In the second instalment of AMCN’s end of year countdown, we recap the highlights from the two biggest international motorcycle shows.
Tokyo
Famous more for crazy concepts and whacky ideas over customer-ready production bikes, the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show didn’t disappoint. Stealing the show was an illustration from Kawasaki called the SC-01 Spirit Charger which we reckon points to a supercharged big-bore sports tourer – think ZX-14R on steroids.
Coincidentally (or not), Suzuki unveiled the concept GSX which looks suspiciously like a heavily updated Hayabusa, as well as a production version of a turbocharged parallel twin engine.
Notable concept oddities came in the form of leaning three wheelers from both Honda and Yamaha, a motorcycle-riding robot from Yamaha, a 50cc bicycle from Suzuki and a concept model CB1100 from Honda.
EICMA
Signalling an upswing in the global motorcycle market, the 2015 EIMA Motorcycle Expo in Milan featured the most unveils of new models for some time.
The big surprises of the show were Yamaha’s new MT-10 Supernaked, Suzuki’s 2017 GSX-R1000 with variable valve timing and Ducati’s XDiavel feet-forward cruiser.
Every second manufacturer seemed to unveil either a scrambler or retro version of something. Suzuki re-introduced its popular SV650 both in name and form, Triumph didn’t know when to stop and unveiled six different versions of its Explorer, and Aprilia pretty much said we could purchase Alvaro Bautista’s MotoGP-spec RSV4.
Kawasaki was back with yet another illustration of something supercharged, KTM gave long-distance aspirations to its wild 1290 SuperDuke and Ducati finally gave some serious off-road intentions to its Multistrada.