My rant....."street fighter"

Now, before I rant, let me explain that I know that not everyone can afford a really nice bike, heck I never owned a brand new bike in my first 50 or 60 bikes. I rode POS's for years but always tried my best to make them run well even if they weren't new or had a few dents in the tins or rust at those hard to get places. I rode for the same freedom loving reasons that most of us ride for but I never had the illusion that my bike was something it wasn't.

Please don't tell me I'm getting too old to understand or too cynical to accept something new....but what the he** is a "street fighter"?? Where did the name come from and who came up with it? It's the dumbest expression I ever heard for a bike!

My take on what most people call "street fighters" is a bike that USED to be nice, till someone crashed, dropped, wrecked it and instead of spending the money and effort to replace all the fairings, stripped the remaining pieces and called it a "street fighter". What a stupid name....has a motorcyle ever gotten into a fight? Heck no...he**, I'm old school and used to get in lots of fights, a lot more then all the bikes I've owned ever got into, even if you combine all their fights!!

Don't tell me that it's a aggressive looking naked bike, cause I'll tell you it's only a naked bike . Don't tell me it's a sporty looking naked bike because I'll tell you it's a cafe`. If you race it on the streets, you're not only an idiot but your an idiot that's riding a "street racer", not a street fighter!!

So why do some people (you know who you are) insist on calling what is most times, a clapped out POS a "streetfighter"?

I rode my purple H2 to the gas station the other day and a few guys gathered around as I filled the tank. One of them tells me "I got my street-fighter at home"....and of course I'm thinking "hmmm "street fighter"...this kids bike has probably gotten into more fights than he has" given this new world of "no tolerance" in schools. The picture in my mind of his bike was of an old dusty 2002 R6 that had been wrecked multiple times and was devoid of any of the original plastic......like I said....a clapped out POS.


Enlighten me....please?


jeff

 

Jeff check out this site it explains it better than I can.
http://streetfightersinc.com/
Also check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetfighter

 

Looks to me like it's kinda hard to build a "streetfighter" out of a bike that didn't have a fairing to begin with.

He won't want to hear this, but the Kwacker that Wiz just completed, by the definition in the links you posted, is more "streetfighter" than "cafe."

 

What crap is this? I'm with Jeff. There may be some cool ones out there but, by definition, nothing major. Really? Remove fairing, change handlebars and exhaust and now you have a "custom street fighter"? Get out of here!

Make a change that isn't as easy as bolting something on and go from there, double checking your work, messing sh*t up and learning from your mistakes. Then you've got something special!

 

jeff mate i think you know what a streetfighter is because you say they are POS


but in all honesty there are some extremely nice examples of people having built their bikes to suit their needs and eye.

on the link there was a good definition for a streetfighter: built, not bought.

 

Can you lump people that toss a clubman handle bar on an otherwise stock bike and claim it is a cafe racer into this rant also?
There are some sweet street fighters, some people start with a bike that isn't wrecked and go through the trouble to make it look nice. But, the majority of them are POS R-titled trashed sport bikes that someone bought cheap ebay lights and a renthal handlebar for.

 

I don't really care for that look all the time either. But if the style/type works for the person paying the bills for it then that's what matters.

Not every one has the same skills, taste or budget. Some people dislike stock and will modify an otherwise perfectly fine bike. Myself included.

My jeep's (also an XJ :lol: ) ugly, rusted and probably seen better days but it's what I got, what I can afford, and I built it.

Same for my bike, the exhaust welds looked like crap so I wrapped the header. It's a learning process. The next set of pipes I build for something will be better.

What gets me are the guys that order all the parts out of Custom Chrome or some other catalog and then call the bike custom. It's not. Custom don't come in a catalog.

 

I think originally it got its name from the movie...

But I think now, most people call their bikes streetfighter if they resemble Ducati's Streetfighter.

 

I love streetfighters.

 

Shriyukan!

 

looks to me like they take some sort of modern type bike and bolt on all sorts of ridiculous over priced parts on it, which makes the "built not bought" part kind of a stupid statement.........
140$ for a set of grips, maybe that's what euro-babes like, i dono.

 

You have to go to the start of the thread to see it was going to be an XJ900 cafe project, but I never got the bike, so all bets were off.
I still don't think it's a POS.

 

i thought a cafe racer was just a regular bike stripped of all the extra stuff so it could get you to the next pub before the other guy, i think that Kow could get ya to the next pub in plenty of time to get a good seat

 

Soooo that one site was all about "built not bought" and then continues to advertise a bunch of parts lol

Sounds to me like it is just another one of those things where people only care about how it looks rather than how it runs. Throw it with the same category with "ricers" and there ya go.

 

Looks like this XJ got into LOTS of fights

http://image.superstreetbike.com/f/9087 ... _xj650.jpg

 

I am with jeff . I do not know of anyone that takes the fairings off sport bikes unless they have been down. But i can see where they are coming from. I remember when i was a kid 15 or 16 all i had was a motorcycle for transportation. Did not matter what it looked like as long as it ran well. With the cost of plastics kids do not have that kind of money they do what they can.
You older guys know what i am talking about when i say this. In the mid to late 70s when i got my first street bike. Are people just crazier now back then people did not do things as foolishly as now no where near the amount of wrecks. Of coarse there was no such thing as street fighters very few bobbers If it had a quarter fairing on it from the factory it was a sport bike. Cafe bikes kawi triples yamaha rds suz triples if it has chambers it was fast no matter what it was. Choppers were mostly Harleys with an occasional cb 750 or xs 650. I realize bikes now are much faster For those who think their xjs are fast your crazy they are not in the same league as modern sport bikes. A new 600 sport bike with rider and passenger can take any xj out there. when you figure 550 seca runs about 13 flat about 100 any new 600 sport bike runs 10s about 130 that could be part of the reasons their are more wrecks now. Dont get me wrong xjs were fast in their days and are really fun to ride but more power means more wrecks. Who wouldnt like their xj to have 1.5 to 2x the power they have now would be much easier to crash

 

I have just decided that my project XJ750 (Pumba) is a new style.


