'07 was last of the undertail exhaust Blades, it'll be a classic some day.... so I think it's a keeper, time for some tasty mods though, maybe Brembos and some Marchesini wheels?

Hey Drag if you get a 14R, I bet you keep the old warhorse, you've had some good times together, not quite ready to be put out to pasture yet.

It is time for an exotic though but I think I'm going to wait for something really fresh to hit the market or maybe a redo of one of the Jap bikes, Blade is getting long in tooth, GSXR needs to go to the old folks home, R1 needs Jenny Craig and steroid injections, 10R is still good though. We need to start another thread, What's Next Part II.

haha, most definitely. Waiting for the new R1! You right about the collectibility of the Blade. I knew you had some love for the bike and there is nothing wrong with that! Can't wait for the Brembos and the Marchs! I think it will be a good experiment for you (wrenching, test riding, comparing... fun stuff).

On the 14R... I know people are going to be pissed and take it the wrong way but I saw a green riding away while I was pumping gas and I just hate how the belly is so wide and unattractive. It gained too much weight/wheelbase and I'm already struggling with wheelbase of the former model. I will have to have a tricked out, race ready liter before I can get one and live with it! Eventually that day will come and I will take the goodies I have on the ZX-14 and put them on the R. Then tear it apart and sell it in bits and pieces. Probably save one of the piston, put it in a nice box on my desk!

I'd be shocked if we don't see an all-new GSX-R1000 and CBR1000RR for 2015. Both got the "Special Edition" treatment for 2014 which is usually a sign of impending replacement.

I'm torn whether I'd prefer either of these with a similar electronics suite to the S1000RR and ZX-10R or just redesigned as kick-ass analogue sportbikes with a low price tag. Obviously they'd sell better with all of the electronic aids the competition have but...

Hayabuser, I have heard no hard rumours about any complete redesigns on the Jap stuff or new bikes coming from Europe. I wouldn't count out BMW for more upgrades, Germans are very big into continuous development of an existing platform, witness the Porsche 911. The BMW sits at the top of the food chain already but they want to stay there. Where can they go from here though? The S1000RR already has class leading power and TC, the HP4 was a logical development but the price tag is too high for most of us. The Japs have major work to do to play catchup. I don't know what Honda will do to respond, they need to find 20 HP out of the existing Blade and that just isn't going to happen. I'm surprised Kawasaki hasn't done more with the 10R, it's not miles away from the S1000RR in HP terms in Euro tune, just needs to find some midrange and their TC is better. I'd be hiring Tom Sykes and borrowing ideas as his team has built a winner out of the basic 10R.

The 1199 needs work, yea it's got power but it's too pesky and the frameless chassis might never work right, witness their MotoGP bikes. They can't buy a podium finish lately.

The R1 needs to lose a huge 25 pounds minimum and pick up another twenty HP to get back into the hunt, I don't see it happening with the existing model.

Maybe Japan Inc. has thrown in the towel and will abdicate the high ground to BMW?

I don't see 2015 as a watershed year, the sale of Superbikes is falling and no R and D bucks available. Where's the excitement? I keep repeating myself.

Dragking, the leader of the fast group yesterday was on a basically stock 2010 ZX-14, he's a CMRA racer so definitely had the skills to ride the bike to it's potential. I'm glad I was on a literbike, would have preferred to be on my ZX6R though. The kid in front of me was giving me fits and he was on an R6, I thought he was on a liter at first....lol! I did look hard at a new 14R but decided my old 14 was enough considering the type of riding I do. I don't need more weight and the extra power would not be an advantage when 600s are hanging right in there. I could see the 14R to be the bike to be on if we had 130 mph sweepers like Grn up in Montana but that's not the type of roads we have around here.

Havent been around for a while so forgive my late two pennuth on what's next. By a fairing update and a few cc's big K could say the model is only 3 years old in 2014. In the UK so far in 2014 Kawasaki are seeing best ever (for the UK) sales of the 14 despite a tough big bike market and of course both the 1200GS, of which there are thousands on the road, all pretending to be McGregor/Boarman,and the S1000RR. The last big kwak, the fabulous ZX12R, ran in the UK for 6 years and that to a large extent does seem closer to the cycle they look for. I don't know the current US situation in big bikes but in Europe it is not good and that is reported as why Suzuki cannot make their mind up on the next 'Busa. My contact in Honda Europe tells me the factory feeling seems currently to focus on lighter, better mpg, lower powered bikes, in part caused by Brussels/EEC focus on more draconian laws to get us off the road. Again in the UK the 700cc bike is selling in shed loads due to keen pricing, good looks, incredible mpg and of course finance deals dressed to look good for the hard up youngster. I didn't swap my 2010 14 for the new 'shape' and like many on here I suspect I will take some shifting if and when a real new model comes along. Still, I said that about my ZX12R, but I did succumb in the end and am glad I did because the 14 is simply the best bike I have ever owned in almost 50 years of owning far too many bikes in my wifes words!

