Two-wheeled gadfly Harvey Mushman returns, after apparently thumbing through a copy of the Bible that he pinched from a hotel room on his latest RTW tour—Ed.
For a change, let’s dump all the wishful thinking and pointless speculation about the future of motorcycling based on hope and faith in a world that supports neither. Ha. What’s that saying: “…faith, hope, charity; these three. But the greatest of these is charity”? When the Apostle Paul wrote this to the Corinthians, “charity” of course meant love of God for humanity and humanity for God, rather than magnanimously giving your old clothes to “the poor,” but the other two mean what they did when the King James Bible was translated.
So, why do I mention his comments about hope and faith? Because they are all very well, but unfortunately they have led to many people subscribing to false hope and faith.
False hope is the totally unjustified expectation that somehow, internal combustion engines will continue to be made, and will be able to be fitted to motorcycles. As is so often the case with hope, this is stretching the bow of probability to its limit and then flinching as it breaks in your hand. Take care that the splinters do not pierce a vital blood vessel and cause you to bleed; if you live by this hope, believe in it and base your future expectations on it your dreams will surely bleed quite freely.
You only need to look at the announced development plans of the major, and many of the minor, motorcycle manufacturers. They are working on electric bikes. I’ve seen a lot of complaints that so many of the news items on this site concern developments in electric power. Well, there’s a reason for that. Most of the news that comes in is about developments in electric power. That’s where innovation is happening.
Sure they’re not all concentrating solely on electricity. Sure Kawasaki has just shown a bike that will burn hydrogen rather than using it in a fuel cell to create electricity. But motorcycle companies show stuff all the time that never makes it to the assembly lines, and hydrogen poses some problems that might be able to be solved, but that will result in motorcycles that don’t look or handle much like current ones.
What of false faith? There are some who have faith that alternative fuels, for example, will be the panacea that delivers internal combustion from its fate. After all, Porsche is spending billions to develop precisely such a fuel and make it in low-cost countries. But have you read the company’s explanation for the expenditure of this largesse? It is so that current Porsche owners will be able to keep driving their cars. The company is keeping faith with its past customers, but meanwhile it is in the process of switching to electrical drives.
Those alternative fuels will be made until there are no old Porsches on the road anymore, or they have all been converted to electric anyway. And if you have expectations of using this fuel in your motorcycle, consider that it will be priced at Porsche owner levels. Ducati being an in-house brand, owners may be able to access it at a discounted price – who knows – but the rest of us will pay whatever Porsche asks. Hey, is this why Volkswagen has just raised a huge amount of money by selling part of Porsche? To finance development of this fuel? I mean, Porsche wants it, let Porsche pay for it rather than drawing on the parent company’s funds.
Where will these fuels be available? Probably not in the backwoods gas stations that you use to fuel up your adventure bike. Fuel goes off, too. With the limited demand for these fuels I doubt that it will always be sold within its effective lifespan. And once the vast majority of vehicles do not need gas any more, gas stations will mostly disappear or be replaced by battery swap stations.
The absurd hope and faith I see out there is not just wasted on fuel. It is also wasted on other changes that are coming.
No amount of faith will save you if your basic assumptions are wrong.
Do you seriously have faith that the technology that allows your GPS or phone to know exactly where you are and what the speed limit is, cannot be used by The Man to know exactly where you are, and how you are riding? All of the independence of motorcycling and much of the fun is on the way out even now. Enjoy it before it is applied openly. And that isn’t even considering the automation of your bike itself with distance-keeping and speed-limiting radar, which is already here. How do you feel about a facility that records how you ride, and gives you demerit points like that Chinese system – possibly in real time in the cloud? Not to mention being accessible to your insurance company, which can then raise your premiums or even refuse to insure you?
And as for those of you who whine that they will stop riding when these kinds of things are introduced (has anyone stopped riding because BMWs, Ducatis and KTMs have those distance- and speed-controlling features?) you are doing the devil’s work, friends. Getting you off motorcycles is exactly what The Man wants to do. Pointlessly squeaking and hoping that someone, somewhere, will take pity on us motorcyclists is a dumb hope indeed.
Let’s leave this cold shower of reality the way we entered it, with charity from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Charity, he wrote, “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.” And charity is the greatest of these three, remember. All the hope and faith in the world won’t change the truth.
