Look into the future and you find one indisputable truth: Things will be different. Beyond that, there are only diverging differences of opinion, conjecture and some well-educated guesses. Fuel cells? Solar panels? Wheels? Magnetic levitation?
What's it going to be like 20, 30, 50 years down the road from here? According to David Robb, vice president of motorcycle design at BMW Motorrad in Munich, "There isn't going to be 'a' future, because there's no limit to the possible combinations out there." There are as many different ways to look at what's coming in the next half-dozen decades or so as there are experts to ask. That's what makes it fun. We dialed up a few of the people who get paid to peer into the future and asked where motorcycles were headed. The consensus? Motorcycles are going to be around for a lot longer than most of us, and while nobody knows exactly what we'll be riding in 2050, it won't be boring.
MotoGP 2050Is This What Valentino Rossi Iii Will Be Racing?Relative to the relationship between Formula 1 and production automobiles, MotoGP represents a more direct technology trickle-down to the streetbikes we can buy-meaning it's a more relevant breeding ground for future proddie bikes.
Still, there are caveats. Increasing reliance on electronics can only reduce the quality of racing as bikes reach their limits, progressively factoring the rider out of the equation and reducing opportunities for the type of cut-n-thrust passing that's so exciting. That combination could eventually cost MotoGP its status as the high-tech leader with regard to electronics. Just as it is with cars, production bikes may someday possess features not permitted in racing.
At first glance, GP bikes of the future will be outwardly similar to what we have today. Evolution, not revolution, drives advancement. As current technologies reach their limits, however, new leaps in performance will appear.
Suspension has been neglected for too long. Alternative designs offer benefits, provided they can at least match the performance of today's telescopic fork. But the goal is to surpass contemporary performance. As the next generation of riders grows up without connections to convention, new applications will be greeted with acceptance instead of skepticism.
Packaging will be the biggest difference. Manufacturers are just beginning to reap the benefits of mass-centralization, and the future may see a headlong rush to this concept.
Chassis integration has ruled F1 for the past two and a half decades. The same idea will be taken to extremes in MotoGP, where the conventional chassis will likely vanish. The trend is already visible with the current crop of bikes, especially the Ducati GP07, which only uses half a trellis compared to a 1098, and employs its engine as a fully stressed chassis member.
The current trend of reducing displacement to control power output will likely continue, driving engine speeds into the stratosphere. At the same time, various electronic and mechanical technologies will afford tuners greater control. Pneumatic valve-return systems are already en vogue, and electromagnetic valve actuation will be the next step.
Fuels will change as well. Racing is in danger of becoming an irrelevant consumer of fossil fuels, and there may be pressure to move to an alternative such as corn-based ethanol as the Indy Racing League did for the '07 season. Ethanol would be less attractive to MotoGP turners, however, because with 60 percent the calorific rate of gasoline, pit stops might be required.
What else? Hydrogen is prohibitively expensive, and thus only realistic in four-wheeled motorsport, if at all. Butanol, however, offers an attractive possibility. Its energy density is close to gasoline's. And since it can be distilled from the same feedstocks that produce ethanol, it's a socially acceptable alternative to burning dead dinosaurs.