Good report Taffs, thanks for filling in the big picture in Europe and UK for us. I'm afraid the short two year development cycles we became so fond of up until 2008 are now a thing of the past. Looks like six or more years with minor updates along the way. Sadly it's like a game of musical chairs, BMW and some of the other Euro manufacturers had the excellent good fortune to be launching new products right when the music stopped. The Japs have been on the ropes ever since and can't recover, except Kawasaki who's launched the ZX-10R, ZX-14R and the new ZX-6R, all excellent performers, at least on the road and track if not in the showroom. Everyone wants Suzuki to punch back with a SuperBusa but they may be out of gas and only able to throw a few haymakers. My prediction, the 14R and S1000RR are going to be on top for a long, long time. One bright spot for Suzuki, their GSXR 750 is still fighting above it's weight class, to continue the boxing metaphors... and beating up on the new entrants into the super middleweight class, e.g. The Ducati 899 and MV F3 800.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 6/2/2014 @ 3:50 PM *

On a related note, I walked out to the mailbox earlier and there was the new Cycle World edition with the new Buell 1190 RX shooting it out with the base model Ducati 1199 Panigale. The Ducati just edged the EBR out but for essentially the same money, this decision would be a no brainer....for me anyway. The EBR looks like it was designed a decade ago, give me the Panigale any day, it may be peaky and hard to live with but it sure is gorgeous to look at.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 6/2/2014 @ 3:53 PM *

Kruz, I remember reading when Warren Buffet bought heavily into Harley Davidson he found that the company, through its finance subsidiary, was financing a big percentage of dealer sales with a bad debt figure that was rising by the month. It seems incredible to me that virtually not one of the other manufacturers have learned from Buffet/Harley in that a very high percent of new sales (in Europe at least) are via manufacturers PCP (personal contract plan/purchase)that have very large residual payments before ownership transfers. Should that payment not occur then the manufacturer is left both to fund that amount to whoever they borrowed from and of course to find a buyer for a second hand bike in what might then be a declining market or one with a replacement model to contend with. I suspect these sorts of mistakes will just hurry along the further entry of the Chinese models slowly slowly finding place in the Euro market at prices so low in the end a new unknowing buyer has to give it a try to the destruction of the market as we know it.

I'd be shocked if we don't see an all-new GSX-R1000 and CBR1000RR for 2015. Both got the "Special Edition" treatment for 2014 which is usually a sign of impending replacement.
I'm torn whether I'd prefer either of these with a similar electronics suite to the S1000RR and ZX-10R or just redesigned as kick-ass analogue sportbikes with a low price tag. Obviously they'd sell better with all of the electronic aids the competition have but...

I'm with Kruz. I doubt those two will produce something new next year but I remain hopeful. I really like the CBR, even the GXSR as a platform but I feel like you get more bang with the ZX-10R and the S1000RR. It's all about the flashes nowadays and a lot of performance can be gained. It's all about getting more hp than we can handle and hoping the TC save us. Think about it, we are entering this era where we expect apps to do everything for us. Sad but true.

We'll see what the new R1 is all about!

I'm glad I was on a literbike, would have preferred to be on my ZX6R though. The kid in front of me was giving me fits and he was on an R6, I thought he was on a liter at first....lol! I did look hard at a new 14R but decided my old 14 was enough considering the type of riding I do. I don't need more weight and the extra power would not be an advantage when 600s are hanging right in there

Same thing for me. Yes, I have said it before, Green's got the best topography for the bike!

G Johnson just won today on the triumph. I'm not sure about the specs of his bike but that 675R is a solid package. I need to test ride it again. Oh M Dunlop also won on the S1000RR. The senior TT is going tone interesting!

I didn't swap my 2010 14 for the new 'shape' and like many on here I suspect I will take some shifting if and when a real new model comes along. Still, I said that about my ZX12R, but I did succumb in the end and am glad I did because the 14 is simply the best bike I have ever owned in almost 50 years of owning far too many bikes in my wifes words!

