What Happened To Streetfighters?
Torq Chop
37,743 views
Streetfighters were once everywhere, stripped sports bikes, wide bars, twin headlights, huge engines and some fairly questionable decisions made in British sheds.
Then they almost disappeared.
In this video, we trace the Streetfighter from crashed 1980s sports bikes and the Suzuki GSX-R750 through the British and European custom scene, the Ducati Monster and Triumph Speed Triple, to today's Super Duke, BMW S1000R and Ducati Streetfighter.
Because the Streetfighter didn't simply die out. Its central idea, superbike performance, minimal bodywork and proper handlebars became so successful that motorcycle manufacturers turned it into an entire category.
But is a modern factory supernaked really the same thing as a motorcycle somebody built themselves?
SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE CONTENT:
🔴 Subscribe to the channel: @torqchop
20 Comments
StreetFighters magazine was one of my favorites, including the birds.
Today, I'm doing the daunting task of turning a 1996 Honda Gl1500 into a "street fighter" (if I can figure out where to hide all the vacuum tubes and wires). The point being Manufactures chase designs that make money, Crazed garage builders/ riders want something crazy/ original and FUN!!
It's a streetfighter. It's the motorcycle equivalent of all those street rods in 1950s America magically becoming factory muscle cars a decade later. One's built, one's bought. Between the gas crisis and a change in sensibilities, the muscle car of the 60s booted it.
The streetfighter to streetfighter (supernaked if you like) idea has a distinct difference though: if muscle cars died because the manufacturers were racing to the lowest common denominator and churned out boring and safe cars (even an American muscle car you can buy today with 800hp is still a safe business call), the motorcycle industry cannot find more money by abandoning the enthusiast customers, and thus have to keep pushing the extreme.
It's the ages-old "bought vs built" argument among enthusiasts and I think you nailed it in your video. One option is to make it yourself, the other is to throw money at it. But then again, no factory streetfighter/supernaked is perfect, there is always going to be room to make their bike your bike in as many ways as your imagination can conjure.
What Happened To Streetfighters?
Torq Chop
37,743 views
Streetfighters were once everywhere, stripped sports bikes, wide bars, twin headlights, huge engines and some fairly questionable decisions made in British sheds.
Then they almost disappeared.
In this video, we trace the Streetfighter from crashed 1980s sports bikes and the Suzuki GSX-R750 through the British and European custom scene, the Ducati Monster and Triumph Speed Triple, to today's Super Duke, BMW S1000R and Ducati Streetfighter.
Because the Streetfighter didn't simply die out. Its central idea, superbike performance, minimal bodywork and proper handlebars became so successful that motorcycle manufacturers turned it into an entire category.
But is a modern factory supernaked really the same thing as a motorcycle somebody built themselves?
SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE CONTENT:
🔴 Subscribe to the channel: @torqchop