Since the motorcycles invention, there have always been those riders who want to improve and embellish the product to fit their needs. Sometimes this leads to one innovator moving far from the crowd to create something truly ingenious, changing the platform from simple bicycles with motors attached to full-bodied beauties with roaring motors for the masses.

Over the span of almost 150 years, many strange things have popped up on motorcycles, as manufacturers and customizers try to make their dent on the market. Sometimes the inventions become an industry staple, other times the idea is left alone, submitted to history not necessarily as a failure but perhaps as an idea too far ahead of its time, kind of like the self-canceling switch, which is slowly coming along with today's technological evolution. Some innovations are happening right in front of our eyes, just starting to be accepted by a strong community that's all about tradition, a brotherhood of enthusiasts who live to ride.

As concepts go through their paces, some just are too weird to be accepted and are put to bed early in spite of the desire to progress through trial and error. Some ideas never come to fruition, dreams unrealized for generations in the future. This list covers some odd but inspiring (and some completely uninspiring) ideas brought into the world by inventors trying to change the motorcycle for the better.

21 Front-Mounted Motor

During the early days of motorcycling, many designers were trying different things. Megola, a German company out of Munich, built motorcycles in the early-1920s. This motorcycle was built looking sporty, but the radial motor was mounted on the front rim, spinning with it.

The bike was started by spinning the front wheel, essentially jump-starting the motor after every stop.

Then after starting the motor, you'd take it off of the kickstand and proceed down the road until you inevitably come to a stop sign or stoplight. What then?! According to the original manual you orbit in your lane until you may continue through, ensuring the motor keeps running. Glad this design didn't catch on, as I could see a few fingers lost due to the rim kicking-back while just trying to start the thing.

20 Full-Roof Fiberglass Body

Motorcycles are the embodiment of true freedom of the road. The open air and the wind blowing through your hair as you cruise down and around some nice winding road or whip down the highway with a crew of friends.

The Quasar is still a part of this open road freedom, but in pursuit of better fuel economy and speed, the Quasar comes with a fiberglass body and roof.

Other companies have done this, including the Ecomobile and the BMW C1 motor scooter. But it's the Quasar I want to talk about simply because the design itself is strange. The body was originally designed in the 1960s, and utilizes a low center of gravity with the foot-forward placement leading to a weird seating position compared to other bikes that are straddled.

19 Single-Wheeled

More currently, Ryno Motors out of Oregon has been the lead innovator in the single wheeled bike market. Now, you'd think that with a single wheel bike, you'd be in charge of balancing it, and might most likely to end up face first in the pavement. Instead, it utilizes a self-centering gyroscopic mechanism built into the single wheel. The motorcycle has no traditional combustion motor, but a lightweight electric motor that also helps it maintain balance while riding. As odd as the idea may be, it's slowly becoming a part of reality. The Ryno company is a new brand that's still on its way up and could potentially be a very real option for anyone looking for a unique motorcycle-riding experience.

18 Self-Canceling Indicators

So, as much as this makes sense in any car, on a bike, it doesn't work as intended. Of course, you wouldn't steer a motorcycle like a car, instead leaning into the turns and not physically turning the handlebars as much. This isn't to say that aftermarket options aren't a good investment. The STS works differently than standard self-canceling indicators, by recognizing the change in vibration and tilt, and it can guess that you completed your turn. Although, in truth, I never thought there was anything wrong with the standard indicator switch. Just press to turn it off, plain and simple.

17 Indicators Built Into Handguards

This is a strange one, especially if you intend to use your motorcycle anywhere near a trail or flat out off-road. Handguards exist to protect your hands, so cheap plastic will do just as well as expensive materials, and they're cheap and simple to repair if and when you break them.

To put turn indicators on them seems like a really cool styling idea, but overall renders them too fragile to really go out and abuse.

Why would you put a potentially expensive light on something you will most likely need to replace after the first outing? Now sure, LEDs have become more available and cheaper, but this still means that a fun ride through a trail could render your bike without a front indicator, and depending on your luck, a ticket from a strict cop.

