Last year, sales of adventure sport bikes in the UK overtook sports bikes for the first time ever and BMW’s R1200GS was the best-selling motorcycle over 125cc. Manufacturers go racing on Sunday to sell on Monday and the 38% fall in registrations of new sports bikes over the past five years will have the bean-counters questioning sponsorship budgets, which is bad news for bike sport fans. Just when the future was looking bleak, three major manufacturers focused on sports bike launches at the Cologne show. BSN’s industry-insider Dan Sager reports from Intermot.

Held every other year and attracting 200,000 visitors over six days, Intermot is one of the most important international motorcycle shows. People come from more than 100 countries and 30% of show-goers work in the motorcycle trade. If a manufacturer launches a new bike there, then you can be sure it’s a big deal. It’s where Kawasaki unveiled their 300hp H2R Supercharged hyper-bike, the H2R Ninja, but they weren’t the only manufacturer pushing the power envelope. BMW showed off the completely revised S1000RR - four kilos lighter and six horsepower up on its predecessor. Suzuki were keen to stress their racing credentials - the GSX-R1000 gets ABS as standard for 2015 and they celebrated their return to MotoGP with a GSX-RR replica colour scheme for the GSX-R superbike.

It wasn’t only the motorcycle manufacturers who were shouting about their racing form. Akrapovic exhausts proudly displayed the number 46 Movistar Yamaha alongside a Ducati Desmosedici GP14, while Jorge Lorenzo was signing autographs on the HJC helmets stand.

And there’s more. As reported by BSN, Yamaha’s new 230hp YZF-R1 will appear at the Milan Show this November. It’s clear that bike manufacturers see a future for sport bikes and that’s good news for the future of bike sport.