Where to from here for motorcycles.

[Boob Johnson]

Things I'd be interested in are integrated HUD in helmets with all bike manufacturers adopting a common API for data communications to and from the bike. None of that clip on stuff that just displays a couple of numbers. I want FLIR camera, IR headlamps, Image Intensifiers, Image Magnifiers all projected onto the visor, constantly tracking my eyes and overlaying the images in the way I chose. I want GPS data, all the readouts from the engine/fuel systems.

Basically I want everything that an Apache pilot has minus the guns.

Capt Andrey for president of whatever he needs to be to get that done

That would be seriously cool

[homer]

just imagine what the future of a gn 250 may be

[Conquiztador]

Future for bikes when everything already invented eh..

Perhaps not?

Here a few things I can think of:

- Able to lean bike but not wheels
- Front and rear wheel steer
- No chain or shaft as power transferred to front and rear wheel by magnetic drive
- Frame stretches as speed increases
- Rake changes with speed to change trail
- Proper windtunnel design to make rider stay fully dry
- Automatic gearbox for bikes becomes better then manual
- Automatic sensing and setting of suspension based on weight of rider and pillon
- Limiting of HP by electronic means so that learners can use any bike
- Gyro to stabilize bike at low speed (able to sit at lights w/o putting feet to ground)
- Petrol will become something old men tell their grand children about as all will use power cells.

And my favorite: When bike parked an anchor is automatically drilled in to ground (3 meter deep) to stop thieving scum!

[Forest]

just imagine what the future of a gn 250 may be

I'd say the future GN250 will be remarkably similar to the past.

The more things change, the more they stay to same.

[Headbanger]

The future of the GN?

Hasn't production ceased?

[imdying]

Next step in the evolution of motorcycles will be wings and a propulsion system that emerge from the bodywork like Transformers!
You may chuckle...but think back to Star Trek, remember the Communicators, they looked amazing......and now 30 years later everyone has one.
The humble cellphone.

So I think Transformers is like the Star Trek of old. Wings and Propulsion!!

oh, and dont say Ive been smokin toooooo much, Ive cut it back to 2 j's a day lol !

Yeah, they probably had a fuel source on Star Trek.

It doesn't matter anyway, 10 years and bikes will be ornaments. Ornaments forgotten and discarded by all but the very few... everyone else will be organising raiding parties on the neighbours vege patch as the trucks bringing food no longer run as the boats bringing oil no longer come to New Zealand.

Waste all your money on bikes as soon as you can, cause they're not going to be here forever.

[awayatc]

Yeah, they probably had a fuel source on Star Trek.

It doesn't matter anyway, 10 years and bikes will be ornaments. Ornaments forgotten and discarded by all but the very few... everyone else will be organising raiding parties on the neighbours vege patch as the trucks bringing food no longer run as the boats bringing oil no longer come to New Zealand.

Waste all your money on bikes as soon as you can, cause they're not going to be here forever.

Whatever it is your on.......could you pleaase pass it on

[pritch]

Back in the day the Brit bike mags used to run an occasional article on the bikes of the future. This was one of those recurring themes that magazines dredge up in the depths of a northern winter... I still have some dating back to the early sixties and the bikes we have look nothing like the illustrations whatsoever.

Some of the things predicted in this thread for the future are here already. You can buy a bike with suspension preload and damping adjustable electronically by a button on the handlebar now if you want one. And if you can afford it Henry at Experience BMW will be delighted to sell you one.

As oil supplies start to dwindle there may be social pressures against the recreational use of an increasingly precious resource which could radically effect the industry.

Meantime make the most of what we have, the best bikes ever. Except for next year...

[ManDownUnder]

Read Tim Hanna's book about John Britten and his total ground up design of that bike.

