New bikes bore me to death.

[lukeb1961]

I guess you could blame the cash strapped Japanese R&D departments, or you could say, well where do we go now with the existing technology?..... so you bring some new forward technology to the table with your R&D bucks.

There are definately options out there, but they don't seem interested. 6-stroke (weird head) four-strokes, direct fuel injection for your 2-stroke maybe with a stratified charge, sleeve-valves could come back, the 5-stroke engine that Honda was developing, electrics are moving forward...

I dunno. Engines are about to get more interesting.

[IT490K1983]

Old bikes give new bikes perspective and relevance and vice versa. The amount of technological advancements/improvements over the last 30 years has been pretty solid given that motorbikes have been around for some 150 odd years. One wonders if there is a whole lot more advancements to be found. I do agree that the Japanese stables have been very conservative with R & D and making changes to their range. I wonder if that is indicative of the global market and economy. One must also concede that there seems to be a bit of a copycat approach with some brands as opposed to an individualist approach. There are still some pretty smart, high quality bikes available; particularly out of Europe. Finally, I guess manufacturers are in it for making a dollar and running a viable business; they are probably keeping things very conservative to this end.

[Slakewell]

The three stroke or six stroke motor has been around for ages. It uses a two stroke piston and crank to act as valves for a four stroke bottom end both piston reach TDC as it fires with the cranks connected via a gears or chain and run 2 to 1 ratio.

[Oppet]

I have tested Zero in a forest, it felt like pushbike. Nice thing, you can use it close to houses, but that wouldnt replace my gasoline bikes, it would be nice add on my garage, thou.

[oldfart]

Marc, it develops torque because of its High Rpm ( at motor)  and gearing
I'm sure I don't need to discuss with you how  "Force work and Time"   works
 

[motomaniac]

Still not interested 

[IT490K1983]

The three stroke or six stroke motor has been around for ages. It uses a two stroke piston and crank to act as valves for a four stroke bottom end both piston reach TDC as it fires with the cranks connected via a gears or chain and run 2 to 1 ratio.

Isn't that how a Harley works.....? 

[Slakewell]

NO LOL
They work from one crank and are called thee knife and fork con-rod lay out as one lays over the over thou the cycle 

[firko]

I think it's inevitable that as electric bikes become more efficient they'll be a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine.Because of their outstanding torque and simplicity, they'll be suitable for off road applications. Emission is a dirty word right now but in another decade or two clean power will be accepted as the standard.

Still not interested 

I'm not remotely interested either but it won't be us old farts that'll be buying them. In 10-20 years time it'll be another generation of thrill seekers looking for the perfect off-road buzz that will be considering electric power. The motocross racer who'll be buying electric motocross bikes are still playing with Leggo or haven't been born yet so what we think of electric motion today means 3/5 of FA in the whole scheme of things.

[BAHNZY]

aside from the few things mentioned here - fuel injection etc - what else is there to offer - that we want?

We talk about technology not moving forward on motor bikes, I guess because they have simply got to a point where there is just so much that you can do with an internal combustion engine mounted in a frame with two wheels.

There are however some very high tech advancements on the way. The one that I have been watching relates to the Enduro “competition” market. One of the biggest issues that an Enduro (or) cross country rider/racer faces is the varying terrain and conditions that they race in and trying to match a suspension configuration/setting to match such terrain. At the moment Marzocchi is working on a suspension electronic control system that will see grid coordinates loaded into a sat nav equipped ECU that will alter the suspension settings according to where the bike will be ridden. The other is the launch control and full power shift systems that are currently on road bikes finding their way to the moto-cross models. Kawasaki have been using a launch control system on the KXF-450, albeit a basic system, but expect to see something more substantial on offer in the 2012/2013 models from the other manufactures.

[chrisdespo]

New Bikes bore me to death as well. I must say i liked the old bikes cause you could personalise them not just fancey graphics and the like to match your raceing kit. as they say back in the day everyone bought the basic bike and made thier racer be it road or mx like cars as well you could fit an alpine  or ferris radio cause a lot never came with this trick stuff. you know now everthing you could think of is fitted already. you see aline up of bikes and they are all the same spare the graphics . where as if you got a line up of bikes on the grid everyone was different air caps, no air caps, konis bilstiens marzochi whatever we all had different ideas and our bikes reflected it a TS build against a TM and a pursang even an SL100 bombed up we all raced and all enjoyed and looked at each others trick bits and Marvelled at each others ideas...

Please build a bike that we can try and improve... Please