The shape of motorcycling to come

There’s a very good chance that if you’re reading this you are over 30 and less than 40 years old. No, don’t fear, you’re not being watched by the great MCN eye in the sky. It’s just that the average age of a European motorcyclist is 36-37. Fact. And, like you, he’s getting older.

For the majority of us this is a “good thing”. This is because the minority gets what we want, or lumps it. It’s the tyranny of democracy in action, or more simply put, there’s more of us to sell to so we’re going to be the key target group for every manufacturer as the years roll by.

So in ten years time when Mr Average European Motorcyclist is 46-47, the major developments in bikes will pander to people of that age. Sounds good to me (d.o.b 31.12.65)

Yamaha Europe’s Takahiro (Tony) Maeda says we shouldn’t start worrying that building machines for more rickety riders will mean pipe-and-slippers style or performance. And he IS a man who knows. He is Yamaha Motor Europe’s bike product planning division manager. So he knows the bikes Yamaha is starting to think about now but which you’ll see for the first time in as many as five years’ time.

He also has enough experience of these things (earned via Yamaha Japan and U.S. before Europe) to be cute enough to steer me neatly away from specifics as we chat around the pool of a fine hotel in Seville.

But he is willing to talk in general terms about how Yamahas will be in ten years time.

” In the 1970s and 80s the motorcycle market was driven by young people, 18-20 years old. Since then it has been growing more mature. The motorcycle population is getting older and older, ” he says.

” So while they started with small bikes (like TZs) when they reached their 30s they wanted 600s. Now they are around 36-37 and they are demanding 600s-1000s.

” Maybe ten years from now they will be in their 40s and I wonder if they will still enjoy sport and supersports bikes? ”

” Perhaps they will be looking for a different kind of excitement? ”

No one is saying there won’t be room for the next generation R1 (M1, or whatever) but it may be true that demand for it will have fallen. Either that or it will have to have more all-round abilities.

Even now, some dealers are finding they can’t get enough Thundercats, a bike many of us assumed would go quietly into the night with the arrival of the R6. The R6 is regarded as the extreme 600 by many. Too extreme, it seems, for a significant number.

There is a growing audience of people wanting performance machines with a few more creature comforts, such as a pillion seat which won’t put your marriage in jeopardy.

The continued demand for the Thundercat is making senior Yamaha thinkers consider their next move in the ever-more-important 600 market very carefully. A new Yamaha aluminium casting technique, for example, could save up to 8kg off the weight of an R6. But does the R6 need to be that much more extreme? Or do you use this gain to give it a more comfortable seat and a bigger tank? Perhaps you say, what the hell, and build a next-generation Thundercat AND an even-more extreme R6 to satisfy two distinct groups of customers… that’s if you can afford the marketing budgets, production and tooling costs. This product-planning lark is never easy.

In some influential quarters, questions are being raised about who the most extreme bikes are being designed for. For example, if an R1 can only be used to its fullest by a handful of racers, and to 90-95 per cent by an exclusive group of bike journalists, how many people is the bike actually satisfying?

Whatever Yamaha decides on, there are certain elements which will remain true of its bikes.

It is extremely important that they remain exciting. Excitement comes in many forms. It could be outright power and top speed. But increasingly there is a realisation that excitement comes from things like acceleration, handling, torque, sound… and style.

” Today the core customer is looking for speed and acceleration and I think that market will remain, but I guess older people might look for a different type of satisfaction, from torque, or sound or the pulse of the engine. Performance will remain important but it could be a different kind of performance, ” says Mr Maeda.

Style is of vital importance for him. Just because you get physically older, it doesn’t stop you wanting stylish, good looking things (stand up Miss Minogue).

Yamaha is adamant that good-looking design will remain a corner-stone of what it does, looking forward into the future.

Yamaha has also recognised that insurance is a huge issue across Europe. A good example of a response to that is the Bulldog. Certainly it’s a very stylish bike, it handles well, sounds good, offers the drive of V-twin torque, but ultimately isn’t a brutal power monger, and that’s something insurers certainly like. Rivals will be watching its sales very carefully.

Yamaha claims to always be listening to what you want. It is part of the process of improving its current bikes and coming up with ideas for new ones.

” If a customer wanted to have an influence in the design process, we have a design café on the Yamaha Europe website. The information we get from this is taken very seriously, ” says Mr Maeda.

R6, R1 and FJR1300 owners have already given feedback through motorcyclenews.com which is being handed to senior men in Japan and Europe to help shape future developments.

But at the end of the day, brave men have to make tough calls about where they see the market moving. They have to start planning something today which you have no idea you want… until its finished and in production.

Of course a lot of the same ideas about how bikes should be, and will be, are shared by other manufacturers. They all know we want machines that perform, that look good, that sound right… and all the rest. It’s the emphasis that each places on each of these key ideas which will ultimately make the difference.