EICMA 2024: Exciting New Motorcycles hitting dealerships

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EICMA has wrapped up and there are a ton of bikes that may hit dealerships for next season.

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Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. Well, the Milan show has wrapped and there are a number of new bikes to be excited about. I'm focusing on those that are coming to the U.S. market as well as Europe.

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So grab some coffee and let's dive in.

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So what is EICMA? Well, EICMA is the annual International Motorcycle show in Milan, Italy, and it's open to the general public, but it's mostly a trade show and it often has hundreds of thousands of visitors. Now, the biggest booths tend to be the motorcycle manufacturers, but accessory and even OEMs now also have booths in most European and Asian brands use this show to announce upcoming products. And while it's mostly focused on the EU market, we do learn about bikes that may come to North America.

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So let's dive into some of the new bikes. And I'm going to start with the adventure segment because this is the most popular segment of motorcycles today, and there's a bunch of new, exciting things. And I'm going to do this almost in a descending capacity order with the ones that are the most powerful. These are the ones that tend to be the premium end of the market are the ones we're going to touch on first.

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And the one that has to be talked about is the new KTM 1390 Super Adventure S and Evo.

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Now, this is another one of those super sized motors. We just had the R 1300 GS from BMW launched this past year. We've got the R 1300 GS adventure that came on and now KTM has also bumped up their capacity. This bike is now producing 173 horsepower from 1350 CCS. And the other thing that they've added in to this bike, particularly on the EVO model, is it has an automated manual.

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Now what's cool about on the KTM model is that this works almost more like a scooter with a centrifugal clutch. And what that means is that when it actually is parked, unlike a normal manual transmission motorcycle, where you just leave it into first gear, you let the clutch out and it's not going to go anywhere. Here there's actually a park mode. And what that means is that it engages a pawl in the transmission to just keep everything from moving and avoid the bike rolling away on you. If you've ever had a scooter, you know that they typically don't have this. And so there's nothing that's keeping the bike from rolling away even when it's parked.

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Another thing that we have is adaptive cruise control. This is going to be standard on the EVO model, and this is very similar to what we see on a lot of cars today. And effectively there's a little bit of a radar in the front of the bike. This is measuring the distance from the vehicle that is in front of you and you can set a appropriate following distance in the bike, will maintain that either slowing down or even hitting the brakes to maintain that distance, and then it will accelerate up to whatever maximum speed that you've set. This is optional on the S, but it's going to be standard on the EVO.

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Now the other one that we have to talk about is the Yamaha, Tenere 700. Now, this has been a market buster in a lot of ways.

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It is one of the most popular mid-size adventure bikes on the market today and for a lot of good reasons, it came in with an amazing design to it. It just looks like one of those Dakar rally bikes. It's also very good capability and it's not breaking the bank in terms of cost, so it's hit the sweet spot that has made it really, really appealing to a lot of riders. And what they've decided to do was add on some capabilities that were maybe holding some riders back from purchasing it in the past.

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And one of the ways that they've done this is that now it has ride by wire and this allows you to have multiple ride modes.

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This is becoming very popular across multiple bikes and now the Tenere has this The other thing that that allows you to then do is have a traction control system. The other aspect that has been changed is if you remember, the original Tenere had a sort of a vertically oriented, essentially LCD display. It was not a very modern looking display. Well, they've gone full TFT And this includes smartphone connectivity, including turn by turn NAV via Google Maps. My thought with that is, while it works well for street riding, it's not going to be super helpful off road as Google Maps tends to really focus on streets as opposed to trails. we'll have to see what happens when that gets into dealerships and we can get a closer look and see exactly what the capabilities or not are and get a little bit more of a review onto the particular bike.

