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There are so many types of motorcycles on the market today. Is there a paradox of choice? Or is there a bike that's perfect for you?
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Welcome to the throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. In today's episode, we'll explore the variety of types of motorcycles offered today. We'll cover everything from scooters and standard motorcycles to the largest touring bikes and everything in between. Maybe you're just getting started looking into getting a motorcycle and you want to understand the breadth of bikes that are out there. Or perhaps you've only ridden one type of motorcycle and wonder if there could be more to your motorcycling experience by trying another bike. While Barry Schwartz's 2004 book, The Paradox of Choice Why More is Less. Argued that too many choices is a bad thing, I'm not sure it applies to motorcycles.
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What do you think?
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So I want to start with scooters for a few reasons.
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First, most scooters tend to be smaller capacity engines, so they don't have a ton of power to overwhelm a new rider. Second, most scooters available today have a CVT, which eliminates the need for a clutch or even a gearshift. This again makes it easier for beginners. And third, the step through design can often make shorter riders feel more comfortable. There isn't a tall midsection to lift a leg over, so the riders often feel that they have more confidence.
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And finally, scooters are some of the most practical types of motorbikes out there. They tend to have a lot of carrying capacity, allowing riders to pick up groceries, commute to work and more. Very easily. And the key thing is when you think of the seating position on a scooter, they tend to have a fairly straight or upright seating position most like when you'd be sitting in a normal chair that you might have in your house. Now, standard scooters would typically be less than 150 cc's, and this small engine capacity will limit power.
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But it often means that you're able to ride this motorcycle or this scooter in places where you have graduated licensing because you won't have the maximum amount of power that you're going to have in a larger vehicle. and this can make it possible for the newest type of riders to be able to work with this. The other advantage is that the cost tends to be lower, with many models available for less than $5,000. Brand new.
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What are a few examples that you might want to look at? Well, you may want to look at things like the Yamaha Zuma 125 or the Piaggio Liberty, which is available in 50, 125 and 150 CC variants. Honda has their super cub, which is an old looking design. Really kind of cool to be able to have that throwback.
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And this was the one that was oftentimes used in those old ads that said you'll meet the nicest people on a Honda. Really cool that they've brought that design back. They also make the Honda PCX. Vespa has, of course, the Primavera, which is their smaller capacity of the scooters.
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And then BMW makes the CE-02, which is an electric scooter, but with more limited range. So it's really meant for that urban type of an environment. However, and this is where there's a big caveat. The maximum speed is often less than 40 miles an hour.
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So really they're useful in urban environments. But if you're trying to do something that's outside of the urban environment, that 40 mile an hour limit is going to probably be too much of a problem for you.
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Now, where I live, the roads that's literally right outside of my my house is a 45 mile an hour road. And most people are doing 50 or 55 miles an hour along that road. So it's not one that can really accommodate that smaller scooter. But this is where there's another class of scooter that can work really well. And this is sometimes called a maxi or a mega scooter.
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And generally these scooters will be more than 150 cc's. So these larger engines allow them to have a faster top speed. You can use them on highways or even faster backroads like the one that's right by my house. This makes them a little bit more suitable to Suburban and even in some cases, touring usage. some good examples, one that I personally have and this is what I use for running errands all around here is the Vespa GTS300 really cool old looking type of a scooter styled after the Vespas of yesteryear, but having some modern It is only 300 cc, so it's not the largest engine. I think it's about 22 horsepower and it'll get up to 80 miles an hour. But that's wide open throttle and it does take quite a while to get there.
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But if you're doing back roads 45, 50 mile an hour roads, it is absolutely perfect. couple of other options in these are often used for more of the touring type would be the Suzuki Burgman and they have a 400 and a 650 variant. These are really popular. They've got a ton of storage space and they can make it very easy for you to do commuting long distance. A couple other ones would be like the Yamaha XMax would The BMW, C400GT and the BMW CE-04, which is an electric scooter, can also give you some other options for it.
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Now, next up is the standard motorcycle. And if you were to ask a kid to draw a picture of a motorcycle, they'll usually come up with something that looks like a standard motorcycle. Now, like scooters, the riding position on these type of bikes tends to be more upright, although there can be a lot of variation. So this is a fairly broad class. Now, most of these street motorcycles have a fairly basic design to them.