16 Integrated Sat-Nav

With our world of technology constantly changing and evolving, a Sat-Nav built into your bike may be efficient for the times, but over the years the device will get lost as roads change and new technology becomes more and more current.

Another reason for this option being a bit of an oddity is the question of what happens when something goes wrong.

If the screen blacks out and stops working altogether, it seems you could either try to fix it yourself (if you're handy like that), send it out to a shop, or maybe go out and buy a GPS anyway, which undermines the integrated Sat-Nav altogether.

15 Keys Out Before Riding

Something of a safety measure from Harley Davidson, the premise here is to turn the bike on with the key then take it out of the ignition to put it away in your pocket. It may sound smart at first, but then think about the fact that most keys don't usually just freely fall out of an ignition switch. Keyless isn't such an impossible option—the bike starts when the key is in range—but even this is dangerous as your bike can continue to run even if you've forgotten or (heaven forbid) dropped your key fob somehow. Technology from cars has been trying to find their way onto motorcycles, but in this case, I think the ignition should be simple, just an old-fashioned key in the ignition.

14 Front- and Rear-Wheel Drive

Front-wheel-drive bikes haven't been attempted very often, and even fewer brands have tried to drive both the front and rear wheels. None of the attempts have been older or quite as successful as Rokon, though. Originally built in California, the (now New England-based) company makes motorcycles for utilitarian use, with a 2,000-pound towing capacity for their base Trail-Breaker. Another odd feature on these bikes is the tires, which can hold liquids like gas or can float on water when filled with air. Used by the military and farmers alike, the Rokon is a very useful all-terrain motorcycle, although still very much weird.

13 Single-Sided Swingarms

The most popular example of a set of single-sided swingarms can be found on the Gilera CX125, as one side of the bike shows nothing but the large rims with little cut outs around the edge, no swing arm in sight. The left side, meanwhile, looks as normal and just like any other sports bike with suspension and brakes on full display. This set up is perfect for endurance racing, which is also where the idea became popular, as it makes it easier for easy wheel changes since the wheel just slides off of the axle, leaving the chain and sprocket in place. As awesome as it sounds, it's also on the pricey side due to the complexity that goes into the design. Which leaves it most often for high-end motorbikes.

12 Hydraulic Drivetrain

So far (at least that I could find) the Honda DN-01 is the only bike with a hydromechanical automatic transmission. According to the LA Times, the DN-01 is a sort of crossover between a sports bike, a cruiser, and a scooter.

The looks and performance lend themselves to the sport bike side, with the upright seating position lending itself to more of a cruiser.

There aren't many true automatic bikes out there, but this is by far the strangest one. The gear changes are smooth and the large bike enjoys solid handling, but while all this is nice, I can't help but feel that I'd be spending more time annoyed that I keep looking for the clutch and shifter pedal.

11 Rotary Engines

There are many low-production, rotary-powered motorcycles, but the Suzuki RE5 is the highest produced with this peculiar motor. Made for only 2 years between 1975 through 1976, the setup didn't generally appealing to the public at the time (I could see these things selling as hot cakes now, though.)

Intended as a touring bike, the RE5 is known for the smoothness of its motor and the low-end torque coming from the lower-revving Wankel motor.

Only around 6,500 were made, making these quite rare now. The common 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder motors may be easier to work on yourself, but there is nothing around quite like a Wankel.

10 Jet-Powered

These are wild! The most popular jet-powered bike is arguably the MTT Y2K, which is powered by an Allison C18 turbine motor. It can accelerate the superbike to 250 mph! The Y2K is...well...maybe a bit much.

It's along the lines of putting a Viper V10 on a Cozy Coupe—just turn it on and hang on for dear life.

Since its inception, the Y2K has gotten into the Guinness World Records book twice, as the most expensive motorcycle, and the fastest, which isn't hard to believe considering the motor's original purpose: picking a squad of troops up and carrying them wherever. Nonetheless, no matter how insane and weird this bike's motor is, there's none quite on-par with how cool it is.

