Yesterday, on my regular ride into White City, I struck up a conversation with a fellow rider whilst we waited for red to become green, as you do.
After an initial chat about his quite unique homemade baffle system, we got to comparing notes regarding his Triumph Tiger and my Aprilia Tuono. The wonderful thing about it was that we were both very happy with our respective steeds, so too was the passing cyclist who had by this point in time joined our conversation. My own satisfaction stems from a chassis which truly handles like it wants to race (the pleasure of hitting bends in a pinpoint accurate fashion is one of my own particular quirky pleasures), the motor is powerful enough for all my needs and yet lacks that heady top-end rush of insanity that brings points without the prizes; his the ride height and riding balance when in slow traffic. We both were united in thinking that the tank size was inadequate, another design compromise (after all, what is motorcycle design other than a series of compromise decisions) at the expense of what are perceived more important criteria.
Later on that morning, after coffee and porridge, this got me thinking - much is made of the power, performance, handling, torque, refinement and technological sophistication, but much less is made of what defines the ideal bike for most of us.
In relatively recent times, since the current recession hit in fact, there has been a shift by manufacturers away from the conventional motorcycle design ethos. Traditionally we had sports bikes, typically superbike and supersport, aping their track focused race cousins and built in an ever less practical fashion; but what else was on offer, traditionally we had the:
• Tourers, built to carry the family, their luggage and to munch the miles in absolute comfort, typically handling like a barge out of water though, try picking one up off the floor after it's fallen off its stand and you'll know what I mean
• Off-road/On-road Adventure confused.com bikes, the 'Ewan and Charlie' bikes, offering big, upright riding, greater road presence, and tipping their caps to an off-road capability rarely utilised
• Learner oriented 125's and 'first big bike' nakeds, practical, economic and so bland that one can totally understand why the lust for the glamour and sophistication of sports bikes develops
• Off-road bikes, for, well, off road riding, with knobbly tyres, long travel suspension and pretty well every bit of road accoutrement removed that the law will allow
• Trials bikes, designed to be used by nobody other than those wishing to exhibit their silky sense of balance and control or road race riders in their off-season
In the past number of years we've had greater genre diversity appear:
• Sports nakeds, for the likes of myself who want to ape their racing heroes, fancy themselves as a bit of a 'fast road rider' but want the bike to remind them when they're going too fast (i.e. when your arms are being tugged by what seems to be a whole tug-of-war team and your head is being buffeted about like the losing fighter in a heavyweight boxing title bout)
• Sports-tourers, offering a little sportiness, a dash of luggage wielding capacity and soupcon of comfort
• Supermotard, think motocross with sporty tyres, tiny tanks, plank-hard seats and a 'foot out' turning style
The market was already suffering, decreasing sales, the average age of riders increased, the number of new or young riders reducing. Much was blamed on the prices, but closer scrutiny shows that in real world comparisons the price/perceived value of a motorcycle has improved; the actual safety and perception of safety are more than likely to be to blame. I personally also think that fewer people are willing to suffer the privation of cold fingers, aching bums and stiff knees that your average rider takes as part of the experience to gain the enjoyment that riding gives, we live in an ever softer sedentary culture, one in which school sports are rendered insignificant and the warm velvet cosseted socialverse is producing ever more droves of people willing to live vicariously through others (such as those who watch latter day warrior motorcycle racers compete through their LED windows on the world rather than venture out into the cold and often damp air themselves).
To counter this, the ever resourceful and inventive motorcycle manufacturers have responded with genre-spanning creations. Witness the reception in the press over the last two years for the KTM SM-T or Ducati Multistrada, the former a touring oriented supermotard, the latter a 'Ewan and Charlie' with sports and touring pretensions; both unified in their success in terms of uniting opinion and resulting sales. These two machines were the preserve of the relatively well-off rider though, what of the large volume producing Japanese manufacturers?
Kawasaki has the generalist Versys, commonly held to be their best 'pound for pound' bike on the market. This year we have the new Kawasaki Z1000SX, what is touted as a 'real world' sports bike and those that have ridden it attest to its versatility and cost-effective thrills without the discomfort involved in riding a true focused sports bike for any length of time. Honda have revealed the Crossrunner, what seems to be an Adventure/Naked/SportsTourer hybrid, although receiving mixed receptions when first revealed I sense that people are beginning to see the sense in Honda's R&D thinking, something which is all things to most people for most purposes every day.
This leads me back ('at last' I hear you sigh) to my original thoughts and subsequent conclusions. For everyday riding, for the majority of us riding day-in, day-out, on sunny day or on dank, dismal night, we need the two wheels under us to be all things for all occasions. We need them to be able to slow rapidly when that hazard comes shooting out from nowhere on that rain-sodden November night; we need them to accelerate out of trouble for that one occasion you fluff a bend or mistime an overtake; we need them remain balanced when crawling in static traffic; we need them to have sufficient remaining fuel on that occasion on the journey to Devon when you've just passed a service station and have no idea where or when the next will appear and maybe most importantly we still need them provide that 'fun factor', that rush to the head when cranking over around a bend, that sensation which forces an otherwise grown man to choose to continue around the roundabout 3 times or get giddy with excitement at the thought of the next motorway exit road.
I suspect that although we will continue to see bikes manufactured within the constraints of classic genre, in part to appeal to us typically traditionalist bikers; we are more than likely to see manufacturers producing increasing numbers of genre-spanning bikes (genre-benders if you like), to spread the appeal amongst potential buyers and to hedge their bets and avoid costly R&D flops in a time of economic adversity. With what had happened in Japan very recently, I suspect the Japanese manufacturers in particular will adopt this strategy with flagship 'performance oriented' machines being PR vehicles only to garner attention in support of their alternatives.
With the 2010 season seeing numerous changes, the one change that people were most unsure of is now coming to a climax. This year we are witness to a title showdown where the top six riders after the regular season (9 rounds) were eligible for the final fight to the finish over the remaining 3 rounds. This was all complicated somewhat by the numbers (as detailed at the start of the season) but the crux of which left us with an equalised points scoring based upon 500 points plus additions for podium finishes. 
