ROCKET LAUNCH

Being handed a pair of earplugs by Bosch PR people at a demonstration of what’s new in electronic rider aids was unexpected. But not nearly as unexpected as the rocket blast that came from the side of a motorcycle using the company’s prototype Slip Mitigation system, which is allegedly superior to Marc Márquez’s elbows in saving seemingly hopeless front-wheel slides.

Bosch invited me to Renningen, Germany (just outside German motor city Stuttgart), to see not only this noisy new technology, but also quite a bit of new stuff that will be seen on motorcycles likely to be announced as soon as this fall.

Bosch explained that we’d be riding motorcycles with fully prototype systems, and that such machines were in too-short supply to extend wider invitations than the 12 journalists invited worldwide.