It's amazing that none of the motorcycle manufacturers have played the economy card. 200mpg is the name of the game for some 12 or 15hp commuters. This may seem incredible given the terrible frugality of most modern cycles but it’s nothing in this technological age, just a matter of direction and persistence on the part of any large motorcycle company, most of whom seem to be running scared and hoping their car, power boat or jet-ski divisions will save them from corporate bankruptcy.
The next deluge of small cars are aiming at 100mpg and something like 99mph performance. True, they won't be cheap initially, nearer ten grand than five, but given their size, weight and engine capacity they show what could be done in the motorcycle world if some company sat down and said go for it to their top designers rather than apprentices. Were not motorcycle sales now so tiny it'd be an ecological necessity but there are so few bikes out there that even if they were all as bad and mean as the Kawasaki H1 it wouldn't make the slightest difference to the overall pollution problem and the greenhouse effect.
The odd third world motorcycle company’s already claiming 200mpg for 100cc two-strokes of such general primitive nature that they would've been laughed at even in the sixties. Even in somewhere as desperate as India, for god sake, they are touting cheap little commuters with marvellous mileage figures even if they have the kind of lines which are an excuse only to pass the sick bucket.
The lack of pollution and noise laws in the third world may have an effect on engine efficiency, but starting with a clean sheet of paper should overcome that; good economy means the fuel is burnt efficiently in the combustion chamber whilst the elimination of noise (which is nothing less than a sign of energy being wasted) also improves efficiency. It’s only when pollution and noise laws are inflicted on an old design that efficiency suffers.
No-one, alas, bothers to design a relatively sophisticated device that can be used all year round, needs no maintenance, provides good protection and inbuilt safety, whilst costing a reasonable amount - say less than £2000. Let's not push things too far, just yet, by demanding it should cost around a grand. Third world countries churn out multitudes of bikes for well under a thousand notes a throw (even with the outrageously devalued pound) and that’s without radical changes in design to eliminate labour intensive tasks. The average low end motorcycle still being in the dark ages with an excess of components and primitive technology.
The problem with the Japanese companies is that they don’t put much effort into the commuter genre, using designs they more or less perfected in the sixties that are produced cheaply by their third world off-shoots, where build quality often ain't quite what it should be. Worse still, are cheap copies made either under licence or through the well trodden path of reverse engineering. Not that there’s anything wrong with reverse engineering, it’s how the whole Japanese engineering might was founded.
The ingredients that make a modern commuter that needs, by the way, to be safe in the motorway fast lane and down dark country roads, are summed up in the old adage of simplifying and adding lightness. But only within the context of true integration of chassis and engine whilst applying the latest in technological developments. The resulting machine has to be so compelling in its dynamics that it completely redefines the motorcycle marketplace. One model selling, for instance, much more than the whole UK market shifted last year.
Look at it this way. Most towns are clogged with cars that are going nowhere fast, running in an incredibly inefficient manner whilst taking up a huge amount of space. As true in London as it is in Bangkok, Tokyo, New York, Rome or anywhere else where there are reasonable concentrations of people. The only thing that these cages offer is the ability, come sun or snow, to sit in great comfort for hours on end, massive frustration and anger levels apart. The only benefit they offer is to the commercial radio stations who can make a killing on the advertising due to their captive (quite literally, some poor cagers don’t even have the space to open their doors) audience. If it wasn’t so damaging to the environment and the health of the nation you couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
The average commuter, be it a small motorcycle, step-thru or scooter, offers one thing only - mobility in town. The fun aspect could be thrown in but to the uninitiated the most obvious feeling is one of fear as the bike skates along on dreadful rubber, wallows on inadequate suspension and threatens an early death in the night from flickering lights, not to mention the total lack of protection from the elements and the tarmac... and that’s for new stuff, people venturing into the used market for the first time are likely to be ripped off every which way even if they pay full attention to the excess of information found within the UMG and avoid the predatory prodigality of the average motorcycle dealer.
All this nonsense has to stop! In 1996 it’s just not on to keep palming off this overpriced and often dangerous junk on to a market that’s desperate for some kind of modern solution to the chaos of British traffic, but running scared of even small commuters with their reputation of near instant suicide and economy, taking into account initial cost and rapid depreciation, that isn’t even that much better than low end cages.
So we come back to safety. You want an illustration of how not to design a solution to the traffic paradigm then take a look at the old Sinclair C5. This went wrong in two respects. First, it offered electric motive power before it was really up to the mark; second, it was so lowly slung that the average lorry driver would drive over it and probably conclude that the road had turned momentarily bumpy if the screams of the injured driver didn't reach him. Those combination of factors killed it dead before it even escaped the drawing board, although a lot of the technology involved, considered separately from overall device, was very innovative.
Radical innovation in the commuter field is needed to slash costs, increase rider safety and protection, and to improve economy and service intervals - not just to equal what’s available in the caged world but to go far beyond it. I know, if it could be done it would have already and all the other bullshit we have rammed down our throats.
The reality is that there ain't a proven market for such a machine and the money needed to design, test and mass produce it represents a large risk that the assumed benefits in terms of sales don't justify... the assumption being that the motorcycle market's in long term decline and that as soon as they get the money people will move on to four wheels for the benefits of improved safety, comfort and status (although how anyone gets status from sitting in traffic for hours on end, beats me). And it’s all too true, but only because the commuter end of the market has been well neglected (please don't get me started on the legions of horrible mini-scooters that some might point to as offering a solution - dangerous crap, only useful as a present for one’s worst enemies as a means of killing them off quickly).
Alas, as much as we might wail and gnash our teeth at such concerns, much preferring in the world of real motorcycling to concentrate on the sheer machoness and danger of an excess of high speed kicks, the revival of the low end of the market's the only long term future that motorcycling has. It's as simple as that.
Bill Fowler
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