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They'll have an exposed engine.
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The fuel tank is sitting above it. You'll have a wide range of engine capacities from as little as maybe 300 ccs to even as high as 2500 cc's. They tend not to have fairings or windscreens, and sometimes they're also referred to than as naked bikes.
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Naked sport bikes sometimes are put into this category again because of that more upright riding position. I have a BMW S1000R, which as compared to the double R, which has clip on Handlebars where you're a little bit more crouched down if you're riding that bike. The single R has a handlebar which allows you to be a little bit more upright.
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It's a little bit more usable on streets and a little bit more comfortable for riding around on street usage. So this is why it tends to be a little bit more naked standard bike type of a design. Now, of course, some smaller designs might be cross shopped with scooters due to that limited top speed. So if you want the sort of the the limited speed capability of a scooter, but you feel that you want a more of a traditional looking motorcycle, there are some options for you there. And even on the really micro level, there's a couple of good options.
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So things like the Honda Grom or the Honda DAX would be a couple of very small capacity bikes that are actually really, really low cost. That could be an option for you if you're trying to capture that sort of spirit.
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I'd say bikes like the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 the Triumph Bonneville, those would fit into that standard style, although having a little bit more of a classic or retro feel to them, a little bit more modernized of that might be something like the Triumph Street twin. And if you want to go even more extreme on a modern design for it, you might think about something like a Yamaha MT-07 or the MT-09. These tend to be fairly angular looking designs, and if that's the aesthetic that you like, they can be a wonderful option. They have really nice performance as well. And I alluded to that capacity range that you could have. And I think if we think of the Triumph Rocket 3, the current generation of that is a 2500 CC inline triple. At least the standard Roadster version is a standard looking bike. It does not have a fairing, it does not have any of the windshields It is a naked bike, but it is just a huge capacity one. And if that's the style that you want, even if you are more of a experienced rider and you want to just have the largest production engine out there, it could be a really fun one.
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Now, of course, many riders got their start on basically dirt bikes. And this distinction of these bikes is they cannot be plated for use on a road. So the advantage is the cost of them tends to be a little bit lower than you would have for an equivalent street bike because it doesn't have to have a lot of the other accessories be it lights, indicators, speedometers, etc.
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that you would need to have on a road going bike. They'll typically have smaller engine capacity, usually less than 500 cc's, and they will have large suspension travel and tall seat heights. And it's this tall seat height that may make it a little bit more limiting for some people. That does make it easier to travel over some rough terrain. But that tall seat height can feel a little intimidating. But of course, the bikes are available in a variety of different sizes, and not just for adults. They even make bikes for kids. These will be really, really small stature of the bikes, which means if you want to get a child involved in motorcycling earlier on, you can have this as a option for them.
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And in fact, nowadays, certainly brands like KTM are even offering fully electric dirt bikes. So if you're in an area where there's some concerns about the noise or the emissions from a gas powered bike, whether it's a two stroke or a four stroke, an electric dirt bike could be a good option. Now, the real challenge is while these bikes are meant for off highway use and therefore you don't typically need a license for them, there are many limited spaces where you can legally ride them around the world. And this has been a frustration for a lot of motorcyclists. In the United States, we have organizations like the American Motorcyclists Association that is attempting to preserve some places where we can ride bikes off road. But as you know, communities grow and new houses are built into an area that previously had a dirt bike track.
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They're going to complain about noise and then that may shut down the dirt bike track or shut down some of the dirt riding areas. And so this has been a certain big problem where I am in the Northeast, of the United States, the number of options where you can legally ride road is shrinking every single day.
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So this is really where the problem is. I think if you're more in the out west part of the United States, you have many, many, many more options than you would have. Where I am in the northeast, it's probably more a factor of just density of populations. And certainly in Europe, we also have some of these challenges of finding some places where you can run. Some countries in Europe actually don't have any legal, offroad riding areas. So really makes this very difficult for you. But if you do have access and certainly if you wanted to get a child involved in riding a motorcycle, there are a few options. So a couple of good examples of these. And these are not meant to be an exhaustive list, but things like the Yamaha YZF-450F the Honda 450. The KTM 350. All these would be some of the really higher performance dirt bikes that are out there.