As a gross overly simplified view, he looked at the bike from what it needed to do and started building components that did that job the best way. Materials - light but strong... Carbon fibre

Suspension - radical approaches to it by throwing away current/accept approaches to it and doing it the old way because it works better... but this time done with carbon fibre... etc

Mark - the question is a bloody good one - where to from here? Who knows. But the one thing I do know is these things have an "evolution/revolution" cycle. The existing approach gets refind through a process of evolution, little improvements here and there until one day a clever dick in the backroom says "hang on a minute - THIS way might work..."

They try it - it does. That's the reviolution (USD forks being an example). After that it's refine refine refine.... and another brilliant idea comes along.

[inlinefour]

Oh give it a fucken rest. He asked an innocuous question, which had prompted a few good answer. There was absolutely no need to this kind of petty point-scoring.

If you think Im "point scoring" your clearly delusional, just like suggesting that there will never be any new developments from the modern makers of sportsbikes. Has anyone thought about how much money goes into research and development each year? Anyone who thinks the motorcycle is at its peak has a few screws lose or missing. Just because it differs to your/others views please do not spit the dummy and if you do insist on it, please clean the floor as its friggin disgusting.

[scissorhands]

Hubless rim drive, hybrid powered with pedals, citroen like rubber band suspension, 30kg kerb weight superlight plastic framed econo peoples bikes free with every big mack and peoples party booklet with chinese phrasebook and virtual wife guide. Exceeding 50km/hr will be punishable by castration

[EJK]

Guess they'll stay with 3 cylinders

[Mikkel]

Things I'd be interested in are integrated HUD in helmets with all bike manufacturers adopting a common API for data communications to and from the bike. None of that clip on stuff that just displays a couple of numbers. I want FLIR camera, IR headlamps, Image Intensifiers, Image Magnifiers all projected onto the visor, constantly tracking my eyes and overlaying the images in the way I chose. I want GPS data, all the readouts from the engine/fuel systems.

Basically I want everything that an Apache pilot has minus the guns.

Why not the guns? Get rid of those pesky cagers once and for all - HELLFIRE BABY!

On a more serious note, headlights that will track your line of sight would be handy in the twisties at night!

Read Tim Hanna's book about John Britten and his total ground up design of that bike.

As a gross overly simplified view, he looked at the bike from what it needed to do and started building components that did that job the best way. Materials - light but strong... Carbon fibre

Suspension - radical approaches to it by throwing away current/accept approaches to it and doing it the old way because it works better... but this time done with carbon fibre... etc

Indeed if you're wondering about what might happen in the evolution of motorcycles the Britten is a good case to study!
Suspension has been following the same basic design for years and years now. Eventually someone might be able to do something that'll work better and at an acceptable price.

As for propulsion - one of the things that may become viable for high-performance engines are electro-magnetically driven valves like the ones in F1 cars. Eventually they should get that sorted I suppose.
That said, depending upon what the prospects for the oil reserves are looking like I'd expect companies to relocate research funding from petrol engines to alternative types of propulsion.

There by not said that there isn't a lot of things that could still be improved upon with petrol engines - but when there's only an expected 5 years of petrol left it becomes a moot point.

Lots of room for development in the drivers aid segment as well (although some people frown upon these things).

[skidMark]

Are you having a laugh? We're mere minutes away from 'traditional' ECU's, fly-by-wire and traction control finally being rolled together into an all in one 'smart-er' fuelling and ignition combo and you think there's nothing going on?

Failing that I'd offer the slipper clutch as a source of significant innovation still in the trickle down phase. By "still in" I mean "The Daytona doesn't have one yet".

Dave

But these are all slight improvements to existing things, just tweaks here and there.

I think we have some to a time that yes something new can be invented and we go oo ahh, but nothing that would just leave jaws dropped, i think never again will we have the same type of reaction the television got when it came out etc.

[Gubb]

On a more serious note, headlights that will track your line of sight would be handy in the twisties at night!

Citroen trialled that in the 50's.

The first year of aerodynamic glass enclosing the DS's headlights, along with driving lights turned by the steering, was also the first year those features were outlawed in the US.

Source.