25 years of sportbike development

Amber Lamps · 08-21-2009, 11:47 AM

Yea my first "racey" bike was an '83 RZ350 I bought with my enlistment bonus but my first actual sport bike was also a '86 Ninja 600. My best friend let me keep it while he was deployed overseas for 18 months. I then rode a '86 Ninja 1000 for a while but got over it and bought an '88 V-Max. I didn't come back until '95 with the FZR1000. It funny to me how we've almost gone full circle in the power to weight arena. I think that it's possible to make a bike with more hp and less weight but I also believe that it would be almost impossible to ride on the street. Witness the turbo attempts by the OEMs and even the first V-Max which was considered a "Death Machine" so Yamaha scaled it back.

I honestly believe that say, Suzuki could market a full spec, 200+ hp WSBK bike for under $20,000 if they wanted to. The only thing that keeps race parts expensive is their limited production. Today's radial brakes, inverted forks, titanium valves, gas charged shock, etc were yesterday's "unobtanium" race parts.

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08-21-2009, 11:47 AM	#7
Amber Lamps Moto GP Star Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 14,556	Yea my first "racey" bike was an '83 RZ350 I bought with my enlistment bonus but my first actual sport bike was also a '86 Ninja 600. My best friend let me keep it while he was deployed overseas for 18 months. I then rode a '86 Ninja 1000 for a while but got over it and bought an '88 V-Max. I didn't come back until '95 with the FZR1000. It funny to me how we've almost gone full circle in the power to weight arena. I think that it's possible to make a bike with more hp and less weight but I also believe that it would be almost impossible to ride on the street. Witness the turbo attempts by the OEMs and even the first V-Max which was considered a "Death Machine" so Yamaha scaled it back. I honestly believe that say, Suzuki could market a full spec, 200+ hp WSBK bike for under $20,000 if they wanted to. The only thing that keeps race parts expensive is their limited production. Today's radial brakes, inverted forks, titanium valves, gas charged shock, etc were yesterday's "unobtanium" race parts.