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Of course, they have smaller capacity bikes as well.
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Certainly if you're starting out or you're looking for something for a kid. But there's a lot of different options.
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Now closely related to dirt bikes. Dual sports can have a broader appeal now since these are licensed for road use. They have a bit more practicality than a pure dirt bike. And these can range from almost literally a dirt bike with lights and a plate to a larger six 700 cc bikes that might be thought of as a lightweight ADV bike. Now, often these are described as being 50/50 bikes where you might have roughly equal usage on both pavement and dirt. There are some ones that are a little bit more dirt bike focused that may be used. Really, the dual sport of it is really more for connecting trails with just a small section of pavement in between them. So things like the KTM 500 EXC, which is fairly high strung. And while it's legal to use on roads, it's not necessarily practical for extended distance rides because it's pretty much a race bike that has plates. So you have your maintenance requirements are much more substantial than you would have on some other types of dirt bikes. Mostly that has to do with just a limited oil volume. That's the biggest limitation on that specific bike.
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But some examples of this might be things like the KTM 500 EXC that I mentioned, the Kawasaki KLR 650. You could even look at like things like the Honda CRF 300. That would be a fairly small capacity, but a pretty decent dual sport bike. Really great for beginners because it doesn't have a ton of power to intimidate, but it has some good capability. It's fairly low cost as well. Some people do complain about some of the suspension being a bit soft. So if you're a larger rider, this may be something you'd have to think of upgrading. But there's a few different options here than within the dual sport or dual purpose range. That could be a good option. Some people use these as commuters and some people even take their dual sport bikes, take the dirt bike tires off of them and put on some road tires. And sometimes you may hear this refer to as a supermoto and it's a dirt bike, ergonomics, but with street tires. So you can kind of use it as a sporty type of a bike. So a lot of really cool options into there. If you are in Europe, then you are probably going to be aware that Suzuki just recently brought back their famous DRZ series. The DRZ400 was still available in the United States for many years, but because of emissions restrictions in Europe, it came off of the market. But just this past EICMA, they released the DRZ4S, which is their new version. It's fully fuel injected as opposed to the old carburetor that the old bike was.
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And this is a pretty decent option for having that dual nature, but also makes for a great commuter bike. They're very light, very nimble. So pretty good option.
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Now if we take that same effort that we've been doing, going from a dirt bike to a dual purpose or a dual sport bike, and now we supersize it a bit more, you get into the category that's probably the most popular category for motorcycling today, and that's the adventure motorcycle. This type of bike originated with the 1980 BMW GS, and that model is often used to define the genre. Long way round, long way down, those movies or documentaries really featured the BMW. GS taking it all around the world on a variety of surfaces that may not be thought of what you would traditionally think of as a road, but maybe some dirt that you had to navigate through. And these bikes are designed to basically be able to take you anywhere.
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They are though fundamentally street bikes that can do off road. They as a consequence, they have larger capacity engines. They're very popular as touring bikes because it's a very comfortable riding position.
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But also the bike is almost a Swiss army knife. You can do so many different things. It can be a fun sporty bike, it can be going on to dirt and you can do it on the road as well. And that has been what has, I think led to it being such a popular category for motorcycles on the market available today, certainly on a global perspective. In the United States, cruisers still are probably the highest volume overall, but globally, adventure bikes tends to be there. good examples of these is most sort of manufacturers will divide this into a couple different groupings of where they think of adventure bikes. So there's the full size bikes. So you might have something like the new BMW R, 1300 GS Triumph Tiger. Harley Davidson came out with the Pan America KTM has their 1290 and now the newer 1390. These would all be some great examples of full size adventure bikes. You can also include things like the Honda Africa twin would go into there. The Super Tenere would be another great option. Riders have recognized in recent years, that these big bikes, while they're amazing as touring bikes, if you want to take them for their sort of intended use cases going off the beaten path. As they keep increasing in capacity, they're getting heavier and heavier and heavier. So that BMW R80 was an 800 CC engine when it first came out back in 1980. And the current version of that bike is 1300 cc's. So it's almost double the capacity in the 40 some odd years since that bike was released. This has led to a growth in what some people are describing as the mid-size adventure bike. So things like the KTM 890 Adventure, the BMW F 900 GS Triumph also makes a 900 CC adventure bike. Some of the Japanese brands have some really good options in the space as well. that lighter weight bike has been becoming a little bit more popular because it gets you back to that initial view of a lighter bike that can do both road and dirt.
