I was thinking about this and I would say right now as far as producing motorcycle art that raises the bar I would say Ducati. I base this on the Daviel, Multistrada, Streetfighters, and of course the Pinagale. No one else has a lineup like that covering so much of the many ways to enjoy riding with the possible exception of BMW. I would put BMW at a close second mainly because their products are pretty "safe", breaking new performance barriers with typical engineering approaches.
It's amazing that the Japanese have completely dropped out of the picture. When you consider that Honda and Yamaha still dominate the top racing classes and Suzuki is still competitive in the lower classes, you just have to wonder why they don't fire back. It really seems like they have lost interest, especially in the performance bike area.
It could be that their product planners missed the boat. For example, Yamaha invested heavily in the crossplane crank, throttle by wire, and adjustible intake track. But electronics have made all that more or less beside the point as you can now build a screaming monster and tame it with TC. It's also amazing that Kawasaki would put out both a ZX-10 & ZX-14 without clearly dominant horsepower outputs.
I really think BMW stole everyone's fire by jumping in with a bike that was 2 generations ahead of the status quo with the S1000RR. I think everyone except Ducati is trying to figure out what's next and how to afford doing it. It's also possible this is taking development away from bikes like the Busa as manufactures must focus all the R&D money on their liter bikes.
Thoughts?
It's amazing that the Japanese have completely dropped out of the picture. When you consider that Honda and Yamaha still dominate the top racing classes and Suzuki is still competitive in the lower classes, you just have to wonder why they don't fire back. It really seems like they have lost interest, especially in the performance bike area.
It could be that their product planners missed the boat. For example, Yamaha invested heavily in the crossplane crank, throttle by wire, and adjustible intake track. But electronics have made all that more or less beside the point as you can now build a screaming monster and tame it with TC. It's also amazing that Kawasaki would put out both a ZX-10 & ZX-14 without clearly dominant horsepower outputs.
I really think BMW stole everyone's fire by jumping in with a bike that was 2 generations ahead of the status quo with the S1000RR. I think everyone except Ducati is trying to figure out what's next and how to afford doing it. It's also possible this is taking development away from bikes like the Busa as manufactures must focus all the R&D money on their liter bikes.
Thoughts?
