Back in 1986, a time when motorcycle design was
still evolving at a rapid pace, Germany’s Motorrad magazine ran a design
competition, the challenge being to create a ‘safer and more beautiful’ bike.
Enter one Hartmut Esslinger, an industrial designer who had done some
significant work for Apple in the early-1980s. It was, in fact, Esslinger who
created the ‘snow white’ design language that was applied to Apple products in
the 1980s and an evolution of which is still being used by the Cupertino-based
company today. Before working on the Apple IIc and Macintosh computers,
Esslinger had also created some fancy TV sets and music systems for German
company, Wega, which was later acquired by Sony. Later, Esslinger also designed
the 1970s Sony Trinitron range of TVs and other audio/video products from the
Japanese giant, and also worked for French fashion house, Louis Vuitton.
Frog FZ Model
So, who’d be a better man to create a cutting-edge
motorcycle design than someone who had already established his credentials with
brands like Apple, Sony and Louis Vuitton. When Esslinger decided to participate
in Motorrad magazine’s competition, Yamaha USA decided to collaborate with him
and together, they created a 1:2.5 scale model made of foam which was featured
on the cover of Motorrad magazine. Happy with the design study, Yamaha also
supplied Esslinger with an FZ750, which was then modified into the machine that
the German designer had envisioned. The bike was christened Frog 750.
‘In addition to creating a futuristic design language, we also integrated into
the design, findings of a motorcycle safety-related study done by the Bochum
University in Germany, which influenced the Frog 750’s bodywork and the shape of
its fuel tank. This was also done to increase the bike’s visibility from the
sides, as a major cause of accidents in the US is a car cutting into a bike’s
way from the side,’ says Esslinger on his blog. ‘We also provided double
headlights, by now an industry standard. And we designed lightweight carbonfibre
wheels in order to reduce unsprung weight, which was quite a challenging
proposal back then,’ he adds.
Esslinger’s prototype bike was sent to Yamaha
headquarters in Hammamatsu, Japan, where they liked the bike but decided they
didn’t want to put it into production. Given the Frog 750’s unconventional
styling and given the fact that the FZ750 was already fairly successful as it
was, Yamaha probably did not have enough reason to take a risk with something
like the bike that Esslinger had designed.
The Frog 750’s story might have ended there had it
not been for another Japanese company – Honda – taking things up from where
Yamaha left off. Honda liked the Yamaha FZ750-based Frog 750’s design so much,
they went on to incorporate styling cues and design elements from Esslinger’s
bike into their own new sportsbikes, the CBR600F Hurricane and CBR1000F
Hurricane, both of which were launched in 1987. The bikes were very successful
in the market and Honda were gracious in admitting that Esslinger’s concept bike
was the design inspiration for the Hurricane duo. ‘The biggest compliment came
from Honda, as their design team dedicated their Hurricane design to the Frog
750. They actually offered me one as a gift,’ says Esslinger.
Unfortunately, though, Esslinger never designed another motorcycle, though he
did go on to do some other very interesting design work in other areas. Gizmodo
has a very interesting interview with Esslinger, where he talks about design in
the 1970s. You might want to take a look at it here