The upside down Nembo 32 just refuses to lie low

IS THE NEMBO 32 a case of being unable to keep a good bike down or an example of an inventor that can’t accept defeat…? We’re going to lean towards the latter, our admiration for persistence notwithstanding.

First a recap of what the Nembo 32 is. This Italian creation – and it is certainly creative – is a concept that blends an air-cooled, three-cylinder inverted engine that delivers 200HP. So yes, there is a reason it looks this way because the engine is indeed upside down. The original marketing spiel even pointed out that ‘madness is necessary’.

Well, surprisingly calling your creation ‘madness’ in a quirky project that didn’t quite explain how the oily bits worked (literally, how do you pump oil in such a manner?) meant it didn’t come close to its $3.6M crowdfunding target.

And when we say close, we mean comically far away in that only $56 was actually raised.

So, it drummed up some attention – priceless in this age – but time to move on onto another more conventional project with the benefit of that ‘viral exposure’?

No, the Nembo 32 lives on in a guise that can barely be described as anything more than a tweak of figures and some dodgy rendering.

Dubbed Nembo 32 Iperleggera – which means hyper-lightweight despite that not really being a word – the bike has been refitted using carbonfibre components and saved some weight to drop it to ‘about 140kg’ whilst not altering the 200HP performance figures, which remain unverified. Looking at the slightly trippy video, you can also choose a variety of colours as it touts that it could well make production.

It also asks why the Nembo 32 was created, though the answer of it being 'beauty and beast at once' doesn't do anything to explain that.

The Nembo 32 ‘looks like a lot of fun and beauty’ according to its inventor Daniele Sabatini. We’ll reserve judgement for when it acquires any investment and if it ever hits the road in production form.