Where are all the different /unique/ innovative bikes these days. In a time when we perhaps have more bike choice than any generation before us, when you get down to the nitty gritty details they are much of a muchness aren't they?
The case 1: In a well known bike spot in Englandshire a woman said to me " ok, I'll be interested, what is it about this particular bike that is so good?" she waved her hand in the direction of the forty or so bikes parked up in a line. "Which one do you mean?" says I. "these, you've all bought the same bike, there must be something good about them" She genuinely thought she was looking at forty identical bikes just in different colours. To a biker it was obvious that there were umpteen different models/brands/capacities. She was a none biker for sure but doesn't she have a point, even the most anal of us, looking from a distance, wouldn't be able to tell one sports bike from another parked in a line.
Yes I know the K9 has 3 more horse power than the k2 or that the GSX is .5 of a second standing quarter faster than the R1 but aren't they pretty much the same thing?
2: Cruisers, just how many v twin american style cruisers are there in this world, look at Yamahas line up, 10 or so vtwin heavy, low slung, looky likeies, Suzuki the same. without a model designation, I couldn't tell them apart in a magazine much less on the road. Stick HD and the others in the equation and you've got, I dunno, maybe 100 bikes that are essentially the same.
History is littered with innovative bikes, most of them failures popularity and sales wise but I do miss them. Yamaha GTS 1000 Hub centre steering, Suzuki GT 750, 3 cylinder water cooled two strokeThe original Vmax, v4 with yummy Vboost, R5 rotary, all them troublesome turbos, cbx and Benelli six cylinder monsters and my particular favourite and very popular as I recall, the CX500 plastic maggot, an across the frame vtwin for the masses, sold millions then dropped like a stone. loads more that my shite memory won't recall.
If it doesn't make money from a business point of view, it ain't worth making, I accept that but it's a bloody shame, whilst it is almost impossible to buy a bad bike these days, I find it increasingly difficult to find a bike that I can lust after, that is a country mile different to all the others.
Top of my head produces the Triumph rocket, that's it, can you think of any more that aren't just a fraction faster or better looking than the hundreds of other similar bikes.
This ain't a rant, just a chat, has everything new in the bike world been done before, in ten years time are we still gonna be looking at a line up of brand new R1s and Gixxers. Anyone got a crystal ball?
Oh bugger
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Originally Posted by Dave Lobster
but your on it, I lust for anything different, lammys are cool btw.
so that makes it 40% R1 and 60% Other....!!!
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