Honda’s secret designs for the MORPHING tourer in 2017 – REVEALED

Honda’s secret designs for the MORPHING tourer in 2017 – REVEALED.

Honda’s next step in motorcycle evolution is going to be tourers and sport tourers that actually change the footrests, footboard AND seat construction underneath you as you ride.

With the morphing seat patent it shows how both the rider and pillion seats change shape depending on what you’re doing on the bike. Accelerate hard and the back of each seat will raise up to hold you and your passenger in position, hit the brakes hard and the front of each seat raises up to give you something to brace against. When you’re neither accelerating or braking hard both moving parts of each seat lay flat so that the seat looks and feels like a current, standard unit.

The footrests – and footboards – are powered by small servo motors and raise and fall in pre-determined amounts to give more purchase to both pillion and rider’s feet in a corner (you could argue that they also increase ground clearance at extreme angles of lean, but given that this plan has been shown on two tourers it would be strange for this design to be being applied for that reason). The plan is for the footrests and footboards to raise up when on the outside of the bike in a corner. A stand-alone motor for the footrests will be fitted into the subframes of the bikes and will be available to use all the time.

Whilst there’s no actually specific motorcycles mentioned that will run with this morphing tech, the official documents we’ve got from Honda do show the moving seat and adapting footrests being fitted to both the VFR1200F and the Gold Wing.

What do you think? Is this the next big thing for involving a rider with intuitive tech or has Honda gone a step (and a seat pad) too far with this? Let us know.