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When it comes to writing a Lotus story, it seems that most automotive and motorcycle journalists can’t go two sentences without invoking the name of Charlie Chaplin and his famous words: “In the end, everything is a gag.”

The 200-hp and 400-lb Lotus C-01 is proof that even motorcycle designers can have a sense of humor. Daniel Simon, the designer behind Tron: Legacy light-cycle, penned the C-01’s gorgeous form.

The forward-bias and stretched wheelbase couple with the carbon-fiber tank cuts a futuristic profile that looks entirely uncomfortable, but totally worth the lower-back, groin. and neck pain.

Perhaps one of the more interesting stories to break over the weekend, we get word that Lotus is making a 200 horsepower motorcycle…well, sort of. You see the Lotus C-01 is a venture between the tuners at the Holzer Group and the Kodewa car racing effort, with the design being penned by the very talented Daniel Simon.

Where does Lotus the car manufacturer come into all of this? Well, in name only, as it seems that the British marque’s only contribution to the project is lending its name to the motorcycle (it’s debatable as to whether we would be talking about the C-01 if the word “Lotus” didn’t come before the model designation).

Details are light at this point, with the press release drawing heavy lines between the C-01 project and Formula 1 technology. There is also mention of a 200hp figure , as well as the use of carbon, titanium, and “aerospace quality” steel.

If you haven’t figured it out already, we are rolling our eyes pretty hard at all the hype and marketing parlor tricks that are going on here with this Lotus motorcycle; however there does seem to be some hope for an intriguing machine to come from all of this.

We’re big fans of Daniel Simon’s work here at Asphalt & Rubber, especially his Cosmic Motors series. Stocked with some of the most imaginative illustrations of vehicles from an alternate reality, Simon’s two-wheeled pièce de résistance is the Cosmic Motors Detonator motorcycle.

For reasons that probably resemble our work-induced daydreams, Parker Brothers Choppers (PBC), the same firm that brought you the rideable TRON Lightcycle and Batman’s Batpod, has built a functional, albeit unlicensed, version of Simon’s Cosmic Motors Detonator. To the company’s credit though, the build overall seems fairly true to the sketches and renders done by Simon.

We’re eagerly awaiting December 17th here at the Asphalt & Rubber office, as that is the official movie premiere of Tron: Legacy. A mix of computer geekiness, state-of-the-art special effects, The Dude, Olivia Wilde, and of course lightcycles, Tron: Legacy is about as close to an A&R wet dream as you can get.

While we try and contain ourselves from giggling like little schoolgirls, technology news blog TechCrunch got a chance to sit down with Daniel Simon, the designer of the new Tron lightcycle (you might remember Simon from his renowned Cosmic Motors work), and ask him about revisiting the lightcycle design (air flaps!) in Tron: Legacy. That interview and a boatload of Tron: Legacy concept sketches are after the jump.

Drawing inspiration from Daniel Simon’s Cosmic Motors series (Simon designed the Tron lightcycle in the up-coming Tron Legacy movie by the way), designer Bruno Delussu has dreamt up the Snake Road motorcycle concept. Set in a nondescript time in the future, the Snake Road uses a fiberglass body to house its internal combustion engine (apparently EV’s still haven’t taken off in Delussu’s future).

Made for fun, Delussu admits there are some deficiencies in the design (the front wheel can’t turn for example), and explains the choice of an internal combustion engine as follows: “Being a motorcyclist myself, I love the sound of a motorcycle engine (reminiscent of a raging lion), so the engine is a traditional internal combustion engine rather then electric, as the new trend would have it (a matter of ecology).”