Loose Lines [Issue 79, May 1997]

If all the people involved in motorcycle manufacture, importing, distribution and sales were forced to ride their products through a British winter, then the bikes on sale would be very different to the current offerings. I, for one, find it incredibly sad that motorcycling is moving more and more to a very expensive summer leisure pastime (not least for the effect such a change has on the UMG’s sales - sob!) and all the old time, hardcore bikers are either dying out or giving up in disgust. All the factories’ attention is focused on the replicas because they can charge top money and sell thousands of the damn things.

Part of it's down to the total dominance of the Japanese factories. For sure, Triumph have done exceptionally well with their new Daytona, but their insistence on limiting output to 20-25000 machines a year means it’s not going to pay them, in terms of profit per machine, to take much notice of the lower end of the scale. The Italians, despite being master stylists and having an intimate knowledge of chassis dynamics, are as far from producing practical motorcycles as they were in the seventies. So they are stuck with offloading their replicas on to anyone willing to hand over the dosh.
 
The starting point for a practical motorcycle, one that can be ridden through British winters, is to equip it with narrow handlebars, so that the resulting fairing can be svelte whilst offering good protection. The only problem with this is that to get away with narrow bars the bike needs to be light and narrow (for a low centre of gravity). Few modern bikes, with decent power, meet this criteria. The odd Japanese V-twin might just manage the transition, though they tend to be built without much thought to saving mass as they usually serve as motive power for those dreadful customs. Both Honda’s and Suzuki's latest sporting V’s have potential, though it’s somewhat lost to their trendy plastic and badly designed frames.

Straight fours have no place in a motorcycle, the popularity of 600 Bandits and Diversions only high because there are absolutely no alternatives. The sheer brilliance of Japanese production and development engineers the only reason they haven't been consigned to the history books. Their relatively low prices - so much so that many dealers demanded that the importers put them up! - showing just how clever the Japs can be in making motorcycles.

Singles are flawed in their excessive vibration, effectively limited to a mere 300cc if both power and efficiency are needed. Vertical twins come closer than most, but at the price of a single gear driven balancer and a limit in capacity of around 600cc. Conceivably, if the Jap’s got the bit between their teeth, they could start churning out thousands of the things and sell them in the critical £3000 to £4000 price range. Figure a modern bike to have excellent weather protection whilst looking neat and being much more aerodynamic than the replicas (which lose all their efficiency as soon as the rider’s on them with most extremities stuck out in the wind), weigh around 300lbs, make 70 horses and turn in at least 80mpg — fun and frugality that you can enjoy all year round!

Bill Fowler