The Italians are describing this Nembo 32 modern café racer as a complete novelty in the world of motorcycling.
Presented a few months ago, the Nembo motorcycle has undergone its latest evolution and is now track testing on the Franciacorta track in Italy.
Why is the Nembo so special? Because it mounts an upside-down three-cylinder engine.
Apart from its mechanical innovation, the Nembo 32 is in the style of a café racer, although we will have to get used to its awkward looks.
The creation comes from Italian inventor Daniele “Titus” Sabatini, but we’re not quite sure of the benefits of fitting an upside-down engine (apart from the fact that Titus has proved you can – more on this later).
Despite what might sound like a complicated mechanical operation, the Nembo is actually quite simple both in its looks and in the rest of its components.
So far, weight is said to be about 150 kg, and the 1814cc, three-cylinder motor can do 170 hp.
The first production version is expected to take that engine capacity up to 1925cc, so we should have quite a fast machine on our hands.
The Nembo 32 is a kind of muscle bike about large bore riding fun, rather than the fiddly mechanics and electronics of racing bikes.
Its creator, Titus, expects to produce a limited, strictly to order, run, and we’ll be interested to see what the final Nembo production version looks like.