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Now, of course, I do need to talk about being based in the United States. I have to talk about what's probably the most popular style of motorcycle in this country, and that is the cruiser. Now, these are typically based on American motorcycle designs from basically the 1930s through the 1960s. Now, most of these bikes will have a v-twin as the engine config, as this was the common one that both Harley and Indian started off the very first bikes in the early 1900s from both of those manufacturers were a twin cylinder oriented in a V that ran in-line with the frame of the bike. And to many people this is the image that they think of a motorcycle. Now that the engine design also has a couple of characteristics to it that have been maintained. One of those is that they typically emphasize torque over horsepower.
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So these will have a long stroke, which is going to increase that torque. And as a consequence, you don't need to shift as often.
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You have torque to be able to accelerate in most any gear. And if people are shifting in those bikes, they're often short shifting because you don't need to get it up high in the rev range. Some of these bikes also will have a riding position, which is more of a feet forward.
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And oftentimes with your hands higher up, that gives an almost leaning back posture to the way that you would sit on the bike.
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And if you think of this in terms of, let's say, sitting in a in a lounge chair at home, in a recliner, that's the sort of image that this this conveys.
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Now, some riders do find this more comfortable because it is a little bit more of a relaxed sort of style of sitting, but it does not allow you to be as moving on the bike as maybe a standard motorcycle or even a sport bike would be where you're going to be a little bit more aggressively over the front end of the bike. Personally, for me, I've found that the feet forward design actually is not comfortable for me, and it's not something that I think a lot of people actually do share that.
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So it can put a lot of pressure onto your tailbone because you don't have any legs that are lifting you off of the bike. So all that pressure is on the tailbone, so you may not be able to ride as long. So it is the downside if you have that, this does lead to really more of a focus on style versus comfort or performance, and they will typically have a lot of chrome.
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So it's not unusual to find also these amazing paint jobs on these bikes from the factory.
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But those comfort issues and the lack of performance means some riders are usually using these for some shorter jaunts. They're not necessarily going as far long rides. It doesn't mean that there are not riders who do that.
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But if you were to look at the lion's share of motorcyclists who buy cruisers, they're doing oftentimes less than 1000 miles a year on those bikes. So they're not really doing this for long distance. The other thing is that these bikes are sometimes used as almost a social status. You know, I have a riding buddy PWD describes them as "butt jewelry", which I love, is just a term for describing these bikes because it is really there's a jewelry piece, if you will. The other thing is that cruisers the other aspect and this is I think what makes them very appealing to people is they tend to have very low seat heights and that can make people feel a little bit more comfortable. They're not going to be a large ADV or dirt bike where you 35, 36 inches seat height, and that can make it feel as though you have more control of the bike, certainly at slower speeds. But the downside of that. Is now that limited ground clearance and that limited height is going to actually make it where it can't turn as much, you're you're lean angle. It's going to be much more constricted. So these bikes tend to be used more for straight or highway riding as opposed to carving it up in the back roads doesn't mean that there aren't those that break the mold. And I'd say things like the Ducati Diavel is a great example of a cruiser style motorcycle that acts more like a sport bike. So all of these genres will have some variation where it's not just only one style, you can actually have a large variety of it. Another good example would be one of the bikes that I actually own, which is the BMW R18, and this is Instead of having a V-TWIN, it has a boxer twin engine and it's the largest boxer twin that BMW has ever built. It's 1800 CCS, thus the R 18 name and it's because the cylinders are so much lower than you would get in a v-twin configuration. It actually handles amazingly well.
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But some people who are used to that feet forward design because this is a mid control design bike, your cylinders are sticking in front of your legs.
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You can't necessarily out stretch like you would in a feet forward v-twin design. So some people may not like that, but it is another option. If you like the aesthetic of a older looking bike. But maybe the feet forward design doesn't work for you from a comfort perspective or you want something. It's just a little different. Now. I want to focus on that the cruiser bikes that I'm describing here, these are not there's going to be some variations that will have more touring variants. So even for those riders who do want to go a little bit more long distance, some of these touring variants will have more wind protection and luggage. And we'll talk about this in another section.
