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Both in the engine and the brakes. Cars have more power these days, and the freeway is full of rapid changes.

One could argue equally that traffic has actually slowed down the interstates to some degree. I guaranteed you they were moving faster on the Seattle interstates 25 years ago because they weren't so packed. Also - there are certainly some powerful cars on the road today... as well a lot of cars on the road that would have been dwarfed in size and power by the cars of a generation ago. Honda civic, geo metro, cooper mini, mazda miata, all the new hybrids, etc. There's an increase in SUVs to be sure, but that trend is swinging in the other direction. Also, scooters are selling better than at any time in their history.

PhilD9er wrote:You need more power these days.

i need less taco bell these days

I think its always been true...you need more power.

I don't need more power. My 37hp bike is faster than most normal cars on the road. I would like more power though.

But hey, we live in a world, or shiould I say continent, of wretched excess, so it never surprises me when people think they need bigger and faster things. I just don't buy into it.

Joe Mc wrote: But hey, we live in a world, or shiould I say continent, of wretched excess, so it never surprises me when people think they need bigger and faster things. I just don't buy into it.

Well said.

Until the US gets its own Autobahn, my bike will continue to be just fine.

I'd question the NEED for more power. Even a middleweight twin can blow the doors off of 90% of the cages on the road (probably more).

Everyone want's more power and this surprises me a little. Even smaller bikes are surprisingly capable if ridden properly. Most of the folks that I personally know that want more, are not properly extracting the power available in their current ride. Do you know where your horsepower and torque peaks are?

Mag7C wrote:Until the US gets its own Autobahn

It's not all it's cracked up to be anymore. Since the Wall came down and the European Economic Union came to be, traffic in Germany has drastically increased since I was stationed there back in the early 80's. I went back there on vacation last year; most of the Autobahns now have a 120kmh posted speed limit, all the cities and towns have 30kmh zones in the residential areas and there are speed cameras all over the place.

I think that knowledge, skill, and judgement are far more important than power if you want to stay alive on the superslab. If you use these, then 99.9% of the time you wont need to make split second decisions that requires you to call upon a bike's braking or accelerating power to get out of trouble. Just my humble opinion.