Streetfighter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A streetfighter is a superbike that is customized by removing the fairing, and making other changes that result in an overall more aggressive 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 mufflers. Completely custom-built one-off frames, originally intended to overcome the weakness of the tubular steel frames of the early 4-cylinder superbikes of the 70's and 80's, also characterize the streetfigher trend. Many of these frames turned out to be "beautifully crafted pieces of metallurgical art," perhaps only unintentionally.[3]
Made popular by European riders, this type of custom motorcycle is gaining popularity all over the world, and motorcycle manufacturers began responding in the late 1990s by producing factory streetfighters, beginning with the 1998 Triumph Speed Triple[4] and the 1999 Honda X11[5], to the up through the 2009 Ducati Streetfighter.
[edit] History
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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. 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 entitled 'Bloodrunners' [1] and featured dispatch riders, delivering blood and live human organs for transplant operations. They rode enormous Japanese inline fours with turbos, with no extraneous parts. Fairings, mirrors, pillion seats & rear footpegs etc were all binned in favour of lightness and handling ability. Under-seat exhausts, dual headlights and the widest sport tyres were de-rigueur. Huggy Leaver was inspired to start customizing bikes in this style and there was a proliferation of 'ratted' streetfighters in London in the late eighties.
The term has since been diluted somewhat, and is now regularly applied to any bike with motocross "Renthal" style handlebars, no fairings or other typical customizations. In recent years, the term has also come to be applied to motorcycles manufactured without fairings in this style, usually based on the same engine/frame combination as an equivalent fully-faired motorcycle in the manufacturer's product line-up.
In 1993 Ducati introduced a new naked sportbike called the Monster. Since that time it has been a perennial favorite amongst streetfighter enthusiasts. In 1994 however, Triumph introduced the Speed Triple, based on Triumph's Daytona sportbike. This was an immediate success and joined the Ducati Monster as one of the more popular factory naked bikes.
[edit] References
- ^ Hogs on 66: Best Feed and Hangouts for Road Trips on Route 66, Council Oak Books, 2004, ISBN 1571781404, 9781571781406, http://books.google.com/books?id=4b_qJyw-ZX8C, "Streetfighter -- Also known as a 'hooligan' cycle, this is a sportbike stripped of all superflous bodywork."
- ^ Doeden, Matt; Leonard, Joe (2007), Choppers, ISBN 0822572885, 9780822572886, http://books.google.com/books?id=7wDcbl-UsmYC&pg=PA46, "streetfighter: a type of superbike customized for maximum speed and performance."
- ^ Seate, Mike (2007), How to Build a Pro Streetbike, MBI Publishing Company, pp. 92-3 ff, ISBN 0760324506, 9780760324509, http://books.google.com/books?id=mqMGQPuFEFsC&pg=PA92, "[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]" - ^ Brooke, A. Lindsay (2002), Triumph motorcycles: a century of passion and power, MotorBooks/MBI Publishing Company, p. 160, ISBN 0760304564, 9780760304563, http://books.google.com/books?id=I8sIulyI7xoC&pg=PA160
- ^ de Cet, Mirco (2002), The illustrated directory of motorcycles, MotorBooks/MBI Publishing Company, p. 214, ISBN 0760314179, 9780760314173, http://books.google.com/books?id=wNzyIcw2vxoC&pg=PA214