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But I want to highlight some examples of what would be a typical cruiser bike that you want and you going to see. A lot of these are going to come from Harley Davidson, who is probably what most people think of as the iconic brand when it comes to cruisers. So things like the Harley Fatboy, the Harley soft tail standard, the Harley Street Bob, the Indian Scout, the Indian Chief, the Ducati Diavel that we mentioned, the Triumph Bobber and the Triumph Speedmaster would be a couple of cruiser style bikes, but at least from a British manufacturer that still fit into the style of a cruiser, but not necessarily an American cruiser design. They're using a parallel twin, so there can be variations that you could find that still work for you.
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Let's jump into sport bikes now. Sport bikes were much more popular, I'd say, many, many years ago, and their popularity has been diminishing, mostly because performance across all bikes has just skyrocketed. There's ADV bikes available today with 170 horsepower, which is more than enough power for any public road.
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And they have the comfort of essentially a touring bike on those ADVs and the sport bikes are not quite as popular as they once were, but they are still something that is on the market.
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And the key differentiator of a sport bike as compared to some of these other styles we're describing, is that a sport bike focuses on performance. So things like acceleration, braking, top speed handling.
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These are all emphasized. And if you were to look at the way that you sit on a sport bike, your feet are going to be basically behind you more. They're going to also be tucked up. So you have a fairly acute angle on your knees. You're leaning much more forward. And whether you have, let's say, like a, a street oriented bike, like a street fighter style, like my S1000R or even the Ducati Streetfighter, which will have handlebars, you'll be slightly raised up. Whereas if you have full clip ons, you'll really be crouched down and getting into that tucked position. And that enables you to be more aggressive in your handling. It lowers your position relative to the air that's coming in. So you'll be a little bit more aerodynamic. But it's not going to be the most comfortable position for long distance riding. But if you want to have the absolute performance, they are a phenomenal option. And there's bikes that are available in a variety of different engine capacity. So even if you like the style, but you are an earlier rider in terms of your riding experience, you could get bikes like the Kawasaki Ninja ZX4R. There's about a 400 CC bike, not the most amount of power, but it has the aesthetic of that sport bike. Some of the mid-sized bikes as well, like the Suzuki GSX-8S would be a good option to think of. If you want something a little bit more power, maybe as you're growing in your motorcycling career and you want something that has that bit more push than you would get out of a smaller CC bike and you're past that. Let's say that A2 series of graduated licenses that you'll find in Europe, this could be a good option. And then there's also the open class bikes. So this would be things like that. Ducati Streetfighter.
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The Ducati Panigale. The BMW S1000RR. These are all bikes that will be pushing well over 150 horsepower in most of them.
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And today's bikes are over 200 horsepower. So massive amount of performance effectively.
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Anything that you need almost too much for the street, if I'm honest about it. But for the track, they're an amazing, amazing option.
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Now, another genre that you might think of, if you love the aesthetic, you love the handling of a sport bike. But you want something that's a little bit more comfortable.
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Maybe that you could take on more trips than you might practically do on one of those sport bikes. You might think about a sport touring bike. Now, similar to how an ADV bike is a mix of touring and dual sports.
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Sport touring bikes are basically a combination of sport bikes and touring bikes. They're less extreme of a riding position than a sport bike, but they often have better performance than you would get from a pure touring bike. And with ADV bikes becoming so much more popular, and especially with power from engines becoming much higher overall, fewer sport touring bikes are available than there once were. And some of these bikes are becoming almost more of a sport bike on stilts, which you could sort of argue is still an ADV bike. So if you think of things like the BMW S1000XR or the Ducati MULTISTRADA, these are kind of a adventure bike, but really much more oriented towards that sporty end of the spectrum than the off road end of the spectrum.
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couple of other options would be the BMW, RT would be a great sport touring it. Probably when most people think of sport touring, it's probably what most people would say is the icon of the sport touring class.
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Phenomenal bike if you want to do really long distance and surprising how good that bike will handle.
