earlier in corners through all three wheels being driven at the same time.

The primary source of "go" is the supercharged four stroke 125cc engine that produces 20 bhp. Combine that with the electric motors and you have performance that's on par with 400cc scooters.

The engine will stop/start that turns itself off when you're stationary (like the Toyota Prius car) and fires up instantly when it's time to get moving. All this technology produces a scooter that is capable of delivering 118 mpg while carrying two people with far more weather protection and stability than any other 2 wheel scooter on the market right now.

Peugeot is one of "the" largest scooter makers in the world so if anybody would produce this thing it's likely to be Peugeot. They sell the majority of their machines in the European where there is a high demand for large, practical scooters. So in that market, a vehicle like this makes a lot of sense.

Maybe the BMW was just a little ahead of it's time with the C1.