Just when you thought all the rider aids had been invented. It’s only a patent but I wouldn’t put it past the Honda engineers to put it on a bike in the future. Crosswinds can be a bit scary but I wonder how many actual accidents are caused by them.
Most of us have spent the majority of our riding lives without the clever electronics so I expect there to be scepticism heaped on this announcement. Personally, like most rider aids on most bikes, I can live without it quite happily.
Another thing to have done for you, no thanks, bikes are for participation, thrills and adventure to me.
We have self driving cars. Will we get to the stage where we have self riding bikes?
What would be the fecking point of that!?
I had the same thought, and came to the same conclusion.
BMW built a self-riding ditchpump already…
A fine example of what I referred to in the ‘cash cow’ thread: coprporate interests wanting to sell us crap that we don’t need. Yes, I’ve had a few uncomfortable rides in strong cross-winds, but I enjoy motorcycling as a simple and direct experience, not something to be automated and sanitised out of existence.
Talking about pointless crap masquerading as technical progress, there’s an interesting article in today’s Guardian: Revealed: car industry was warned keyless vehicles vulnerable to theft a decade ago | Motoring | The Guardian . The article is about cars, but the issue will presumably apply equally to bikes. What was ever the point of replacing keys?
Totally agree, never seen the advantage of keyless systems.
Vehicle manufacturers have been notorious over the years for not baking security in to their designs. This is what happens if you don’t. The computer industry has already learnt this lesson.
As for physical keys, if you know what you’re about it’s possible to make a key from a photo of the original, providing you can get the appropriate blank.
Not easy to get a photo if the key is in the owner’s pocket.
What annoys me is that these things are always presented as a desirable advance, when they are actually quite the reverse. Like a lot of things: just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
I liked the convenience with my Multistrada. It has to work smoothly and have a physical backup though.
What a load of shoite. I’ve been 2 up in strong crosswinds on the ditchpump and in those conditions I think it’s vital the rider is in tune with his/her/their bike so gauge the ever changing conditions, especially when it’s gusting. Relying on the bike in those conditions to sort things out with it having to react to situations rather than being able to use your eyes and senses to predict them doesn’t bode well for me. Some would argue the TCS, lean angle ABS, standard cruise control and the various modes we have on modern bikes alreasy is too much. The rest seems more about keeping ahead of the competition giving the customer something they neither wanted or needed