What is the Motorcycle of the Future?
The recent proliferation of alternative fuel-powered concept and production bikes from Enertia, ENV, Hybrid Technologies, and Vectrix suggests a bright future for environmentally aware motorcycling.
But designer Tim Swanson, working in conjunction with the IAG Research Centre, envisions an entirely different two-wheeled future. Dubbed the Swann Insurance Motorcycle of the Future (catchy, huh?), his concept packages new and not-so-new technology along with a good old fashioned internal combustion engine.The bike's features list reads like a laundry list of items that should, but have not yet trickled from the automotive world into production motorcycles: traction control, electronic brake force distribution, automatic brake drying, blind spot warning sensors, and automatic hill start assistance, among others. Also incorporated is bodywork designed to better prevent damage from low speed tip-overs, and a proximity sensor alarm that prevents parking accidents by warning drivers of the motorcycle's position.
Recently unveiled by MotoGP "It Boy" Casey Stoner, this concept provides yet another take on where motorcycling might be headed, and begs the question as to whether more bikes of the future will be green, or if they'll simply boast lots and lots of bells and whistles.
What do you think of motorcycling's future... or, more interestingly, what do you hope for?
Comments
All this and a bag of chips, under 18K
Why is even the bike of the future beeing talked about with beeing green? The future of bikes should be inovtions of brakes and shocks and performance.
Bikes are already so good on gas that who cares about there gas mileage.
Global warming a bunch of noncense.
Just a politicla gig and modern subject of talk. Think about it..
What really causes the ozone layer to disintigrate. How much is need ofr a drastic change of it..?
So much that humans can not effect the glabal warming enough to make a difference in the next 200 years. Lets talk about Bikes..
Tell me a bouit a cool new invention that is necessary and practical…
tell me about new schock that made my ride so much better..
tell me about a tyre that just saved my corners on the road..
now were talking about the bike of the future..
Dude, you need to write these posts in a program that you can spell check…then cut and paste into the post. People who see this will lend NO credence to your post, if they believe you to be illiterate.
Swanson has a large appetite when it comes to gadgetry (oops, I meant innovation). All of those seem to have a place in the bike world, but how much would this particular motorcycle of the future cost? In theory you would be adding a feature like hill start assistance in order to market the efficiency of a motorcycle to people who don’t currently ride and are intimidated by the idea. But if you pack all of the other gadgets into the same bike, it’s pricing won’t be entry-level at all. Hopefully the concept will be refined further. So far it’s a fascinating realm, and great to see some dreamers in the motorcycle world getting attention. These innovations seem a little more useful than stuffing a VW engine into a BMW (although it was way cool back in the day).
Green crap on a bike or car soon becomes brown after a while. Get off of the bike green kick and start producing more functional and improved performance bikes. The only bike maker doing that is Yamaha and Honda….possibly Victory. But surely not any other bike OEM.
Harley’s might not be the best motorcycle on the road, but can you just picture a group of Macho men riding SWANS! Not in leathers, maybe TuTus, A loser already just by its name.
I don’t see why the bike of the future can’t LOOK like a real motorcycle. If they can make an engine run good on “green” fuel there would be no reason to change the style. Everyone who rides bikes doesn’t necessarily want to “race” or have the “racey” look.
Why does the Yamaha V Star 650 need so much maintenance? Every 3000-4000 miles it needs the valves checked. Is this true? That gets expensive.
In one aspect I do agree with clearwater. Bikes already get great mileage and with all bikes now coming with catalytic converters, are already up to green standards.
Bikes are not as popular as they could because of safety concerns. Put the brains to it and I will ride until I am 90!
Imagine a flowing city of bikes instead of 8 Cylinder trucks!
As a newby to biking, I’m confounded by all the attention to speed and on the roads, and at the same time how little attention is given to safety and improved MPG. No, I’m not suggesting retractable training wheels (although … nah), but maybe better controls to note brake wear, tire pressure and a speedometer you can read with a full-face helmet without looking down. And why are we looking at bigger bike engines instead of simply faster ones. Bigger may have meant faster in the old days, but today’s technology should be able to increase the number of strokes without increasing cylinder size. I’d like to see someone come up with a bike that switches to an electric motor for speeds under 40 MPH. I’ve never wanted to do 100 MPH on two wheels, I’m just in this for the MPG. But future bikes should be able to 100 MPG @ 100 MPH, on a seat that can keep even a fat guy comfortable for hours at a time.
Most bikes already get better mileage than “most” four-wheelers. What they do not GET is the tax incentives that should be available for their inherent economy, less wear and tear on the transportation infrastructure and smaller carbon footprint on the environment. What am I saying? Tax incentives? Hell, we are lucky most of the time to just getting equal rights to the road!