Higher Standards
Higher standards
UP FRONT
David Edwards
THE SUBJECT FOR TODAY IS STANDARD-style motorcycles; more precisely, the U.S.’s lack of same.
Five years ago, this magazine called for a new kind of standard, a bike that had a powerful engine, modern suspension, front-line brakes and suitable sticky tires, but one that wasn’t as intense-in riding position, amount of bodywork or purchase price-as a repli-racer sportbike.
Did anybody listen? Well, sort of. All four of the Japanese manufacturers stuck a tentative toe into the standard-bike waters. Some were boring (Suzuki VX800 and 1 I00G, Honda Nighthawk 750), some were too retro and too expensive (Kawasaki ZRI 100, Honda CB1000) and one was too weird for words (Yamaha TDM850). In the U.S., at least, none of these set the sales charts ablaze, which must drive the Japanese nuts.
Why? Have a look at the Japanesemarket sales of Kawasaki’s ZR series of old-style standards. Patterned after early-Eighties AMA Superbike racers, the bikes are available in 400, 550, 750 and 1 lOOcc flavors, and capitalize on young Japan’s love affair with anything retro and anything American. In all, more than 20,000 ZR’s were bought by the Japanese in 1993. In Europe, too, the bikes are becoming very popular. Yet when the U.S. sales figures are tallied, Kawasaki will consider itself lucky if it sold 200 ZRI 100s here last year. This from a bike that beat all comers in 1992 to take Cycle World's Best Standard Bike honors.
More numbers. In Europe, Honda’s CBR900RR repli-racer, dubiously named the Fireblade, sold in numbers approaching 25,000. Here, maybe one-tenth that number were sold. Effectively, then, the U.S. is now the third most important market to the Japanese; new models are drawn up with Japan and Europe in mind.
What does all this have to do with the building of a new-style standard, you might ask? Simple, given recent sales trends and the sorry state of the world economy, none of the Japanese bike-makers is about to take a flyer on a bike built just for the American market, even if their own people are suggesting to the home-office brass that a neo-standard is viable in the USA.
Those people are around. This issue’s Project CBR900RR, Cycle World's rendition of a modern standard, got some strong backdoor help from American Honda personnel friendly to the cause. As successful (and outrageous) as the “Yellow Peril” CBR is, though, it would have to be toned down some for general consumption. A “naked” sportbike capable of Ripping over backwards in third gear at 90 mph may not be everybody’s cup of Earl Grey. Something longer and lower, maybe with small quarter-fairing to cut the windblast, might be better-as long as it was up to date in suspension and braking departments, and had the requisite mega motor. I’ve seen the bike.
Americans working for one of the Big Four researched then built a mockup of just such a machine. Neither sportbike nor standard nor cruiser, it’s an amalgam of all three types, sort of a latter-day, two-wheeled hot-rod.
This makes perfect sense if you study the history of America’s love affair with performance automobiles. Sure, a certain element has always lusted after slick, well-bred European sports cars, but America’s blacktop has always been the happy home to ladder-type frames, big-inch motors spinning a couple of meaty Firestones out back, and sheetmetal displaying all the aerodynamic qualities of the average shoe box. In the Fifties it was
hot-rods; in the Sixties and Seventies it was musclecars; today it’s low riders and pickup trucks.
Now, think back. What four bikes have had the most influence on the American market? Try these: Harley Sportster, Triumph Bonneville, Honda CB750 Four, Kawasaki Z-l. Common points? All four were simple, barebones street fighters, two-wheeled hot-rods, the ballsiest bikes going in their day. This new bike is a logical extension of that concept, what the CB or Z-l could have been if cruisers and sportbikes hadn’t dropped the development of the Universal Japanese Motorcycle dead in its tracks 15 years ago. It would be powered by a 1000ccplus inline-Four. Talk is of 9-second quarter-miles.
But this bike may make it no farther than a cardboard and styrofoam mockup. The company’s top product planners aren't sure the bike will have sales appeal in Japan and Europe, aren’t even sure that enough Americans will plonk down the dollars to own such a machine. Too much risk for too little payoff.
Cycle World thinks Japanese manufacturers are missing the boat when it comes to building a modern standard. Some of the principals at the American arms of those companies think the same thing. Maybe we’re right, maybe we’re way off base. In the end, though, it doesn't really matter what we think. Bike-makers aren’t in the business of selling machines to muckraking moto-journalists or to their own employees. It’s you, the bike-buying public, who count.
So, here’s your chance to step up to the soapbox, maybe even alter the face of American motorcycling. If you feel strongly about modern standards, either pro or con, invest some time and a 29-cent stamp, and drop us a line at CVY Higher Standards, 1499 Monrovia Ave., Newport Beach, CA 92663. If you’d rather fax your feelings, the number is 714/631-0651. We’ll compile the responses, publish the most interesting in an extended Letters section, then deliver copies of all the letters and faxes to each of the Big Four.
Look forward to hearing from you soon. H
