Streetfighter

Last updated
Streetfighter 2007-09-09a.jpg

A streetfighter is a sport bike that is customized by removing the fairing, and making other changes that result in an overall more agressive look. [1] [2] Beyond simply removing fairings, specific changes that exemplify the streetfighter look are a pair of large, round headlights, tall, upright handlebars such as those on a motocross bike, and short, loud, lightweight silencers. Streetfighters is also the name of a UK motorcycle magazine. [3]

Sport bike type of motorcycle

A sportbike, or sports bike, is a motorcycle optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on paved roads, typically at the expense of comfort and fuel economy by comparison with other motorcycles. Soichiro Honda wrote in the owner's manual of the 1959 Honda CB92 Benly Super Sport that, "Primarily, essentials of the motorcycle consists in the speed and the thrill," while Cycle World's Kevin Cameron says that, "A sportbike is a motorcycle whose enjoyment consists mainly from its ability to perform on all types of paved highway – its cornering ability, its handling, its thrilling acceleration and braking power, even its speed."

Custom motorcycle

A custom motorcycle is a motorcycle with stylistic and/or structural changes to the 'standard' mass-produced machine offered by major manufacturers. Custom motorcycles might be unique, or built in limited quantities. While individual motorcyclists have altered the appearance of their machines since the very first days of motorcycling, the first individualized motorcycles specifically labeled 'Custom' appeared in the late 1950s, around the same time as the term was applied to custom cars. In the 1960s, custom artisans like Arlen Ness and Ben Hardy created new styles of custom bikes, the chopper. In the 1990s and early 2000s, very expensive customs such as those built by Orange County Choppers, Jesse James's West Coast Choppers, Roger Goldammer became fashionable status symbols. There are also companies that are bringing back pin striping, such as Kenny Howard and Dean Jeffries from the 1950s, with a continued effort to keep pin striping alive. The choppers of the 1960s and 1970s fit into this category.

Motorcycle fairing

A motorcycle fairing is a shell placed over the frame of some motorcycles, especially racing motorcycles and sport bikes, with the primary purpose to reduce air drag. The secondary functions are the protection of the rider from airborne hazards and wind-induced hypothermia and of the engine components in the case of an accident. A motorcycle windshield will almost always be integrated into the design of the fairing.

Contents

Later streetfighters used custom-built frames intended to overcome the weakness of the tubular steel frames of the early 4-cylinder superbikes of the 1970s and 1980s. Many of these frames turned out to be "beautifully crafted pieces of metallurgical art," perhaps only unintentionally. [4] Many were also originally racing machines. [5]

Made popular by European riders, [6] this type of custom motorcycle gained worldwide popularity, and motorcycle manufacturers responded in the late 1990s by adopting the terminology [7] and producing factory-built streetfighters, beginning with the 1994 Triumph Speed Triple [8] and the 1999 Honda X11, [9] up through the 2009 Ducati Streetfighter.

Triumph Speed Triple triumph

The Triumph Speed Triple is a series of motorcycles produced by Triumph Motorcycles. In 1994 the reborn Hinkley Triumph became one of the first production motorcycles to embrace the new streetfighter style, which was essentially a modern sport bike or race replica motorcycle but without the aerodynamic plastic fairing. The style began when bikers who, having crashed their race replicas, put the bikes back on the road sans fairing, mainly for reasons of economy.

Honda X11 motorcycle

The Honda X11 is a standard motorcycle produced by Honda with a 1,137 cc (69.4 cu in) liquid-cooled, inline-four engine and a 1990s-style cooling unit at its fore end. It is based on the CBR1100XX Super Blackbird.

Ducati Streetfighter

The Ducati Streetfighter is a streetfighter-style motorcycle produced by Ducati. The Streetfighter was designed by Damien Basset of the Ducati design team. Ducati sold the Streetfighter in three variations – the Streetfighter 1099 cc from 2009 to 2011, the Streetfighter S 1099 cc from 2009 to 2012, and the Streetfighter 848 849 cc from 2011 to 2015.

