WOW, WE’RE BARELY HALF-WAY

through the launch season, and already I can hardly believe how good the best of the 2015 bikes are! When this year’s crop of new machines were unveiled at Intermot and EICMA last year, it looked as though we were experiencing an advance in two-wheeled performance unmatched in recent decades, never mind years. Having ridden the Ducati 1299 Panigale and KTM 1290 Super Adventure in recent weeks, and with several more exciting new models still to come, I’ve no reason to change that view.

My first years as a bike journalist were in the early 1980s, when the pace of change was remarkable, and still arguably unprecedented unless you count the impact of Honda’s CB750 four a decade earlier still. Within a few years the world’s best bikes progressed from naked, aircooled, steel-framed, twin-shock machines (epitomised by my own 1980-model Suzuki GSX1100) to a new breed with fairings, liquidcooling and aluminium-framed monoshock chassis. By the mid-’80s, bikes like Kawasaki’s GPZ900R and GSX-R750 seemed light years ahead of that GSX.

The gains of the last few years, mainly from electronics and the increased power that such systems allow, are less dramatic than that, and are undetectable until the bikes are ridden. But they still represent a significant advance in performance and safety. It seems to me that motorcycle design is currently experiencing a big jump, in contrast to the steady advance — with occasional bursts, such as the Fireblade, YZF-R1 and S1000RR, or the birth of the big adventure bike with BMW’s R80G/S in 1980 — of recent decades.

The pure speed of these latest models, including the Panigale, Super Adventure and the latest S1000RR, has to be experienced to be believed, but it’s the way that their electronics make the performance so accessible and safe that is the real gain. After all, a few years ago, the best bikes were searingly fast, and handled and braked very well. But if you opened the throttle too far or squeezed the brake lever too hard, especially when leant over (and even more so in slippery conditions), the result was normally expensive and painful.

It is, of course, still possible to crash a 1299 Panigale or Super Adventure, not least by simply leaning one over too far in a slippery corner. But when traction control and cornering ABS systems are as good as the best ones now are, especially in conjunction with the latest tyres, riding faster than ever becomes much safer than ever.

We’re not likely to see a repeat of the launch of the original Aprilia RSV4 at Misano in 2009, when half-a-dozen bikes were crashed on the damp track, or the CBR600RR launch a few years earlier, which was abandoned after twice as many had gone down at slippery Estoril. These days crashes at sports bike launches are rare, even in the damp. More importantly, that trend is presumably mirrored in the real world of owners riding on the road.

And the other positive aspect is that the most dynamic manufacturers (notably Aprilia, BMW, Ducati and KTM) are constantly trying to raise the bar higher. This is resulting not only in some amazing innovations but also in recently introduced technology — whether lean-angle sensors, data recorders, semi-active suspension and cornering ABS, or more down-to-earth yet valuable features such as cleverly shaped and adjustable screens, or heated seats — appearing more frequently.

Better still, many of the advanced features now appearing in expensive flagship models are sure to filter down to more humble bikes before too long. After all, it’s only six years since Ducati’s 1198S became the first production motorcycle with traction control, just a year after the system had made its début on the exotic, track-only 1098R.

It hopefully can’t be many years before no self-respecting manufacturer will launch even a middleweight commuter bike without effective traction control, or even cornering ABS. And it’s only then that the real significance of the brilliant class of 2015 will be felt.