Born to be mild

For a $24,000 sticker price, the latest Honda has all the amenities you’d expect from a modern set of wheels – a heated seat, an in-dash satellite-navigation system and a newly engineered air bag. But there’s only one thing that distinguishes this model from every other feature-laden car on the road.

It’s a motorcycle.

As motorcycle sales continue to grow, these icons of tough-guy rebellion featured in films like “The Wild One” and “Easy Rider” are being refashioned for an older, chubbier crowd that wants the same features found on upmarket sedans. Although bikes designed for comfort have been around for a few decades – purists have dubbed one model the “Geezer Glide” – innovations now hitting the market include cell phone hookups, heated handgrips that adjust automatically to the ambient temperature and a windshield that rises to limit the air blast on the highway. One BMW due out next year will have electronic tire-pressure monitors.

This growing class of upscale “touring bikes,” like Honda’s Gold Wing, is becoming a major source of profit: Harley-Davidson says it sold about 110,000 touring bikes in 2005 – a 56 percent increase in three years and more than double the sales-growth rate for all its models.

“I’ve gotten used to these features in the car, but for a long time you couldn’t get them on motorcycles,” said Meir Amir, a New Jersey limousine-company owner. Since Amir bought a new BMW K1200S (base price: $15,800) a few weeks ago, the veteran biker says he’s come to love the gadgetry – including a button that allows him to adjust the suspension without having to haul out his toolbox. “It’s better than grabbing that wrench,” he said.

For years, motorcycle buyers were famously slow to embrace innovation. Even now, some companies continue to build machines with the same basic technology as bikes built after World War II – a bare-bones engine connected to a chain that drives the rear wheel. On rare occasions when they introduced modern conveniences – like an automatic transmission in the 1970s – the market responded with a collective yawn. Some loyal bike buyers still prefer carburetors to more-efficient fuel-injection systems because they consider the latter too fussy.

When Harley-Davidson introduced the Electra Glide, a larger, more comfortable “touring”-oriented bike in the mid-1960s, the improvements consisted mostly of basic elements like electric starters, outsize saddlebags and generously padded seats. But in the last decade, the motorcycle market has shifted. From 1998 to 2003, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, the average age of a motorcycle owner rose by three years, to 41 – while the percentage of women owners this year reached 10 percent for the first time. Buyers are also getting wealthier: In its last survey, the trade group says 13 percent of riders reported household incomes of more than $100,000 – up from just 6.1 percent in 1998. All this is good news for manufacturers: Motorcycle sales have risen 57 percent since 2000 to 1.1 million last year, while car sales have sagged over the same time span.

For this new breed of buyer, there’s no shame in spending a little extra for a bike with car-like touches. Bike manufacturers seem to be borrowing a page from the auto industry’s experience with sport-utility vehicles: taking a breed of relatively simple machines, larding them up with “extras” and charging a premium. The average motorcycle price is $9,500 this year, up almost 7 percent from last year and 18 percent from 2001. Harley-Davidson’s “Screamin’ Eagle,” which comes with satellite radio, has a base price of $31,995.

Not that all motorcyclists are interested in comfort. When Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had a highly publicized wreck last month, he was riding on a Suzuki Hayabusa – a super sport bike whose claim to fame at its introduction was that it could go 200 miles per hour. Moreover, some purists say these gizmo-laden cruisers, with their car-like mufflers and pollution controls, are making life tougher for enthusiasts who like performance bikes that still let out a healthy growl.

Nonetheless, manufacturers show no sign of turning back the clock. Yamaha’s latest advancement, out for just a month, is a transmission that allows riders to switch gears with a button rather than a clutch – a technology that’s mainly available on exotic sports cars. BMW began offering heated seats a few years ago, and last year, the company rolled out an adjustable suspension that allows riders to correct for extra weight or riding style. Later this summer, Honda will start offering a unique feature for its Gold Wing tourers: an air bag. And one of Harley-Davidson’s new options is a voice-activated cell phone system. “Sometimes the only way you can get away for a ride is by giving the boss a way to reach you,” said a spokesman – showing a seemingly un-Harley-like concern for office politics.