9 Hubless Rims

Hubless rims are a newer trend in custom motorcycle building that offer a clean futuristic look but there's only one company I could find that's looking to use the hubless rim in a production model. The RMK E2 is a motorcycle that isn't at this time quite ready to go on sale quite yet, but preorders are open. The E2 does away with chains and the whole combustion motor in general in favor of electric power. E-bikes are starting to become a thing—much like Elon Musk's Tesla—as I have another newly-developed electric bike already on this list. The bike's appearance is futuristic and the hubless rear rim is no different than any other sports bike out there, apart from the missing hub, of course.

8 Seat Locks Under The Mudguard

Famously used on a Yamaha MT-10, the seat-locks in this application are placed...well...under the mudguard. I don't exactly understand why would anyone do this.

What's so wrong about having the lock on the outside, like everyone else does. Trying to hide it from potential thieves?

Isn't that what a key-lock is for anyway? The placement makes sense when you get the seat off, but it's still strange when so many companies have been doing it pretty much the same way, including Yamaha on other bikes. This straying from tradition design has been produced since 2016 and continues today mostly unchanged since its inception.

7 3-Button Indicators

BMW was all about this idea for a while: a button to go left, one to go right, one to turn them off, and one for flashers. Simple, if a little unconventional, but something I'm sure I could at least get use to over time. The set-up is either praised or down-right hated by motorcyclists, and it could partially be due to the nay-sayers who despised the switchover from the traditional switch style around 2008. At first, it can be awkward using both hands to operate, but many motorcyclists say that it's easy to swap over from one bike to another with this switch set-up.

6 "Flip-Up" Stands

Motorcycle kickstands are about as basic as it gets: a spring-loaded metal piece that locks when fully extended so you can rest your bike without it falling over. Simple stuff, common knowledge, indeed. But some companies like Ducati use the same type of stand—that does the same exact thing—except it doesn't lock when down, so that the moment you get on and pick your bike off of the stand you won't have to worry about kicking the stand up.  Effective for those who would rather get on and go quickly, but it can easily lead to bikes tipping over and becoming damaged.

5 Gauges On The Gas Tank

Benelli is famous for this strange design that is featured on their 254 model motorcycle. When driving or riding, checking your speed frequently is always a smart thing to do.

Around the handlebars and behind the cowl is the usual place you'll find your gauges, but with the 254 you'll have to look a little farther down.

As interesting a placement as it is for your instrumentation, it doesn't seem very smart, forcing you to look farther down and potentially distracting you from the road ahead. With that in mind it's easy to see why this feature didn't catch on, and so most gauges still remain at an easier level to be glanced at.

4 Wavy Disc Brakes

Built to get the dirt out of your calipers, disc brakes with waves in them are handy when riding through the mud and the muck, and that's not an odd thing to find on off-roading dirt bikes.

What is odd is finding them on street bikes that were never meant to ever be taken in the dirt or off the tarmac at all.

What's more, the discs' surface area is only lessened which therefore lessens the calipers' effectiveness. It seems like this is mostly just another case of adding style at the expense of the safety and more importantly, overall performance.

3 CVT Transmission

Some bikes can be had in with an automatic transmission, most likely from Honda, as Jay Leno mentions that when thinking of an automatic bike, the thought of the two speed Honda CB750A with "HondaMatic" transmission is forefront in his mind. Since the mid-70s, automatics have been around on motorbikes but they've never been quite accepted for their purpose. They may offer a better riding experience for the aspiring, inexperienced riders who don't know their way around a standard, though. Aprilia came out with the smooth CVT Mana 850 that furthered the idea that anyone can ride a motorcycle. The bike is also fitted with a paddle OR foot-pedal shifting option on top of a the fully automatic transmission.

2 Four Wheels

Currently, a quick search for 4-wheeled motorcycles will lead you to the Yamaha OR2T prototype and the Quadro4 motorscooter. So since the Yamaha isn't yet produced, and that Dodge V10 monster only sold 7 or so units, we're mostly talking about the scooter here. But the concept is similar: the Quattro4 is a strange sight, as you can lean on it and all four tires will remain grounded all the way up to a 45-degree angle. Beyond its four wheels, the scooter is remarkable with the amount of innovation that has been implemented to keep you upright at all times, but this is perhaps to help counteract the strange four-wheeled layout.