Most influential bikes?

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

GPZ 600 not a bike I like but arguably the birth of super sports the class that killed of two strokes really

GPZ600 is an interesting one, first 600 sports bike, and just as fast as the RG500s and RD500s you could buy from the showroom, the RGs that went to magazines for road test made about 20 bhp more than the ones in the shops.

[Count Steer]

The first twin headlight speed triple must be up there as fairly influential - would we have had all of these modern factory naked sports bikes without it?

Not fundamentally different from the original Trident/Rocket 3?

Did they have the 'twin-round-light' look?

No but they were naked triples. I rather put the headlights in the 'trimmings' category although it is a pretty ubiquitous feature now.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

The first twin headlight speed triple must be up there as fairly influential - would we have had all of these modern factory naked sports bikes without it?

Good point, even if it was aping the 'street-fighter'* trend that had been going for a good 5 or 6 years.


* Take a crashed race-rep, stick on a couple of Bates headlights and some Renthals and go look cool at the Ace in your combats and denim jacket.

Don't the Suzuki Bandit and Ducati Monster pre date it by quite a bit?

[Horse]

I'll start with one that should have been, but probably wasn't or was before it's time. Japanese, shaft drive, water-cooled V-twin with the first production fitted tubeless tyres.

Ladeeez an Gemmun, I give you the Honda CX500.

*muted applause*

I almost put that as #10 on the other thread

Despite the renowned camchain issues, it was probably easier to ride, more comfortable and more reliable than any of my BMWs.

[dern]

First gen fireblade in 1992...

[Rockburner]

The first twin headlight speed triple must be up there as fairly influential - would we have had all of these modern factory naked sports bikes without it?

Good point, even if it was aping the 'street-fighter'* trend that had been going for a good 5 or 6 years.


* Take a crashed race-rep, stick on a couple of Bates headlights and some Renthals and go look cool at the Ace in your combats and denim jacket.

Don't the Suzuki Bandit and Ducati Monster pre date it by quite a bit?

The facet in question was the twin headlight setup.

[mangocrazy]

Agree about the 350LC (the first non-YPVS version) and the first GSXR750 - they completely swamped the TT proddie class in their first few years of production. I know the 916 was iconic and was a huge hit when it was released, but it was really just building on the foundation already laid by the 851/888 models. It had a single sided swinger (nicked from the RC30) and the styling cues were heavily influenced by the NR750, but there was nothing really groundbreaking about it. It was just a very clever mixture of the best bits of a number of bikes. If anything for Ducati the 851/888 were the real departure - an 8-valve, 90 degree, desmodromic V-twin, with fuel injected motor using toothed belts to drive the valve gear, and the engine as a stressed member.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

First gen fireblade in 1992...

What's ground breaking or influential about it?
The engine is an enlarged CBR600
The frame is an enlarged CBR400
The whole light weight, big power thing had already been done by the GSXR750 in 1985

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

The facet in question was the twin headlight setup.

How many unfaired twin headlight bikes are there not made by Triumph?

[Rockburner]

The facet in question was the twin headlight setup.

How many unfaired twin headlight bikes are there not made by Triumph?

Then? not many.

Now? couldn't tell you. I'm not the one making the claim.

[Count Steer]

The facet in question was the twin headlight setup.

How many unfaired twin headlight bikes are there not made by Triumph?

BMW GS, Rockster? Not identical twins exactly.

[dern]

First gen fireblade in 1992...

What's ground breaking or influential about it?
The engine is an enlarged CBR600
The frame is an enlarged CBR400
The whole light weight, big power thing had already been done by the GSXR750 in 1985

It influenced an escalation in the big engined bike class from the lard arses we had to that point.

[Ditchfinder]

Maybe the Monster would have been a better example rather than the Speed Triple as it pre-dates it

[Bustaspoke]

For me the most influential bikes of the last 50 years are
Honda CB750/Kawasaki Z1,they were mass produced,affordable & had electric start,disc brakes & indicators.The first UJM's
The XT500 was the first mainstream Trail bike.I'm sure Trail bike's were around before the XT500 appeared,but were more niche than the XT.
Kawasaki GPZ900 was a leap forward,likewise the GPZR600
First gen FZ750 with the 5 valve head aptly called Genesis by the marketing people at Yamaha
First CBR900R 1992? The sportsbikes were big old diesls getting bigger & less agile every year,like the ADV stuff is nowr.
1998 4XVR1 was another game changer.
I'm not sure what bikes have moved everything on since that original R1,to me the bikes seem to have evolved but no great leap,maybe the BMW S1000 was a big jump?
Two other influential designs I can think of are the Honda Goldwing, & the worlds first ADV bike,the BMWR80GS .
I would also include Harris for making frames to allow those IL4 Jap bikes go around corners & Tambuini for his iconic desgns.
Regarding the Twin headlight debate,my mate Jamie reckons he started off the Streetfighter look in the late 80's when he threw his GSXR1100 down the road a couple of weeks before the TT.He got the bike repairedt but didn't have enough time to get the fairings sorted so he ran it without fairings & it got a lot of attention.
As I posted earlier I think MZ were the biggest influence on two stroke tech,a big shout is due to who invented the swingarm & rear suspension,was it McCandles with the 'Featherbed' & whoever invented telescopic forks?
Who built the first sequential gearbox?That must have been a game changer?

[Demannu]

First gen fireblade in 1992...

What's ground breaking or influential about it?
The engine is an enlarged CBR600
The frame is an enlarged CBR400
The whole light weight, big power thing had already been done by the GSXR750 in 1985

Because the Gixxer was huge.
The Fireblade was a game changer which gave you 1000 performance and 600 handling.
The Gixxer gave you 750 (90hp at best) performance and reasonable handling. I remember flexing the spokes by hand in the car park. Suzuki did a great job giving such a racy motor to the public, it left bugger all for the tuners to find without having to rebuild it from the crank up!

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

You realise you're going to have to prove the wheel flexing claim

[Dodgy69]

Bmw gs brand...it influenced many many many over 50s to buy a bike, that they can sit in comfort on ( like an armchair) travel great distances and keep on two wheels, without pipe and slippers mind.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Don't the Suzuki Bandit and Ducati Monster pre date it by quite a bit?

The Bandit and Monster were both built down to a price...Steel frame, non adjustable suspension and so on. The first twin light Speed Triple was nearly just a naked version of the Daytona. I.e. Twin spar ally frame, SSSA, EFI, fully adjustable bouncy bits, big brakes etc. It wasn't quite the Daytona engine, but it wasn't far off.

I have no idea if the Triumph was the first factory bike to do that, but it was not a Bandit or similar. The price reflected that, IIRC it was way more expensive.

[slowsider]

I think if you're going to say that a motorcycle is influential you should say what it has done that hasn't been done before, and what it's influence is

I think you're reading too much into it

Probably, every time I think of an influential bike I think "that's just a refinement of a previous bike or idea"

Tesi, Nessie, Quasar...

[Mr. Dazzle]

It's not in the nature of OEMs to launch stuff that's radically different to what came before. Partly because "what came before" is generally not half bad anyway and partly because buyers tend to be quite a conservative bunch.

The only example of someone being game changingly influential that I can think of is Tesla. They really did make everyone sit up and look at their own product lines and make some rapid changes.