Motorcycle styling has always been conservative rather than revolutionary. Even the most famous machines from history fit into a very obvious lineage of aesthetic development.
There?s nothing rebellious about early board trackers, BMWs, Brough Superiors, Vincents or Crockers. The engineering might have been exemplary, but the styling was evolutionary.

If you look hard though, there are a handful of early outliers to match later oddballs like BMW?s K1, the Honda DN-01, and the Philippe Starck-designed Aprilia Moto 6.5. And the best of the vintage oddities has got to be the Majestic of the early 1930s.
There are very few of these French machines still in circulation today, and this one here, recently restored by Serge Bueno of L.A.-based Heroes Motors, has got to be the pick of the crop.
The Majestic was designed by Georges Roy, an engineer who disliked tubular frames because he felt they flexed too much. So he created a monocoque chassis using sheet steel, which also encased the drive train.
Introduced at the 1929 Paris Motor Show, the Majestic caused a storm. The Delachanal factory put it into production the next year, but sales were slow?and the story was over by 1933. As with today, it looks like pre-War motorcyclists were resistant to anything outside of contemporary norms.

This 1930 Majestic, from near the start of the production run, has been in Serge Bueno?s family for 30 years. Five months ago he decided to restore it, and began a long process of eight-hour...