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Another one and this is possibly going to be the most welcome change because a lot of people who have bought the Tenere 700 ended up upgrading the suspension because it was not exactly the most premium. It was not the most adjustable. Well, they've really sort of focused on to this. And the big thing that's coming in now is there's a 43 millimeter KYB fork with both preload adjustment and compression and rebound dampening adjustments. And it offers 8.3 inches of travel. The rear shock has also been revised, offering preload and rebound dampening and 7.9 inches of travel. So it's a good amount of travel on this bike. But now with more adjustability, this may make it a little bit more compelling for other riders who the original shocks weren't up to snuff for them. A couple of other changes is there's been some ergonomic improvements by enabling a little bit more legroom. They did this by shrinking a little bit of the side cases of the engine case and also a new seat. So the hope is that this will make it a little bit more comfortable for more riders. And then there's also a little bit of a change to the styling. It still maintains the rally appeal of the previous generation, but it now has a quad led headlight and a little bit of changes in there but it does freshen it up, looks a little bit more in there. And the most remarkable thing I think of all is with all of that capability, all these new updates, the price is only increased by $200. So very good economics in terms of getting a lot of value for your dollar. I think Yamaha is going to have a really compelling option here.

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Now, the next one I want to talk about is coming from Aprilia and this particular model has been a very popular bike for more of that mid-size adventure bike and it's maybe a little bit on the smaller end.

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And this is the Aprilia Tuareg.

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Today, they now have a new model that's coming out, the Aprilia Tuareg rally. And this essentially is giving us more travel and improved suspension.

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It's giving more protection with skid plates and reinforced hand guards, some heavy duty rims.

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And it's actually 11lbs lighter now coming in at 439lbs. So this bike is an incredibly light for an adventure bike that you can actually take off road. So really, really exciting to see this coming together.

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Of course, for me, as a long time BMW GS Rider, the one that I think was the most interesting to see was the new BMW F450GS prototype. Now they claim this is near production ready, and this Baby GS is really aimed at A2 licenses, so it's limited to 48 horsepower.

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But whereas most of the other competitors in this size are producing a single cylinder engine or a thumper, this is actually a small parallel twin and what this should enable is to have a little bit smoother engine sound, a little bit smoother operation, which can make it a little bit more interesting for adventure style riding Now it is supposed to be offroad ready with a fully adjustable inverted fork. At 386lbs, it isn't the lightest enduro, but it's not bad for an ADV and it has a similar x headlight to the R1300GS, which keeps the family resemblance, at least in terms of the new design that BMW is going for. Now, a couple of things that might hold back some people is it only has a 19 inch front wheel. And while that's pretty standard on the big GS, they may have missed the mark here in not offering a 21 inch the new F900GS, of course, does have a 21 inch. So it's a little bit more offroad oriented.

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This one with the 19 seems to be a little bit more the middle of the road, more road oriented like the big GS. So I'm not sure where that's going to net out.

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They may have an option. We'll see when it gets close to the market of a 21 inch, which would make it perhaps a little bit more offroad focused. But this could slot nicely between the G310GS and the F900GS in BMW's lineup.

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Now another bike. That's going to be big news certainly for the European market is the new Suzuki DRZ4S and the 4SM.

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And the reason why this is so compelling for those particular markets in the EU is the bike has actually been out of the EU market for a number of years due to emissions. The old bike had carburetors. It was it was not up to snuff in terms of a lot of the Euro five and Euro five plus emission requirements that are throughout Europe. So this bike coming into the market today is going to enable that to come back into there. Now, this is also going to be coming to the US and it's going to fully replace the outgoing DRZ400 models. What they've changed is it has a brand new 398 CC engine, which includes a slipper clutch producing 38 horsepower. Some people will be a little frustrated, though it's still only has a five speed transmission, though there are suggestions that they have changed the ratios to make it a little bit more useful versus what the old bike had. Couple of other things that are added on to this is now of course it has fuel injection, so that will make for better emissions capability. It's not going to have all of the carb adjustments that one has to do as you're going up and down various elevations. And it also has ride by wire, which gives rider modes and traction control. It has a Bosch ABS that can be set in three different modes depending upon whether it's the dual sport or the Supermoto version. And this is where you can have both wheels having abs engaged. Only the front wheel, which is very typically used in an road situation, or even having both disabled, which I believe will only be on the supermoto. It has an all new frame with a 46 mm inverted fork offering 11 inches of travel with both compression and rebound adjustments. And in the rear you've got 11.6 inches of travel with adjustments for preload compression and rebound.

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So a little bit more capability in terms of your adjustments.

