With industry trade shows like EICMA and INTERMOT having to cancel their 2020 plans because of coronavirus concerns, motorcycle brands are having to get creative on how they are debuting their 2021 wares.
To that end, Ducati has just released its plan, and it involves over a month of stealing headlines with its new model year releases.
BMW Motorrad is beginning the release of its new motorcycles for the 2021 model year, and first up is the new BMW R18 Classic.
Calling this air-cooled 1,800cc cruiser a “new” model might be a stretch, since the bike is heavily based off the BMW R18 that is just now getting to dealerships.
In case you haven’t noticed, the release of new motorcycles is already well underway in Milan, even though the EICMA show doesn’t officially start until tomorrow (Tuesday).
The biggest trade show for the motorcycle show, EICMA is truly a bucket list item for motorcyclists. It is HUGE. It is crazy. It is full of Italians….and it is full of motorcycle enthusiasts.
It is finally here! Our favorite time of the year! I am of course talking about the new bike season, where the majority of the new motorcycles for the coming model year are debuted at events around the world.
For this round, the model year is going to be a year filled with new bikes, primarily because of the changes required for the Euro5 homologation. As such, we expect to see virtually every manufacturer coming out with something new, especially at the EICMA show in Italy and the Tokyo Motor Show in Japan.
What is interesting about this year’s edition though is how many bikes we will see before these to stalwart events. This is because the brands are finally catching on that their products get lost in the sea of unveilings that occur in Milan and Tokyo.
Accordingly, we see Ducati setting up its own special event in Rimini for October 23rd. Similarly, other brands have teased late-October and early-November unveiling dates for select models, though we expect more will follow Ducati’s lead in the coming years.
With a number of intriguing models teased and rumored ahead of these events, it will be interesting to see what actually comes true. To get our A&R Pro readers ready for the onslaught, I have put together one big fat awesome guide to the new motorcycle releases for 2020.
This list is as comprehensive as I can make it, and quite frankly a lot more detailed than what I’ve seen elsewhere on the internet, probably because it involves A&R pestering our Bothan spies for info all year.
I will update this story as more rumors surface ahead of the trade shows and unveiling events.
Motorcyclists who bleed green will be happy to hear that Kawasaki has FIVE new models to show us, between its unveilings at the Tokyo Motor Show and what is to come at EICMA.
From the company’s website, two of the upcoming machines will debut in Tokyo, while the other three will be launched at EICMA. Best of all, we have a pretty good idea what those bikes will be.
The new bike season is starting to heat up, and the zenith is only a few weeks away. I am of course talking about the EICMA show in Milan.
As such, the Germans are gearing up for a big show in Italy this year, with an all-new booth design, and more importantly, four new motorcycles to showcase.
We know this, because BMW Motorrad told us so in a press release, but the real information we are craving is which bikes we will see in Milan, and for that, we have some strong guesses.
It appears that Triumph has a new sport bike for us to drool over, and no I’m not talking about the recently debuted Triumph Daytona Moto2 765 supersport.
But, today’s news does concern a 765cc three-cylinder motorcycle: the Triumph Street Triple RS.
We know this is the case because the British brand is hocking the new bike in a not-so-subtle way on social media right now (check the teaser video above).
We also know a few details about this upcoming machine, and that includes the new aesthetic to the iconic dual front headlights, which incorporates a DRL design.
The wait is finally over, as Big Red has finally taken the wraps off its revised version of the Honda Africa Twin for the Euro5 emission standard.
The result is a “CRF1100L” motorcycle, which tips the notion that this adventure-tourer has an 86cc displacement increase, as expected. This accounts for a 7% increase in peak power (101hp / 75 kW), along with a 6% increase in peak torque (77 lbs•ft / 105 Nm).
Despite all this, the 2020 Honda Africa Twin gets a modest weight reduction as well, to the tune of an extra 10 lbs (501 lbs at the curb, non-DCT model). But most importantly, the Japanese brand has brought some significant features to the fray, making the Africa Twin not only potent, but sophisticated.
One of our eagle-eyed readers sent us this image, which shows a fully-faired Zero SR/F electric motorcycle out in the wild, near the headquarters of Zero Motorcycles.
The photo is our first piece of concrete proof that a fully-faired model of the electric sport bike is coming, though there have been rumors of the machine since before the official debut of the SR/F itself.
The eggheads at Kawasaki have been busy readying themselves for the 2020 model year, and it seems that they have something special in the works.
We say this because Team Green just dropped a teaser video for a new supercharged motorcycle – and we expect it to be sporty.
Details are pretty limited, but we know that the new bike will belong to Kawasaki’s “Z” family, which consists of its sport bike models. Could we see the supercharged version of the Z1000? We certainly hope so.
Now that we have the arrival of the new BMW S1000RR superbike in 2019, our gaze looks deeper into BMW Motorrad’s lineup for the 2020 model year.
Specifically, our attention is on the company’s inline-four sport bike lineup, which always takes its cues from the Bavarian brand’s superbike offering.
As such, a new S1000RR superbike necessitates a new S1000R streetfighter and S1000XR adventure-sport – at least, this is how it has worked in the past.
If you listened to the rumors coming ahead of this year’s new bike season, then we surely are about to see a new BMW S1000XR debuting at the EICMA show in Milan this November. But, what about an updated BMW S1000R? Not so much, it seems.