Neiman Marcus has a range of “Wow Gifts” in their latest Christmas Book for the super rich, including the stunning, limited edition Fighter Motorcycle, which we have covered earlier too. This beast from Confederate Motor Company packs 190 mph of terrific performance into its avant-garde carbon fiber, titanium, and aluminum chassis. Attention has been paid to every detail and the finest of the materials have been used in the making. Only 45 units have been put into production and 39 only will are available before the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book is closed. Priced at $110,000, the limited edition Fighter Motorcycle gives a stiff competition to Chicara Nagata’s handmade million dollar motorcycles.

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KTM is set to go racing next year with its RC8 R superbike, which is hot off the presses from the EICMA show in Milan. Featuring a V-Twin engine that displaces 1195cc’s (that’s almost the maximum size allowed for racing against liter-class fours), the liquid cooled engine pumps out 165 horsepower or 180 with the optional race exhaust. We’d expect a significant chunk of torque from the 75-degree twin cylinder as well, which the machine will rely on as it goes up against the stratospheric revvers from Japan.

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BMW took the wraps off its upcoming S 1000 RR World Superbike contender as the Motorrad division showed the new bike in its official race colors at the Intermot show in Cologne, Germany. Taking a good look at the photos, we can see that the bike is indeed very compact. Look through the numerous cutouts and vents in the fairing and you’ll see how neat and tidy the new literbike is. Next year, new BMW factory riders Ruben Xaus and past Superbike champion Troy Corser will ride the 190-horsepower S 1000 RR in competition against the Big Four Japanese superbikes, the Ducati 1098 R and the new RSV4 from Aprilia. It should all be very exciting to watch.

Expect a street-going version shortly, with 1,000 units of the new model due for 2009. Unlike past Beamers, the S 1000 RR uses an inline four-cylinder engine mounted transversely in the frame with a standard chain drive. Suspension bits also follow the normal telescopic formula up front with a traditional coil-over out back, eschewing BMW’s past Telelever, Duolever and Paralever designs. Take a look in our gallery below. Continued

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Yet another limited edition bit of garage art from the pages of the Nieman Marcus Holiday Gift Guide. This years NM Christmas Book is chock full of high class fantasy ideas that no one can afford, like the special edition BMW 750Li and a million dollar backyard golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. It’s theater done for the image of Nieman Marcus.

Still, there’s a a motorbike in there that caught my eye, only $110,000 dollars. Nieman Marcus commissioned the Confederate Motor Company (CMC) to build 45 of these special bikes just for the catalog. They call it the Limited-Edition Confederate Fighter Motorcycle, and it looks like it’s at least partially based on CMC’s B120 Wraith bike, with a lot of design influences and what looks to be the same engine.

It looks like a straight line brute to me, and I’m more interested in taking corners quickly than blistering down a straightaway. In fact, great man once said: “Pure speed in sixth gear on a 5000-foot straightaway is one thing, but pure speed in third gear on a gravel-strewn downhill ess-turn is quite another.” But quality people own CMC bikes, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt…American Royalty; good looking people who matter; important people. That should count for something.

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The Cologne Motorcycle Show is taking place this week. The show is also known as The Intermot and it’s the place where Honda has unveiled an amazing looking motorcycle concept. Its called the V4 because of the engine configuration. The key thing here is that this is still nothing more than a concept at this point. Once you get a closer look at the images of the V4 you’ll see that the tires and wheels aren’t functional and the same can be said for the engine. But the focus is the construction of Honda’s four-cylinder V-engine that’s been built with oval pistons. It’s designed to combine Honda’s history of V4 engine race bikes over the past 60 years and the modern bikes that Honda is working on now.

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The nation watches as California sets its own standards when it comes to vehicles and emissions. It is often the case that other states, and sometimes the entire rest of the country, follow that far-left State’s lead as it progressively makes decisions affecting our vehicles, including motorcycles. There are quite a number of bikes which cannot be sold in California due to its specific motorcycle emissions regulations, a fact which surely dismays many a manufacturer. Of the bikes that can be sold there, they cannot be modified in any way without CARB’s green light. As you may know, it is rather common for motorcyclists to change their exhausts, but this cannot be done without using a CARB-certified exhaust fitted with a catalytic converter. There are many hurdles to making it happen, but meetings between manufacturers, dealers and legislators are currently underway which could allow motorcycle buyers a legal outlet to modify their bikes.

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When it was introduced in 2008, the brand-new Honda CBR1000RR, known as Fireblade across the pond, won accolades from the the press and regular riders alike. Considering its market domination over the last year, we wouldn’t be surprised if Honda simply left things pretty much alone for ‘09. There is one new feature, though, and it’s a biggie: optional ABS brakes. This will be the first application of anti-lock brakes in a machine of this caliber, and early reports indicate that people are seeing improved lap times as a result. In addition to the brakes, expect to see some color changes and a Repsol race edition.

Moving on to Honda’s smaller-bore machine, the CBR600RR will also get optional C-ABS along with engine changes designed to improve torque right in the middle of the power band, between 8,000 and 12,000 RPM. Along with these changes comes revised styling with flashy colors pulled straight from the mid-’90s. Apparently, neon green and electric blue are back.

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