A 2009 Ducati Streetfighter. Backfire Motorcycle Night, Ballard, Wa, 19 Aug 2009 -4.jpg
A 2009 Ducati Streetfighter.
2014 Triumph Street Triple R 2014 Triumph Street Triple R matte graphite left 2.JPG
2014 Triumph Street Triple R

History

Though it has its styling roots in the café racer culture of the 1950s and 1960s, the streetfighter is very much inspired by the new Japanese bikes of the late 1970s and early 1980s, [10] possibly from young riders in the UK who couldn't afford to replace damaged fairings after repeated crashes. Later, more appropriate headlights were added, then high handlebars to aid in wheelies and other stunts. [11] [12]

Café racer

A café racer is a lightweight, powerful motorcycle optimized for speed and handling rather than comfort – and for quick rides over short distances. With bodywork and control layout recalling early-1960s Grand Prix road racing motorcycles, café racers are noted for their visual minimalism, featuring low-mounted handlebars, prominent seat cowling and elongated fuel tank – and frequently knee-grips indented in the fuel tank.

The first sighting of the streetfighter design template was seen in Bike magazine in 1983 when the editor commissioned Andy Sparrow to draw a comic strip to replace Ogri . It was titled Bloodrunners and featured dispatch riders, delivering blood and live human organs for transplant operations in which bikers rode enormous Japanese inline fours with turbos, with no extraneous parts. Fairings, mirrors, pillion seats & rear footpegs etc. were all binned (removed) in favour of lightness and handling ability. Under-seat exhausts, dual headlights and the widest sport tyres were de-rigueur.[ better source needed ]

<i>Bike</i> (magazine) British motorcycling magazine

Bike is a British motorcycling magazine that was established and edited by journalist Mark Williams in 1971, originally as a one-off Car magazine special.

<i>Ogri</i>

Ogri is a cartoon character of a British rocker-style biker created by English cartoonist and illustrator Paul Sample in 1972 for UK magazine Bike until January 2009, when it was dropped but quickly taken up by Back Street Heroes, the custom motorcycle magazine. Four book collections of Ogri strips have been produced, and a VHS video. Ogri is a tough, leather-jacketed biker with Thor-like wings attached to his helmet. The actor Ewan McGregor is a fan and owns an Ogri leather jacket, bought from Paul Sample on eBay.

Actor Huggy Leaver is credited with being inspired to build such customized motorcycles in this style and there was a proliferation of 'ratted' streetfighters in London around the late 1980s. The term streetfighter was first applied to a custom street bike by a British photojournalist and bike builder to a Harley-Davidson customized sports-bike, and later extended to the Japanese four-cylinder customs being created at the time. [13]

Huggy Leaver, sometimes credited as Huggy Lever, is a British actor and former vocalist of The Plastix, an early UK Punk band.

Rat bike

Rat bikes are motorcycles that are styled to look like they have fallen apart over time and have been kept on the road and maintained for little or no cost by employing kludge fixes. Survival bikes look similar to but are different in purpose from rat bikes; they are modified for stylistic reasons.

Harley-Davidson a publicly traded American company that has become primarily known internationally by the eponymous motorcycle brand

Harley-Davidson, Inc., H-D, or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression, along with Indian. The company has survived numerous ownership arrangements, subsidiary arrangements, periods of poor economic health and product quality, and intense global competition to become one of the world's largest motorcycle manufacturers and an iconic brand widely known for its loyal following. There are owner clubs and events worldwide, as well as a company-sponsored, brand-focused museum.

See also

Related Research Articles

Chopper (motorcycle) type of motorcycle

A chopper is a type of custom motorcycle which emerged in California in the late 1950s. The chopper is perhaps the most extreme of all custom styles, often using radically modified steering angles and lengthened forks for a stretched-out appearance. They can be built from an original motorcycle which is modified ("chopped") or built from scratch. Some of the characteristic features of choppers are long front ends with extended forks often coupled with an increased rake angle, hardtail frames, very tall "ape hanger" or very short "drag" handlebars, lengthened or stretched frames, and larger than stock front wheels. The "sissy bar", a set of tubes that connect the rear fender with the frame, and which are often extended several feet high, is a signature feature on many choppers.

Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle

The Suzuki Hayabusa is a sport bike motorcycle made by Suzuki since 1999. It immediately won acclaim as the world's fastest production motorcycle, with a top speed of 303 to 312 km/h.

Softail

A softail is a motorcycle with its rear suspension springs or shock absorbers located out of direct view, so as to look like a hard-tail motorcycle.

Universal Japanese Motorcycle 70s motorcycles that revolutionized the US bike market

Universal Japanese Motorcycle (UJM) is a US motorcycling media term for a style of Japanese standard motorcycle that revolutionized the industry and made motorcycling in America more accessible during the 1970s and 1980s. A general purpose bike, by around 1990 its popularity began to wane as the market fragmented into more specialized designs.

