Is that the Eddie Lawson Replica-looking thing?
I’m impressed by it.
Well, I wouldn’t BUY one, but it is impressive.
Is that the Eddie Lawson Replica-looking thing?
I’m impressed by it.
Well, I wouldn’t BUY one, but it is impressive.
I'm really digging that Honda CB1000R -- I'm a sucker for future-retro styling (see: '04-'06 Ford GT, BMW R Nine T).
Also Triumph unveiled their Daytona 765 race bike... that won't ever see production because monies.
Heck, I'm wondering if we'll see any new middleweight sport bikes again given the shrinking market and marginal production costs savings over big bikes. It's been ages since any new ones have been introduced, unless you count the revised Yamaha R6 which mostly keeps the chassis and engine that they've been using for a decade. There's that, and the Panigale 899/959, I guess.
True -- and since most buyers can't even ride old-OLD ones properly fast, the market has probably peaked in terms of performance for any test other than highway roll-on racing. #horsepower
Most of the bikes being shown seem to be ADV, scrambler or standards/nakeds.
Only a few of the sportbike crowd there.
FWIW, I recall reading that when California Superbike School switched from the ZX-6R to S1000RR, they got crashed less often due to the electronic rider aids.
We’ve been coming out of the regular 1000/600 golden age for a while now. 600s are not economical to make (they cost the same to develop and produce as a 1000 but have to be sold 25% cheaper) so only Yamaha has released a new one, and on the 1000 side of things, they’re now more expensive because of the high electronic age ushered in by BMW.
So I’m not surprised that biennial sports bike releases from the big four in Japan have slowed to a trickle. BMW and Aprilia have come on very strongly in that sector, and big nakeds are where it’s at for tarmac hooliganism these days.
There's also the simple idea of plateauing.
Before about 20 years ago or so, the top sport bikes kept getting bigger and bigger. Since they've just stopped at 1000cc's, there's only so much you can do to eek out more power. So the shift then is to electronics and weight/handling. I think Electronics made a HUGE leap in recent years, but there isn't much more for them to do. Gains will be incremental from here on out there. Weight is limited by cost. I think this will be the next big change. It seems the '19 S1000RR will NOT have a carbon frame like the HP4 Race, but I think that is coming eventually. But even then, liter bikes will probably take a bit of a leap down to <400lb wet weights soon, but again plateau. So in the early 20's we'll probably reach a plateau of power, electronics, and weight. So where do we go from there? How to you improve on a 375lb wet, 220hp bike that a 14 year old can ride at its limit?
Exceptions have started showing up. Kawasaki, obviously with forced induction, and Ducati, kinda, with ever-increasing displacement. (BTW, rumor has it, there will be a 1000cc VR Panigale R for homoligation purposes, since the new V4 cannot race in WSBK, or maybe it's not just a rumor?). I'm willing to bet Suzuki has a Turbo/SC Hayabusa partially R&D'ed already.
As for the middleweights, they really have become kinda redundant. It's too bad, but really the electronics have made the gap between the middle weights and the superbikes, in terms of difficulty, moot. When I started riding, I wanted to go to the track (I never have and still do ), but never thought I'd feel more comfortable on a 1000cc bike over a 600cc. Now, I have no doubt I'd feel comfortable on a superbike, if not more! I can possibly see a resurgence if one of the big names goes hardcore on the carbon fiber/exotic materials, and the others follow suit. Maybe all the 1k bikes in a few years have carbon frames, or electronic suspensions, you could have a larger gap in price, making middleweights with aluminum frames and regular suspensions more much cheaper. Unlikely, but probably the only chance.
I think the pattern of two top superbikes that share an engine, but vary greatly in other specs otherwise, and have a $5k or more price difference will continue. We're already seeing it somewhat with the GSX-R 1000R, ZX-10RR, R1M, etc. That R1/R1M model will probably replace the 600/1L model completely.
Last edited by Freude am Fahren; November 10th, 2017 at 04:36 PM.
They should bring back two-strokes.
It’s a dumb pipe dream of mine, a 300cc twin in a modern sports bike disguise, pushing out as much HP as an R6.
In reality, they can make them much cleaner than they were in the 80s with direct injection, and easier to ride with ECU mapping, so it’s not a totally stupid idea.
If anyone was going to do it, it'd be Yamaha, as they already have DI 2-stroke outboards, so it'd mostly be scaling.