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This could make this a more compelling offering, especially if you want to keep it at a good a good price point. The super motor variant has slightly less travel, though, with 10.2 inches in the front and 10.9 in the rear and it's 333lbs for the dual sport and 340 for the supermoto. Of course. All of this has brand new bodywork. It actually looks as though it has a bit of a projector beam headlight from some of the images that were shared. This could be a wonderful add on because the original DRZ400 has been very popular in most ADV circles. It's a low priced bike.

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It's certainly very capable off road and versus getting something that's a little bit more on the racing side of dual sports like the KTM offerings, this is going to be significantly cheaper and lower maintenance. So it's really good to see this being refreshed.

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And finally, we'll touch on the KTM 390 Adventure R and now the smallest KTM on the market has the R treatment and what this is, is their higher end version. They typically do this across their model line.

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The new WP Apex suspension bumps to 9.1 inches of travel versus 6.7 on the front and seven on the rear of the regular ADV model. So if you want to go a little bit off the beaten path with your KTM, this new 390 adventure R might be the right option.

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So next we're going to get into a couple of the classic and or standard type of motorcycles.

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And the first one that I'm going to talk about is the Yamaha XSR900. Now, this bike is a little bit of a throwback with a modern retro feel, so it does still evoke some of that old style bikes, but has a little bit of elements to it that are more modern. And what they've added in for this year is to maybe push it a little further towards that modern era. And by doing so, what they've added in is a five inch color TFT display, which has phone connectivity. It also has a six axis IMU and ride modes plus enhanced traction control systems. So maybe a little bit less of that retro.

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Remains to be seen how much that TFT is going to perhaps fight against the styling of that old that old look of the XR 900.

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Now. Next, we're going to talk about Moto Guzzi's V7 line.

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Now, I actually test rode the Moto Guzzi V7 this past year. I actually fell in love with it.

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It is a bike that I'm going to be adding into the garage. Now the V seven sport joins the stone and the special and what has been added across the line is a move to ride by wire throttle. Now in the sport this gives a very small horsepower increase and bigger torque increase over the previous gen models. It's about four or five foot lbs of torque and about two horsepower. So nothing that's going to suddenly make it feel like it's a massive sport bike.

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Now the ride by wire is going to give in traction control. And perhaps the most interesting, particularly for this bike, which some people are using as almost a Italian cruiser in some ways is cruise control. So now you have the option to actually do this. It's not necessarily the most complicated for doing speed up or speed down, but it's sort of a one button design. But you now have cruise control available onto the V seven models, and that works across all three of them, not just the sport. Riding modes, of course, of Road and Rain will be across all of the models and the sport is going to get a third mode, which is sport mode, now the V seven sport has some physical differences as well from the other models. In the first one would be that it has a preload adjustable 41 mm. Inverted fork versus the 40 Mm. Non adjustable on the other models the sport has dual 320 mm. Discs with Brembo Radial mount four piston calipers versus a single disc on the other models. Now the one that I actually think is the most disappointing to see of the news because it was what was actually the appealing one to me is the special no longer has the dual analog gauges. It uses the same LCD that was on the stone that has the almost the eagle design built into its shape, but it's now doesn't have that same old school feel of the dual analog gauges. The other change is the headlight. Gone is the halogen headlight that we had before, and it's been replaced with the same headlight that you'll find on the stone. This is the one that has that same sort of eagle design into its shape. Now, the sport has an additional capability, which is a six axis IMU, which is offering improved traction control and ABS and while this is becoming almost a expectation for a lot of bikes on the market today, I wonder, with only 67 horsepower, how necessary is it?

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How likely are you going to really get that rear end loose with that little power? So it's nice that it's available, but I don't know how necessary it is.

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The one thing I will say with the V seven sport particularly is it now comes in a phenomenal green, which is evocative of the original V seven sport back in the seventies. So it looks really, really sharp. If you get a chance, take a look at it and see that new that new model. I think it looks outstanding.

