Filed under: Etc., Plants/Manufacturing, Videos
Confederate Wraith debuts at Bike Week in Daytona
We don't cover motorcycles here at Autoblog very often, but this particular bike is so special that we couldn't resist. What bike are we speaking of? None other than the Confederate Wraith. You may remember the Wraith from a few years back, when it debuted as a prototype. What took so long to get this bike ready for production? Oh, just an "act of God", as the insurance companies like to call it; namely, Hurricane Katrina. The Confederate company was nearly destroyed, and without the assistance of one Mr. Barber of Barber Motorsports fame, the company would not be here today. Mr. George Barber was kind enough to offer his help in moving the Confederate operations from New Orleans to Birmingham, Alabama.
Reborn in a new shop, and with a new purpose, Confederate decided to unleash their Wraith upon the crowd at Daytona Bike Week '07. We would say "the unsuspecting crowd", but the group of dedicated travellers who make up the Bike Week audience have come to expect great things, and this year they received two. Click here to read what SPEEDtv's Neale Bayly thought of the two Wraith's they brought, and his comments on what the bike did to the public who saw it. As a teaser, click here to check out a collage shot made up of pictures from Confederate's website. We hope to have some more shots of the bike to share with you soon. Watch this space!
For a video of the Wraith from SPEED, follow along after the break!
EDIT: Check out our gallery!
Gallery: 2007 Confederate Wraith
[Source: SPEEDtv.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gary 12:30PM (3/31/2007)
I like the Hellcat, but this one does nothing for me. I'd like to see them refine the Hellcat - bring the price down and improve reliability - and build on that design rather than going off on a tangent like this.
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bobby d 12:34PM (3/31/2007)
They should have spent some money on design.
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Jaymez 12:38PM (3/31/2007)
Is there a Weblogs Inc Motorcycle blog? There should be.
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John P. 1:08PM (3/31/2007)
I agree with #1, The Hellcat just looks right, they should refine that one. This is a really nice design study though. I think most like to have a bike that looks like it has a gas-tank on it.
I'd take it in a second though, would go nice next to my Harley.
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Travis Ayres 1:32PM (3/31/2007)
This looks really uncomfortable to ride.
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DPC car videos 3:00PM (3/31/2007)
My friend had a 2002 and it is very comfortable to ride. Also no matter where we went every single person would come up to the bike and would check it out. Definitely nothing like it around, at least at that time there was nothing like it.
http://www.dpccars.com
DPCCars
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Yago Bal 3:58PM (3/31/2007)
I like the Wraith a lot: it's incredibly exquisite.
To my eyes, the Hellcat (which is an amazing bike, really) looks much more convencional.
But I'm really just dying to see what will come out of the Renovatio Project: that's the one that will let me crazy...
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Scott Eaton 3:58PM (3/31/2007)
I have been a fan of this design for a while. Very steampunk to me. Wish like hell I could afford it, but I'll stick with my Triumph.
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jabevan 4:44PM (3/31/2007)
Check out the ornament on the bike in the photos here:
http://www.speedtv.com/popup_gallery/index.php?fpc_id=104
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Ford Mustang 4:52PM (3/31/2007)
I like it. I think it looks pretty unique, I just wish they had put a regular fork front end on it because that weird carbon fiber piece looks odd.
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vectorbug 5:42PM (3/31/2007)
Quite possibly the most beautiful thing ever created by man.
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sam 8:18PM (3/31/2007)
I "lol'd"
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ZOG 9:08PM (3/31/2007)
I actually stopped in at Confederate Motorcycles in New Orleans the day before Katrina hit. I asked them if they weren't worried about a hurricane bearing down on their city, and the one guy replied, "We've had it happen before. We'll probably get an inch or two of water on the floor, that's about it."
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josh 2:40AM (4/01/2007)
I really like the look of the new CBR's and R1's, and GSXs...
this bike however, is in a different league, and is insanely beautiful. Really a rolling art piece.
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Tjodleiv 7:15AM (4/01/2007)
This is style over Substance, why do americans always go for this.
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bathtub gin 9:39AM (4/01/2007)
I am glad they found a place to re-establish themselves, kudos to George Barber. One good thing about being in Birmingham is they they have a marvelous track nearby to wring out their prototypes.
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Cheezedog 2:47AM (4/02/2007)
Tjodleiv, If anything this bike is more substance then Styal. (that is if you idea of substance is speed, and handling of course.) That fork design looks to be a hell of a lot more effective then most chopper designs in which the wheel was pushed out forward. That made for a comfortable ride, but probably killed the turning radious.
This bike probably, (Armchair engineering) would turn better due to its better then its almost a flat 70 degree angled fork, and shorter wheel base. One of the intresting things about this fork is looks in princable to act like a Springer fork design... In princeable it does the same thing that the springer fork does, and nearly the same way.
Its Probably much more predicatable then a springer fork too.
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Mark 10:17AM (4/02/2007)
JT Nesbitt must be really pissed at how they've diluted his design. The prototype looked much better.
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mike 5:13PM (4/02/2007)
I appreciate the fact that they've actually taken a few chances and created a differentiated design, unfortunately (at least to my eyes), it's also ugly.
The Hellcat, OTOH, is hot (and waaay beyond my means)
C'est la Vie
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