The Demise of the Japanese Sportbike
I hate to say it...but I yearn for the day of motorcycles past. The days when
no one used the term sport-tourer because they really didn't exist. Terms like
"inverted" and "stacked tranmission were things we really didn't
understand. I miss bikes with character.
Seems like every new sportbike out has the same goal in mind. To be the lightest, fastest, most powerful bike engineers can design. That's great for the race track....but all of these bikes look like slightly different versions of one another on the street. If one zips by you on the interstate...you'd be hard pressed to figure out what it was. I no longer "get that feeling" when I go into the dealer. I liked it when Yamahas were skinny, Hondas had hidden frames, Kawasaki's were couches and Suzukis weighed a ton. Everyone liked their bikes because they were different.
I miss watching the forks of my FZR600 flex around turns.(and it being THE sportbike for Yamaha) I miss remarking at how fat the rear tire on my riding buddies F2 was. I miss remembering the FZR1000 and the ZX-11 as the end all of performance. I remember when $300 was a huge amount of money to spend on a helmet and Troy Lee was THE ultimate custom. I remember getting excited waiting for my 140/60 BT-50 to come in. Now most of my riding buddies have folded to the pressure. 929's, R1's, and new GIXXERS are what they ride....blindingly fast, handle great, and have no personality at all. I think the ole Thundercat is the last of a dying breed.
Spleenboy
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