Are Sportbikes Nearing Their Zenith of (Engine) Performance?

Are Sportbikes Nearing Their Zenith of (Engine) Performance?

Let's face it, non-entry level sportbikes just aren't selling like they were a decade ago. With sales figures at an all-time high, in the mid-2000's manufacturers had more reason then ever to invest in the development of sport bikes which lead to somewhat of an arms race resulting in some truly mind-blowing specs. Arguably the most advanced and competitive division of any motorcycle company was sport bike development so it's no wonder how we ended up with sub-400lb machines producing over 200hp at the rear wheel.

But inspite of all the progress, it appears these race bikes for the streets (and track I suppose) are nearing a plateau of sorts and not just because of drying up sales numbers. We very well may be coming ever closer to the peak of what's physically possible, or at least getting damn near it. Tires can only handle so much acceleration, only so much power can be put down before a wheel will just spin in place instead of accelerating you forwards.

Modern engines are for a lack of better words, perfect. They produce so much power in fact that those building new bikes are much more focused on evolving the electronics that keep said power in check, enabling the bike to actually be ridden. This is done via ECU's and fuel mapping, traction control, and ever more advanced ABS with features like IMU systems to help slow the bike down from ridiculous speeds. So it's not about how to get the engine to produce more power, it's about finding a way to get the electronics to make that power more accessible, even MotoGP riders would have trouble running through any sector of any circuit without all these rider assists.

So what does this mean? Well there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that once bikes stop having better specs than previous model years, people will probably stop buying them. The 2017 R6, (though 600's are by no means popular sellers today) should be a good indication of how willing the market is to buy a new model with an unchanged engine, simply because of all new body work and a few extra bells and whistles the 2016 R6 lacked. That's almost certainly what will happen with future literbikes.

Offerings like the new 2017 GSXR1k's variable valve timing is the type of feature that will probably start popping up on new models as manufacturers are going to start having to really get creative to justify new models with last year's power plant.

The positive in all of this is more for riders of bikes rather than the companies building them. We've seen highly advanced race bred machines putting down up to 250hp, though at the moment these are elite machines, unavailable to the majority of riders and their income. Just like any other fancy tech or feature that trickles down from racing into production models, we should start seeing once cutting edge features become common and therefore affordable.

Forced induction may be an interesting byproduct of the new ECU/TC arms race of the twenty-teens. With the exception of Kawasaki's H2 & H2R, we haven't seen a production turbo or supercharged machine since the 80's when the big four (Honda, Kawa, Yammy and Suzuki) all were making turbo models, but with engine development reaching its zenith new selling points have to be discovered and power plants combusting at atmospheric pressure may in a decade be a thing of the past as forced induction machines start to become commonplace. Even today Suzuki filed a patent on a new turbo engine similar to their XE7 which they showed off a few years back.

Another silver lining here is that companies will likely come up with some pretty creative areas to develops. We can expect absurd service intervals on future models and work-horse-esque reliability. Engines won't change much but other aspects, mainly those surrounding aesthetics and convenience will.

The bad news in all of this is that it will hurt manufacturer's bottom lines, making it harder for them to bring us new and innovative technologies.

Also to clarify, I'm not just talking about homolagation specials, though I do expect features from those elite bikes to trickle down to common production models. Though carbon frames and whatnot have become commonplace on some of these ultra-exotic two-wheelers, it shouldn't take long for them to appear common on most machines as companies are going to need a damn good reason to get people to buy new models, especially when the engine is no different than previous versions.

So let's enjoy advancements while we can and look forward to the day we can all comfortably afford streetbikes with comparable specs to today's MotoGP machines. Will traction control and fuel mapping improve in the coming years? yes. Will we soon hit the peak of what is physically possibly, it really looks like it