I read this am that some guy managed to put a ZX-14R motor in his ZX-14. Forget about getting a new one!!! They were saying that the motors were almost identical. It'd be costly but worth it. I would do it if it is less 6-7 grand. Just ride your ZX-14 to 100k miles and swap the motor and ECU. If you don't gain too much fat, you've got a nice sleeper. The look on people faces! lol. Only the aficionados would be able to tell, probably because of the drain plug.

Not a fan of that EBR either. I get the function 1st looks 2nd but even motoGP are beautiful...

* Last updated by: dragking on 6/2/2014 @ 5:27 PM *

It's incredible to me that the Harley Ponzi scheme has lasted as long as it has, it defies logic and classical economics when supply and demand are not related to price. You have a million Harley's for sale and yet they hold their value, by all common sense they should be as cheap as dirt. They shifted 265,000 of those things last year, like you said a personal finance plan is behind the inflated sales numbers.Did we learn nothing from the housing crash of 2008?

Yes, Drag, it appears John McGuiness's days at the top of that game are about over, there's a new kid in town and it appears he's going to carry on the tradition set by his late father and Uncle Joey at the TT. Finally a win by BMW, I knew it would eventually come.

I'm sorry but whoever designed this thing needs his prescription checked, what were they thinking with that twin pipe exhaust? Also, I don't trust that perimeter brake setup, that whole apparatus looks like an erector set. Give me conventional Brembos on a proper radial mounted caliper. I'll buy American only if it's the best.

For $18,000 I'd buy the Honda SP, BMW or Panigale without looking twice at this thing.....hideous!

* Last updated by: Kruz on 6/2/2014 @ 8:02 PM *

Taffs that is an interesting observation about the Euro market and what's driving it. Sounds like the same problem we have here, simply too much debt. Somewhere back about ten or fifteen years ago, maybe it started before then, the finance sector over here went from supporting the manufacturing industry to replacing it. Now we have an economy built on financial fraud and all manufacturing has moved overseas. It's not a rosy picture I'm afraid.

I enjoy reading James Howard Kunstler's blog on all this madness every Monday morning:

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/coasting-toward-zero/

* Last updated by: Kruz on 6/2/2014 @ 9:00 PM *

Thanks for the link Kruz. it is exactly what is happening in Europe with governments competing with consumers as to who has the most debt! Is it small wonder that Kawasaki probably like the rest find it extremely difficult to judge with what when and how to follow the 14.

Exactly, I'm thinking it's going to be a long time before we see any big changes to any mfgs product line given the economic realities but I could be wrong.

Man, I saw my first Panigale 1199 up close this evening, what a beautiful machine! The level of detailing is a step beyond the Japanese. Kinda kicking myself in the butt for not buying one of these when I had the chance. Oh well, maybe in three years I'll be looking at new bikes again.

Man, I saw my first Panigale 1199 up close this evening, what a beautiful machine! The level of detailing is a step beyond the Japanese. Kinda kicking myself in the butt for not buying one of these when I had the chance. Oh well, maybe in three years I'll be looking at new bikes again.

Aesthetics wise that's my favorite. I thought you either bought Japanese and modified the heck out the bike or an exotic and left it alone but I was wrong. I guess some people are wealthy and successful enough to have it both ways!
Click here If you go down you can see not only the pictures but the list of the mods this guy has made to his Panigale. The funny thing is that he says he buy bikes every two years, modify them during that span and when the new stuff comes out he buys it and make the upgraded bike a dedicated track bike. I see at least 20K in this one. I need to get in that tax bracket.!

* Last updated by: dragking on 6/3/2014 @ 9:30 PM *

Some folks have way too much money!

I don't know what's next but I do know what's not next and that's McGuinness winning the Senior TT on Friday, both Anstey and Dunlop broke his all time lap record. He's had a good run at the top but time to retire gracefully and let the youngsters have their day in the sun.

Hi Kruz;)Hope ya'll doing great there....God Bless.

You too Grn, you've been away too long, Rook said he's been trying to call you. Hope everything is smoothing out up your way, you got them great roads up there, that's gotta be ZX-14 heaven!

Yep...it is;)

wow Didn't know that! Yep McGuiness has had a good run...

Yamaha is releasing some 2015 models tomorrow but I doubt the new R1 will be one of them!

What's next? Retro air-cooled steel-framed sport bikes!

Bring 'em on.

This is way cool, a factory Norton Commando 961 Cafe Racer, aircooled and retro styled. Just need an original English black leather jacket with the Ace Cafe logo on back. DragKing is probably too young to remember when the Norton Commando 750 was the last word in two wheeled performance, I can barely remember myself...lol!

* Last updated by: Kruz on 6/5/2014 @ 1:41 PM *