Re: [St] The Future of Motorcycling

[Bil Swartz <bil@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Gavin Lawrie wrote:
> In Europe the Harley crowd that is the focus of the article is much  
> less of an issue.  Rather we have YouTube videos of maniacs doing  
> 150mph+ on highways, and a bike industry focused still on selling race- 
> reps to the road bike market, which fuels the videos and provides  
> ammunition to the anti-bike lobby.  Even BMW got in on the act  
> launching the K1200 with a video of it ace-ing the Nurburgring.
> 
> Trouble is I think that it is hard for the industry to back itself  
> away from the power-to-weight ratio argument.  Did the new Tiger or ST  
> really need to have a bigger / more powerful engine than the one it  
> replaced?   Does anyone have any sensible use for a ZZR1400 that  
> wouldn't be equally well met by a (say) a Honda Blackbird?  Or a  
> Triumph ST?  In light of ever increasing output from 600cc engines, is  
> it surprising that last week one (admittedly loopy) safety pundit  
> called for a ban of all bikes over 600cc on basis that there is  
> nothing legal that can't be done by one of lower capacity.
> 
> But the market here doesn't tolerate 'not quite as powerful but more  
> practicable and better mileage' as a feature set for a 'new' bike.   
> Witness the polite indifference to Honda's Deauville (sp?) - a  
> 'sensible' bike.  There are good reasons for having powerful bikes  
> (and anyone who tries to prise my hands off my 955 is in for a  
> fight... ;) ).  But until all-out track speed gets balanced out by  
> consideration of all the other reasons, things will look grim for the  
> future.
> 
> My 2¢

I'll throw in another penny and wish we could trade you problem sets.  This side 
of the pond doesn't get to see many (any?) of the smaller more practical (who 
said practicable recently) bike Europe gets so the mentality of the customer has 
been affected by years of "bigger is better" marketing.  It's a shame, there are 
so many cool and useful commuters in the 400cc range that would also make great 
starter bikes, etc.  We got lucky to see a Deauville in person that a lady (and 
fellow HSTA member) imported and let's just say there were several she could 
have sold if she could have made copies!

I don't know what it's going to take to re-educate the US market, or if it's 
even possible (he says on the eve of entering the MSF's instructor program). 
Scooter sales seem to be up a little, maybe the increase fuel prices will help 
bring more interest to smaller cycles and maybe some manufacturers will respond 
and bring some of those models to the US.  Or maybe it's the graduated licensing 
that helped build the smaller displacement market, I know it would save some 
lives here as kids continue to launch themselves into things on supersports.  If 
we had such a licensing scheme I think it would help educate the chrome and 
thunder boneheads too.

Sure wish we had an answer before the pundits and law makers muck it all up!

(sorry for the rant but another week of PMS has me crazy, come on spring!)

-- 

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