revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Based purely on looks and setting aside any shades of practicality,or what the thing is like to ride.

What's your choice?

The original Z1 with the black engine gets my vote all day long.

Yamaha R1, 2000

BMW C1

I admit to being totally biased and needing to declare an interest (I own one), but the early 1990s Ducati 851/888 SP3 still does it for me - pretty and brutal in equal measure.

Later "5 Spoke" 916 shape, but I think it's actually the 748 which would get my final nod. The rear wheel just looks better proportioned to me.

I"m not saying this is my final choice.... but it's still the current favourite :





(need to get a better photo at some point)

I give you the Shuttleworth Snap

I actually think....

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 12:21 pm Later "5 Spoke" 916 shape, but I think it's actually the 748 which would get my final nod. The rear wheel just looks better proportioned to me.

100% this

gremlin wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 12:38 pm I actually think....

Screenshot_20231213_123746.jpg

Really?
My sister has one that she's never ridden.

I honestly don't know, at one time I used to always say "1983 Yamaha RD350 YPVS" but I think that was rose tinted memories of the first one I had, now I've got another one I'm not so keen on them.
For me it's very difficult to separate the looks from the function of the bike and nostalgia, but I can easily say early GSXRs are ugly, I had one and it was a superb bike to ride (for it's time) but even when I had one I never thought it was pretty. I like the looks of the AMA Superbikes from the early 80s, but I think that's just nostalgia, and the reality is that they're not great to ride, if you want an early 80s bike that's nice to ride buy an LC or a GPz550, don't get a GPz1100.

The last bike I genuinely had a massive desire to buy was the 98 R1, which was a great bike, but a large part of my desire to own one was that it was a high performance Yamaha.

So for me, currently, the best looking bike ever is the Honda CB1000R, because I've got one and I'm happy with it, but if Honda mad a CB1000R that looked just like the CB750F that Freddie Spencer raced, that would be the best looking bike ever.

Honda CB400-F2 in maroon with the gold pinstripe, and those utterly beautiful S shaped headers.

748 / 916 runs it close.

Is there a category for bikes so uncool that they go full circle and (to my eye) become super cool?

I do love these, I might buy one.

KungFooBob wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:07 pm Is there a category for bikes so uncool that they go full circle and (to my eye) become super cool?

I do love these, I might buy one.

They remind me of Peppa Pig these days...

The Spin Doctor wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:10 pm

KungFooBob wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:07 pm Is there a category for bikes so uncool that they go full circle and (to my eye) become super cool?

I do love these, I might buy one.

They remind me of Peppa Pig these days...

I knew you'd be funny, if we waited long enough

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 1:49 pm

gremlin wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 12:38 pm I actually think....

Screenshot_20231213_123746.jpg

Really?
My sister has one that she's never ridden.

Look at most bikes and they fit a common standard (for the time) appearance. Can you think of anything else that was so original, so design-led and so fundamentally right that it remained unchanged for decades? It was designed from the offset to appeal to both men and women, doubling the market. A gentleman could ride it in suit and not arrive covered in road crud. It opened up biking (of a fashion) to so many people who would have considered it an unappealing mode of transport.

That, and the fact that it looked like a wasp, hence the name.

For those reasons, it's beautiful.

I give you the drop dead gorgeous MGS-01