Types of motorcycles

There are many systems for classifying types of motorcycles, describing how the motorcycles are put to use, or the designer's intent, or some combination of the two. Six main categories are widely recognized: cruiser, sport, touring, standard, dual-purpose, and dirt bike. Sometimes sport touring motorcycles are recognized as a seventh category. Strong lines are sometimes drawn between motorcycles and their smaller cousins, mopeds, scooters, and underbones, but other classification schemes include these as types of motorcycles.

Suicide clutch

The terms suicide clutch, and suicide shifter or jockey shifter, refer to a motorcycle's foot-operated clutch and hand-shifter to change gears, Foot clutches and hand shifters were found on early motorcycle designs from around the turn of the 20th Century to the 1940s or 50s, and reappearing on modern retro styled custom motorcycles and choppers. Modern motorcycles do not require removing a hand from the handlebars to shift gears, using only the fingers for the clutch and the toes of one foot to select gears. In contrast, the fanciful slang "suicide" was applied to designs where the rider removes one hand to change gears, or cannot put both feet on the ground while using a foot clutch to disengage the transmission. Sometimes the shifter is referred to as a "jockey shifter" while the foot clutch is called a "suicide clutch".

Triumph Speed Four

The Triumph Speed Four is a standard or streetfighter motorcycle made by Triumph from 2002 to 2006 as the naked, or non-faired brother of the TT600 sport bike introduced in 1999.

Touring motorcycle

A touring motorcycle is a type of motorcycle designed for touring. Although almost any motorcycle can be used for this purpose, manufacturers have developed specific models designed to address the particular needs of these riders. Touring motorcycles commonly have large displacement fairings and windshields that offer a high degree of weather and wind protection, large-capacity fuel tanks for long ranges between fill-ups, engines with a great deal of low-end horsepower, and a more relaxed, upright seating position than sport bikes.

Cruiser (motorcycle) type of motorcycle

A cruiser is a motorcycle in the style of American machines from the 1930s to the early 1960s, including those made by Harley-Davidson, Indian, Excelsior and Henderson. The riding position usually places the feet forward and the hands up, with the spine erect or leaning back slightly. Typical cruiser engines emphasize easy rideability and shifting, with plenty of low-end torque but not necessarily large amounts of horsepower, traditionally V-twins but inline engines have become more common. Cruisers with greater performance than usual, including more horsepower, stronger brakes and better suspension, are often called power cruisers.

The Harley-Davidson Super Glide was a motorcycle made by the Harley-Davidson. Reputed to be the first factory custom motorcycle, it originated Harley-Davidson's FX series of motorcycles by mating Sportster components, most notably the front end, with the chassis of their larger big twin motorcycles. Super Glide models from 1991 to 2017 were based on the Dyna Glide chassis which has a wider variety of front ends and trim levels, and for a time filled the intermediate niche between the smallest and largest Harley-Davidson models; the Dyna platform has since been discontinued for the 2018 model year in favor of the new Softail frame, with some models from the Dyna nameplate being carried over to the Softail line.

Motorcycle frame

A motorcycle frame is a motorcycle's core structure. It supports the engine, provides a location for the steering and rear suspension, and supports the rider and any passenger or luggage. Also attached to the frame are the fuel tank and battery. At the front of the frame is found the steering head tube that holds the pivoting front fork, while at the rear there is a pivot point for the swingarm suspension motion. Some motorcycles include the engine as a load-bearing stressed member; while some other bikes do not use a single frame, but instead have a front and a rear subframe attached to the engine.

Bobber (motorcycle) custom motorcycle

A bobber, originally called a 'bob-job' from the 1930s through 1990s, is a style of custom motorcycle. The typical construction includes stripping excess bodywork from a motorcycle; removing the front fender, and shortening the rear fender, which is "bobbed", and all superfluous parts removed to reduce weight.

Triumph TR5 Trophy

The TR5 Trophy was a standard motorcycle made by Triumph Engineering at the Meriden factory between 1949 and 1958.

Motorcycle accessories are features and accessories selected by a motorcycle owner to enhance safety, performance, or comfort, and may include anything from mobile electronics to sidecars and trailers. An accessory may be added at the factory by the original equipment manufacturer or purchased and installed by the owner post-sale as aftermarket goods.

Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling Overview of and topical guide to motorcycles and motorcycling

The following outline is provided as an overview of motorcycles and motorcycling:

The Mystery Ship was a limited edition motorcycle created by Craig Vetter and released in 1980. Only 10 were built, of which seven were sold. An example is on display at the AMA Motorcycle Museum in Ohio, and another at Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Leeds, Al. The one on display at the Barber museum is #9 and is a Turbo charged model.

References

  1. ↑ Wallis, Michael; Clark, Marian (2004), Hogs on 66: Best Feed and Hangouts for Road Trips on Route 66, Council Oak Books, ISBN   978-1-57178-140-6, Streetfighter -- Also known as a 'hooligan' cycle, this is a sports-bike stripped of all superfluous bodywork.
  2. ↑ Doeden, Matt; Leonard, Joe (2007), Choppers, Lerner Publications, ISBN   978-0-8225-7288-6, streetfighter: a type of superbike customized for maximum speed and performance.
  3. ↑ Streetfighters, WorldCat, ISSN   0961-9453
  4. ↑ Seate, Mike (2007), How to Build a Pro Streetbike, MBI Publishing Company, pp. 92–3 ff, ISBN   978-0-7603-2450-9, [In London in the early 1990s,] I noticed an odd-looking motorcycle idling loudly across the crowded intersection. The bike's upside-down front end was topped by a pair of oversized headlights that appeared to have been stolen from a car. The rider's gloved hands clutched a set of what looked like handlebars from a motocross bike, while the exhaust can -- or what little remained of it -- was burbling like a beehive on fire.
    Was this a prop from Mel Gibson's Road Warrior? Some poor motorcycle courier who had dropped his machine so many times that he'd refused to replace his damaged fairing? [more]
  5. ↑ Caught naked by A Cathcart - Motorcycle Sport and Leisure, 2002
  6. ↑ Motorcycling for Dummies - Page 69. Bill Kresnak. 2008
  7. ↑ Categorization bases and their influence on product category knowledge structures. JA Rosa, JF Porac - Psychology and Marketing, 2002
  8. ↑ Brooke, A. Lindsay (2002), Triumph motorcycles: a century of passion and power, MotorBooks/MBI Publishing Company, p. 160, ISBN   978-0-7603-0456-3
  9. ↑ de Cet, Mirco (2002), The illustrated directory of motorcycles, MotorBooks/MBI Publishing Company, p. 214, ISBN   978-0-7603-1417-3
  10. ↑ Street Bikes by R Eagen 2007
  11. ↑ Inman, Gary (June 2008), "Freedom Fighter; Triumph's stripped-down sportbike came from the street", Cycle World, pp. 36–7, ISSN   0011-4286, The origins of the species are disputed. Some say that the Germans put high-bar conversions on sportbikes to lessen the soft tissue damage of the annual high-mileage pilgrimage to the Isle of Man for the TT races, and these were the first streetfighters. Others say -- and I agree -- that young British GSX-R riders removed their bike' fairings after crashes. They were already up to their Simpson Bandits debt to buy the bikes; they still owed three years of payments and dared not claim on the insurance for fear of having their policies loaded to the point they were priced off the road. The situation wasn't helped by the Japanese firms' replacement-parts pricing structure making new bodywork out of the question. And the old oil-cooled Gixxer Four is just about the best looking Japanese motorcycle ever, so why not show it off?
  12. ↑ Seate, Mike (2007), How to Build a Pro Streetbike, MBI Publishing Company, p. 95, ISBN   978-0-7603-2450-9, ...examples of the style began showing up almost by accident (pardon the pun) on the stunt riding scene early on. Just as many European riders had crafted naked bikes out of crash-damaged sportbikes, many American freestyle riders simply came to the conclusion that their CBR 900RR would ride better on one wheel with the fairing removed, the clip-ons traded for a set of tubular bars, and a custom bent exhaust pipe that didn't scrape on the pavement during wheelies.
  13. ↑ Inman, Gary (June 2008), "Freedom Fighter; Triumph's stripped-down sports-bike came from the street", Cycle World, p. 37, While the exact genesis of the breed may be up for interpretation, the first use of the evocative name of these bikes is not: My friend Clink coined it. This British photojournalist and serial bike builder used it first to describe a Harley. A hot-rodded Harley custom that used sportbike suspension and eschewed the chrome and engraving of the day for powder-coating and motorsport finishes. Clink also noticed the groundswell of Japanese custom sports-bikes being built, mainly in the north of England, that would be described as streetfighters. He is related to these bikes in the same way Tom Wolfe is to Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Babies.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.