Funny, I'm not much of an old bike buff but when I study that bike and put myself in the shoes of someone from the 70s I can't imagine what could be done differently to make a bike perform better. Well, other than disk brakes which they knew about at the time.
A cast aluminium frame? - Huh, what for? It's not like that spindly steel frame would be heavy.
Liquid cooling? - Meh, with added cost and weight to counter the extra power, not a clear choice.
Electronic engine management? - Hahaha yeah right.
Adjustable suspension? - Say WHAT now!?!
A starter motor? - Again, more apparent downside than upside.
So it's kinda interesting that things did eventually progress, but my guess (correct me if I'm wrong) is that these bikes represent a bit of a plateau in the development of motorcycles for a few years, maybe decades. They were the pinnacle of pragmatic technology at the time. Maybe? Dunno, that's just my reaction.
Looking at bikes today I don't see much room for innovation either, other than standardizing ABS and throttle-by-wire to enable proper cruise control.
Hybrids? - Nah, benefit would be marginal.
Direct injection? - Is it really needed?
Composite frames? - Seems like that woud be a bit overkill.
Runflat tires? - Hmmm OK maybe.
But progress we will. In another 40 years like it or not bikes will be on a whole other level from where they are now.
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