EICMA 2015 - What To Look Out For

In less than two weeks, the biggest annual motorcycle show, EICMA, will get underway in Milan, Italy. And while this year a number of big announcements came from Intermot in Cologne, there’s still plenty to get excited about that’s coming our way as it’s clear there’s definitely a resurgence in the industry. So what new motorcycles will be unveiled at EICMA 2015? Let’s take a look at what is definitely making an appearance and what may be.

Kawasaki

Most of the excitement at Intermot was by way of Kawasaki’s H2R track only superbike. The supercharged machine garnered a huge amount of attention with the surprise being that there was actually two bikes – the second being the Kawasaki H2, which will be a slightly more sane version of the bike. Rumors are that it will output roughly 230hp, but that will be confirmed at EICMA.

Potentially, Kawasaki may show updated versions of the Ninja 650 and ER6-n after the Versys 650 update that was recently announced.

Yamaha

Probably the most anticipated release at EICMA this year will be the brand new Yamaha R1. It’s been many years since the bike received an upgrade and this will be the first of the big four Japanese liter bikes getting some proper love and attention since the GFC crippled the market.

The 2015 Yamaha R1 is expected to have over 200hp, a whole range of technical gadgets and like the new Kawasaki H2/H2R, may be sold both as a street bike and a separate track only version.

Yamaha will also be officially unveiling the FJ-09 – a crosstourer version of the hugely successful MT-09. It will feature the same brilliant 847cc triple and will hopefully come with some better sorted suspension.

There’s a slight chance of an updated Yamaha R6, but given how much press Yamaha has already had recently, they’ll probably hold that announcement back until 2015.

Husqvarna

Dirt bike and supermoto manufacturer Husqvarna has announced that they will be unveiling a large capacity single-cylinder street bike at EICMA. What this will be exactly isn’t known at this stage but an educated guess is that it could be a production version of the Husqvarna 701, a concept bike that was actually shown at last year’s EICMA.

That particular bike was based on a KTM 690 SMC (Husqvarna’s parent company these days) so it’s highly likely that whatever we do see in Milan, it will use one of KTM’s large capacity singles. That concept pumped out a very reasonable 75hp – if that remains we’ll see a pretty potent package from what will be a fairly lightweight bike.

Ducati

After finally showing the world the much hyped Ducati Scrambler at Intermot, there’s not really going to be any way the Italian marque can produce anything as special. That said, from a technological perspective, they will be showing the new Ducati Multistrada which will feature a brand new engine – one with variable valve timing.

That may sound very boring, as variable valve timing has been a common feature in car engines for decades now. But it’s never been utilized in a motorcycle engine before (Honda’s VTEC is a slightly different version of the technology). Ducati says the new engine in the Multistrada increases horsepower and torque by 10hp and 11nm over the previous 1200 cc engine, while fuel consumption decreased by 8%

Triumph

After cancelling their 250cc Daytona bike, Triumph needs something to improve things. They’re doing it by way of a major expansion of their Triumph Tiger 800 range – no less than six new models based on the bike.

Leaked documents reveal that three will be more road focused bikes while another three will be more adventure/crosstourer motorcycles.

EICMA will begin on November 6 in Milan, Italy.

EICMA 2015 - What To Look Out For