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Now another bike that still fits into that classic genre is the new Royal Enfield classic 650. Now, if you take the styling that people love about the Bullitt and the classic 350, but you stuff the motor from the Continental GT into it and you have the new classic 650. I actually have some riding buddies who have test ridden the original Bullitt and classic 350. They love the style of it, they love the feel of it, but they felt that the power was a little too low to use on roads here in the U.S., A 650 could change that equation.

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So it's very exciting to see that bike coming out.

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All right. Let's switch gears. Let's go into some of the new sport bikes that are coming out.

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Well, we've got to start with Aprilia with the RSV4 and the RSV4 factory. Now, this bike, the power has increased again, it's now 220 horsepower, up from 217, which already was an insane amount of power to have on a bike my BMW S1000R has 160 horsepower. The number of times I can use all of that power on a public road is minimal. 220 just seems insane. But they've taken the bike. They've added in more power. They've also redesigned the bodywork to reduce drag and improve rider protection not from a crash, but in terms of from air. The other thing is that this is maybe getting a little bit on the ChatGPT wagon with some of the AI capabilities they now have advanced rider aids with predictive algorithms that will intervene with wheelie control, traction control in rear wheeled slide and they claim this learns the rider's style. So very interesting to see this come to market. I don't think we've been seeing AI coming into a lot of rider control, certainly not in motorcycles, maybe in cars you're starting to see a little bit. But this is interesting to see. The other thing that they've done with these bikes is realizing how many of the people who will buy them want to take them to the track. It's very easy to convert this bike over to a track bike as the rear indicators also provide brake indication and they can be unbolted from the number plate very, very easily. So super simple to get your bike ready to go on the track.

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Now staying in Italy, we've got to talk about the new Ducati, Panigale and Streetfighter V2. Now the V2 has been around for a while, but what changed with this year is it's an all new 890 CC, 120 horsepower engine that gives up the desmo. And if you remember, Desmo Valves was pretty much the epitome of Ducati for the longest time now with the V4, they did switch to more of a conventional spring return on the valves. So the V2 was the only one that still had the desmo as far as their top line Ducati brand bikes. So that is no more. We are now back down to a full spring return on the valves across the line, this motor claims to be a little bit lighter than the outgoing engine and with 120 horsepower, it's maybe not the most powerful bike under the sun, but certainly for road use, it's going to give you a lot of this could be a perfect road sport bike.

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Now next I want to talk about it's not a bike per se, but it's something that Honda was teasing at the show and this is their new V three engine. Now, most people know about a V2 or V-TWIN. Very common in Harleys, very common in Indians. Even the Moto Guzzi that we described before is also a v-twin, although twisted around 90 degrees, the V twins are very common. A V3, though is extraordinarily rare. Even triples in general aren't all that common in motorcycles.

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Pretty much the only ones who have it is Yamaha and Triumph is probably the biggest one that have them, but they're inline threes, not V threes. And what Honda has done is that they're offering a new water cooled V3 with forced induction. A lot of people will understand that forced induction most people think of certainly on the car industry, we think of turbochargers or Superchargers and a supercharger is one that's gear driven, connected directly physically to the engine, to the main crankshaft, and a turbocharger would be one that is driven off of the exhaust gases coming out of the engine.

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In Honda's new V3, it's actually neither of those two options.

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Instead, it's an electrically driven compressor. And this is going to be very interesting because this allows them to effectively eliminate any sort of turbo lag whatsoever, but also not have all of the drag that one would have from a supercharger. So this could be a really, really interesting option that could be far more efficient than some other designs while still generating a tremendous amount of power. So very interesting to see that they're talking about this, Don't know what type of bike it's going to mean yet, although I would anticipate this would probably lean towards one of their sport bikes. But very exciting news to see this coming together.

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So let's wrap up. Well, we talked about several of the new adventure bikes that were announced that I think there's some really exciting stuff that's coming out with that. We also talked about some of the new classic looking bikes from Royal Enfield, the Moto Z, V7, Ducati and Aprilia highlighted their new sport bikes. And of course, Honda had that new engine configuration with the V3 with forced induction. There's going to be a very exciting motor. But my question for you is which bike are you most excited about from EICMA? Text your thoughts to us via the link in the show notes. Thanks for listening and if you like the show, please follow it in your favorite podcast app.