Statisticians are puzzling over some peculiar trends in vehicle sales. The number of new motorbikes sold in Britain has jumped 6.5% (September 2003- September 2004) while over the same period 2% fewer cars were sold.

Nowhere is this trend more obvious than at the annual motorcycle show. Last year attendance was 50% up on 10 years ago and this year organisers expect more than 200,000 people. The event this week takes over seven halls of the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, and now claims to be the third largest UK annual exhibition.

The nine-day programme, ending next Sunday, promises daredevil stunt shows, glamour, nostalgia, rider training, celebrity appearances and product demonstrations. But the big attraction will inevitably be the big, blisteringly fast bikes.

One of the biggest and fastest is likely to be Yamaha’s MT-01, a sports bike with a 1670cc 90bhp engine. The blurb boasts “incredible sports performance”, though the manufacturer is reluctant to release precise data, mindful perhaps of the stir it caused last year with the launch of the YZF-R1, the first production machine to achieve a better than 1:1 power-to-weight ratio.

Another star of the 2005 range is the Suzuki GSX R1000, a new version of an established design that expounds the Japanese philosophy of refining a tried and tested product to make it ever lighter and quicker. The Suzuki is so nimble it could probably exceed 185mph, but like other sports bikes imported into Europe it is speed-limited at the factory.

The best-looking machine at the show promises to be the Ducati 999. The eight-valve V-twin at the heart of this new machine has been tuned to produce 140bhp, the same power output as a BMW Z3 sports car.

One thing these machines have in common is they are “glam bikes” — for pleasure rather than a necessity. Veteran enthusiasts may well refer to their riders as “boutique bikers” but manufacturers are only too happy to cater to their whims.

Motorbike touring is also attracting new followers. Ewan McGregor’s round-the-world expedition on a BMW generated interest from people who have never before ridden anything faster than a pushbike. And the film The Motorcycle Diaries, featuring a young Che Guevara crossing South America on a Norton, brought to life a more intangible sense of adventure.

“Maybe it is a fashion for all things retro,” said one manufacturer. “But people associate motorcycling with a less complicated, less crowded world where freedom and escape are possible.”

More information: www.motorcycleshow.co.uk

CURIOUS CASE OF THE BMW SUPER-BRAKES THAT DIDN’T STOP THE BIKE

One of the top bikes on display at the NEC will be BMW’s Montauk, a beautiful 1200cc machine. Like the German manufacturer’s other flagship models it features power braking. Unfortunately, as I and a colleague discovered, the system is flawed.

When I tested the Montauk I crashed it into a fence. Kevin Ash, who writes for Motorcycle News, crashed another BMW with the same brakes into a wall. In both instances the power braking didn’t respond.

BMW has gone to great lengths developing a system that is supposed to make stopping easier by providing power assistance from the engine. When you press on the brakes a servo system multiplies the pressure you apply. But in certain — admittedly rare — circumstances the system is slow to cut in and you are left with the sensation of having no brakes at all.

My close shave happened when I was riding the Montauk — a cruiser similar to the bike Pierce Brosnan rode in the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies — near Bondi Beach, Australia, earlier this year. The only thing that stopped me going over a cliff into the Pacific was a wooden fence. Bond survived a 200ft leap but I would not have. Ash crashed a BMW under almost identical circumstances while testing a new model.

Jeremy Bowdler, editor of Two Wheels, Australia’s bestselling motorcycling magazine, is also sceptical of the system. “BMW does have a problem and I suspect it goes deeper than they’ll admit,” he said. After testing the Montauk, Bowdler claimed: “What I see as the problem (with the brakes) is an intermittent fault I have experienced on several modern BMWs, not just the Montauk.”

BMW’s spokesman in the UK denied a fault. He also said there was always enough “residual braking” — back-up brakes that don’t need power — to stop the bike. At the same time the company has tacitly acknowledged the braking system could be improved. It has “significantly” strengthened the back-up brakes on its new R1200GS and K1200S.

The company has also put a note in its owners’ manual emphasising that riders must go through a series of procedures after switching on the engine (involving releasing the brakes for long enough for the system to prime itself), especially when starting the bike on a gradient. But, as Ash pointed out, you shouldn’t have to consult a manual to find out how to use brakes.

Motorcyclist Magazine, the popular American publication, went a step further, saying: “BMW’s servo-assisted system is, we believe, a prime example of misguided technology creating more problems than it solves, muddling the connection between rider and road . . . All semblance of feel and feedback are gone, with no gain to compensate. Motorcycles do not need power brakes, at least not these power brakes.”