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So let's move into one of our last categories. We'll move into touring bikes. Now, touring bikes is really when you want to be able to travel with your motorcycle. And while you can tour on any bike, touring bikes specifically are designed to make long distance travel more comfortable. It's typically these will have more wind protection luggage, larger capacity engines, plus a more comfortable upright seating position. You'll usually find more than a thousand CCS on these bikes, so there's a few different options that will be how much you want to go towards more of the, let's say, cruise or the touring end of the sport type of bikes versus the full touring. So if we think of the cruiser style ones, you might think of the bikes like the Harley Road King, the Indian Springfield, the BMW, R18 classic. These are bikes that they have a windshield and they'll typically have some panniers that are oftentimes removable. So they can kind of do some light touring and you've got some more wind protection than you would have on a fully cruiser styled of those. You also get a little bit of a lighter sport tourer, which would be something like the BMW R1200RS. And these lighter bikes will be not only lighter in terms of weight, but oftentimes are more convertible. So on the R18 classic, I can take off the windshield in about 30 seconds.
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I can take off the panniers in less than 10 minutes. You do very similar on the Springfield.
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The Road King You also have some options to remove some of that.
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So if you're not actually going on a bike trip, you don't need to carry that extra weight of the bags or the windshield if it's not needed. But that's the light tourers If you also think of the more full tourers, these will typically have a fairing and they may have hard panniers as opposed to the soft panniers that were on some of these other bikes like the Springfield and the the Road king and the R18 classic. They may even have a top case and those that have a top case are sometimes called a full dresser, as in the dresser where you keep all of your clothes because there's so much storage space on these bikes. So some examples of these would be things like the Harley Davidson Road Glide, the Harley-Davidson Street glide. And really the distinction between those two bikes is a fairing that moves with the handlebars or a frame mounted fairing that will actually hold its position relative to how you're moving the handlebars. And some people will like one design versus the other. Indian has the challenger and then if you wanted it effectively with a top case you can get the pursuit. BMW has the K 600 GT and the GTL and both of those bikes will have hard saddlebags. the GTL will include the top case and it's a little bit of a different position of how you'd sit on that bike. The GTL is a little bit more laid back. The handlebars come a little further back, so you're sitting a little bit more upright, whereas the GT is slightly more of a forward attack position. So it's a little bit more of a sporty posture, but you can still put a top case onto that bike. So depending upon what your preference is, you can take a couple of those. Of course, the BMW R1250RT that we discussed in the more of the sport touring class is still just a phenomenal touring bike. And while it comes out from the factory with side hard panniers that are removable, you can also add in a top case if you need more storage space and one that you have to always discuss when you're coming in to touring bikes is the Honda Gold Wing. The Honda has been making the gold wing for ever and it started off as more of a standard motorcycle. It didn't have a full fairing on to it, but over the years it started to grow in terms of size, engine capacity. It's right now about 1800. CCS is the current gen of that and it's a flat configuration. So a boxer style, but a six cylinder as opposed to BMW's R1250RT, which is a two cylinder boxer configuration.
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The gold wing is a bike for people who just like to go out and ride and ride and ride. It's stable. It handles well. It's it's a phenomenal bike. So you've got a variety of styles.
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If you want something more of a cruiser style, you want something more of a sport touring style or Honda's Gold Wing, which kind of takes its own path in some ways, depending upon the model year, it will be either more sporty looking or more cruiser looking. But there's a lot of different options that are out there for you if you want a touring bike.
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Now, before we go, I do want to talk about a few variations that started as customisation of standard motorcycles. So things like a bobber, a bobber was usually a custom design. That's intention was to lighten the bikes. And this started back in the 1920s.
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And what they would do is they would often remove the front fender. They'd shorten the rear fender and they'd remove any excess accessories. And the idea was to make the bike feel faster and go faster because you shed some of that excess weight.
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there are some bikes even that you can get from the factory today that have that style built in already. So things like Triumph, Triumph has their Bobber. It's a phenomenal bike.
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I actually did test ride it. I loved the handling that was on that bike. I really seriously considered buying it before I got my R18, but I just wanted something that's a little bit of a larger engine capacity for that type of a cruiser. But it is a phenomenal bike and it looks outstanding. And if you'd like more of the American Cruiser style, you could do things like Indian. They have the scout bobber, which is their sort of the quote unquote, mid-size, you know, anywhere from like 1000 to 1200 CC engine.
