Soon we’ll all ride bikes like this… apparently

You own a litre sports bike and you love it. But will you still be riding an R1 or GSX-R1000 in ten years? Manufacturers don’t think so. And they’re working flat-out to come up with exactly what you’ll want to ride in your 40s.

It’s no wonder they’re trying so hard. The average age of the European rider is 36 and rising all the time. Manufacturers have seen our tastes mature over the last 30 years. They’ve seen us graduate from two-stroke screamers to 600s to 1000cc sports bikes. And they’re desperately trying to predict what comes next.

Don’t worry – that doesn’t mean we’re going to see bikes with compartments for Zimmer frames. Neither does it mean sacrificing high performance. What it does mean is that it will get easier for you to buy a bike that’s exactly right for you when – or if – you do finally get tired of sports bikes.

Takahiro Maeda, the man responsible for planning what models Yamaha will launch in Europe in future, said: ” In the 1970s and 1980s, the bike market was driven by 18-20-year-olds. But the biking population is getting older. So while they started with small bikes like TZR250s, when the reached their 30s they demanded 600s. Now they’re 36-37 and they’re demanding 600s-1000s. ”

So what’s next? Maeda knows what new Yamahas we’re likely to see in five years time, but all he’ll say is we’ll see models that are more useable and less extreme than today’s

R1-style sports bikes.

He said: ” Today the core customer is looking for speed and acceleration and that market will remain, but as riders get older they’ll seek a different type of satisfaction, from torque or sound. Performance will remain important, but it could be a different kind of performance. ”

Ducati UK boss Piero Guidi agrees, but he thinks the bikes of the future will look much like Ducati’s own Multistrada. He said: ” People want performance and comfort. That’s why we built the Multistrada. People say it’s a big trailie or a supermoto. But in fact it’s a versatile sports bike that a rider can use everywhere, but still have fun on. ”

Current trends suggest Maeda and Guidi are right, but that doesn’t mean we’ll all be riding Multistradas. Yamaha’s Thundercat, a bike that many assumed would disappear shortly after the arrival of the R6, is still going strong with 1294 sales in 2000 and 2001.

And you can expect BMW, a firm whose bywords are comfort and practicality, to come up with more in the same vein – but with more and more emphasis on style.

The firm’s UK marketing and sales manager Kevin Pascoe said: ” BMW has been focusing heavily on style and R1 and R6 riders I speak to take their hats off to us and say they like what we’ve done. BMW will gain sales as more people look for alternatives to extreme sports bikes.

” The sports bike market will never die. But if you put some 43-year-olds on an R1 in Day-glo leathers, I think they’d feel like a 37-year-old trying to dress like a teenage hip-hop fan. Maturity will make them want something more fitting for their age. ”

But Pascoe reckons our maturing tastes will have far-reaching effects on the whole of the bike market, not just the part that caters for riders in their 30s.

He said: ” The fact that the average rider is getting older means the rush is on to get new riders. That’s what the new F650CS is for. It’s targeting scooter riders and non-licence-holders. All manufacturers should be going for new riders, as well as catering for the average rider. Those teenage scooter riders aren’t going to ride scooters for ever. They’re going to evolve. ”

Let’s hope the current generation of scooter riders do move on to bigger bikes. But, in the meantime, let’s enjoy seeing manufacturers fall over themselves to cater to our needs.

We’ve already shown our power by persuading Suzuki to bring the GSX1400 to the UK and telling Aprilia we want to see the Blue Marlin put into production. If the Multistrada is your ideal bike in a few years time,

fine. But there could be many more great machines on the way.