Introducing the StreetLover



Just remember you saw it here first.

 

Polock is right, a cafe, at least the original idea was to take a stock bike, make it as light as possible, then replace a couple of parts, usually exhaust (helps save weight) maybe bigger tires, different bars, cut down or modded seat, rarely a streamlined tank....cafe! We did the same thing in the 70's and early 80's and the idea stayed true.....

I'm with Durk, I laugh out loud when I come across an ad where the owner has rolled the stock bars down and proceeds to call his bike a Cafe Racer! JFC!!

The only reason that Duc named one of their models "street-fighter" was because the marketing folks figured it might sell more bikes.


As a lot of you know, I read hundreds and hundreds of ad's each week when i'm in buying mode and I can't tell you how many times I'll see a bike that was obviously crashed(pegs scrapped, bar ends tweeked, maybe a case or two road-rashed etc), then the owner has ripped the remaining pieces of plastic off and calls it a streetfighter....he's the same guy who rolls his bars down then sells it as a cafe racer<LOL>!!

I'm just glad I'm not the only one who wonders wtf.

jeff

 

last couple years I've been explaining that a street fighter is the MODERN equivalent of a cafe. Take the best parts from here and there, carve off what ya don't need, hot up what's left there ya go. IMO cafes are super nimble. Made to precisely apex the 90 deg turn at an intersection. Streetfighter, not necessarily limited to low weight and displacement but still middleweight is better than heavy even if the heavier bike has better PtW ratio. Won't be setting any land speed records but should put everything else to shame on stoplight to stoplight runs. A little more supple suspension vs a track bike too. you ever go over pot holes on a CBR?

 

Do people really think that the plastics make that much of a significant difference in performance?

 

nah but when it's been down the plastics are left for the street sweeper and the rebuild project money goes elsewhere since having them rarely aids performance. and with them off you get to see the other half of the term ending in "...cycle"

 

Semantics aside, modification is one of the great pleasures of
owning a bike-of any kind.

Over 30 years ago, when I bought my first bike, an old honda cb360, the first thing I did was to change the paint, signals, bars etc.

I didn't want my bike to look like all the others on the road, and nothings
changed. I may not want to own a bike with this or that body shape, but I respect other ideas and designs.

A name is just a name.

 

well said....I think that nearly all of us would agree that we'd like to personalize our bike to some extent.

jeff

 

I love street fighters.

Also, Jeff, you're going to love vintage or classic street fighters, cbx's, gt750's, kaw h2's, etc etc, all with sport bike front ends, rear swingarms, 2 or cyclops - type headlights, and pointed rear ends

 

?

 

www.oldskoolsuzuki.info

>infoboard>oil cooled > Oil Cooled Owners Thread (post yer pics)

http://forum.oldskoolsuzuki.info/cgi-bi ... 1170357487

There's about 110 pages with lots of pictures which should give you a good idea of what a proper Streetfighter motorcycle looks like.

 

I know this will offend a few members but I dont think street fighters are any less retarded of a thing to do to a bike than to take an old XJ and make a "bobber" out of it. I find any attempt to make an inline 4 yamaha into a Harley wannabe just sad and a huge joke. To me its akin to import "tuners" doing stupid things like putting huge wings on the back of front wheel drive cars or putting neon lights under them or any other cosmetic changes that can be bought from an Autozone.

In the end its your car/bike/truck/whatever, do what you want to it. Just know that somwhere, out there in the world, there is another group of people all laughing at you.

 

i don't see any gallery listed for you

 

dont have one. Did you just want to see what I did with my XJ?

go here:
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=3 ... daily.html

 

nice, i don't even get to laugh but if i saw you at a red light in the rain i might

 

about 10mph on top from drag reduction. Kinda like doing a top speed run sitting straight up vs tucked in. When going fast do you notice how much better you accelerate pulled in tight to the bike .

 

Im strictly a fair weather rider. I rode year round when I was a young man and my bike was my only ride, but I have a selection of vehicles to drive in the winter. My favorite is probably my turbo alltrac Celica. Im the one usually doing the laughing in the rain at red lights


The "Cafe" craze is about the only bike modification I would EVER consider doing and even then an inline 4 would be my LAST choice for such a transformation.

 

hah, i was suppose to post this on first page but couldnt find it back then.. i think it says it all


Quote from Custom Fighters Motorcycle Forum
Originally Posted by mikey
This place is all about the dumbest, most dangerous, underplanned, poorly thought out, underfunded, likely to kill you, completely illegal cobbled together pieces of rolling shit ever to grace the surface of a road. And we like it like that.

 

this is what i have always thought as well. you dont see anyone cafe'ng a2012 gixxer, they 'streetfight' it rather.