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Harley has the Street Bob. That would be that sort of bobber style of bikes. Another style that became very popular. And this really started in the UK in the 1960s was the cafe racer, and it was still that same aesthetic of saying, Hey, we want to lighten these bikes.
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They're focusing on performance and speed. But the cafe racer was really oftentimes modifying Triumph's Royal Enfields, BSAs, Nortons. And the big difference is that most often these bikes will have a transformation from maybe a handlebar design where you're a little bit more upright to using clip on handlebars. So they'll be more like what today would be called a sport bike. Of that more aggressive sporty riding position and this helped to aid in aerodynamics and some of these bikes would also have maybe a small fairing added to the front to further improve aero. And if you've ever seen the style of it, this was actually an option that you'd see on some like the Triumph Thruxton you could get that small fairing. BMW had this on their RNineT line for a little while. It was aesthetically a really unique design. But what happened was the British motorcycle market was decimated in the 1970s by Japanese bikes, and many of these British brands went by the wayside until revivals that happened decades later. So Triumph did go under for a number of years and it was rejuvenated and actually is doing phenomenally well now the original triumph had gone by the wayside. Royal Enfield pretty much stopped being a British make, but no one told anybody in India and they kept building the bikes forever. And you can still buy them today imported. They're one of the best value options, especially if you want an old style, British looking style bike. They're an amazing value BSA is now coming back. Norton is coming back. And so you will still have some of that cafe racer style that is available.
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Unfortunately, Triumph actually discontinued recently, the Thruxton, which was their cafe racer. And this is probably when people think of Modern Cafe racers that you could get from the factory. The Thruxton is probably what most people think of. So I'd encourage you and I'll put a link in the show notes to all these bikes that we're discussing today, just so you can see what it looks like from Royal Enfield. As I mentioned, they have that still British style looking bikes and they even have a cafe racer.
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They call it the Continental GT 650. Not a very expensive bike.
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So this is a wonderful option, if you like, that aesthetic. Not a huge amount of performance from it though, because it is a smaller capacity engine, but it is beautiful looking. Norton has their V4CR. The challenge with Norton is that their pricing keeps most of their models out of reach for most motorcyclists, they're just incredibly expensive. They're beautiful, but they're really, really expensive. Of course, some of the Japanese makes did. Not just decimate the original British bike market, but they also started to create bikes that looked at the style of the British bikes. And you can still get some of those today. So things like the Kawasaki Z900RS.
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This has that same small fairing that we talked about that is really iconic. When you think of a cafe racer, some models of Honda's like the CBR 650 are the Yamaha XSR700 and X 900 ZR 900 are similarly styled, although the Yamaha is a little bit more of a modern take on it. So there are still ways that you can get that cafe racer style from a factory, if you like. course, many people will take their own bike and convert it into that style.
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And the key thing I want to I want to hit on as we're getting ready to wrap this up, is not all bikes that are out there fit neatly into one of these categories. Motorcycles have continued to evolve over time, so it's not unusual to find models which seem to transcend styles or just like bobbers and cafe racers are style choices that can be applied on to a variety of bikes.
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Even if you don't find that there's one particular category of motorcycle that resonates with you, there may be a model that straddles a couple of segments and that might be perfect for you. So a good example would be like the Ducati Diavel Is it a sport bike? Is it a cruiser? It's kind of both.
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And it's it's amazing that that bike exists because for the people who are looking for that, it's available. So tons of options out there. I'm sure that you will find a bike that resonates for you. Now, we've talked about many different types of motorcycles and why you might consider one of them, along with some examples of each of these styles. Now, while some brands like Harley Davidson focus almost exclusively on one type of bike, many brands will have bikes that fit into each of these different categories of style. And if you'd like to try out a style that you've not ridden before, its a great time to give it a go. You never know what you're missing until you give a twist of the throttle onto one of these other bikes.
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So my question for you is what is your favorite type of motorcycle and why? and share your thoughts by clicking the text link in the show notes or leave us a voicemail at throttle and roast dot com slash voicemail. Thanks for listening.
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I'll talk to you next week.
