Are retro bikes making a comeback?

[Noobie]

I don't necessarily mean royal enfield (effin injection pah) type retro but more the 80's and 90's bikes. Manufacturers seem obsessed with faster. For example the multistrada rs is knocking out 180hp. Most sports bikes are simply just too fast for the road and clearly are being aimed for track use. So would something like a 90's r1, fieblade, gixxer example provide more smiles per miles?

 

[Twinlover]

I don't necessarily mean royal enfield (effin injection pah) type retro but more the 80's and 90's bikes. Manufacturers seem obsessed with faster. For example the multistrada rs is knocking out 180hp. Most sports bikes are simply just too fast for the road and clearly are being aimed for track use. So would something like a 90's r1, fieblade, gixxer example provide more smiles per miles?

I understand wher you are coming from and agree in many ways, but R1s back in the day, did they not put out about 150hp too?

My comfortable 160hp Multi beats all those on comfort, easily, and equals them on pace

 

[9103]

80's and 90's reps could work just fine, most bikes even the 1000's did not make much over 125-135hp until early/mid 2000's. Stock 996 and 998R numbers are in that range with thw 999r hitting 150 approx 2005/6ish. I would much prefer a 1996 FZR600 with Fi, ABS, modern brakes and suspension and 120hp. My experience is not as much as many on here yet I still love running my 130hp 999 more than my friends Aprilia Rst1000 or whatever. I like that heavy rush of power uptop on the 150++ bikes but where can you ever really use all that thrust-- as I said -- maybe with more experience but for now the 115hp of the 916 is just perfect for the street and the 130 for the track all I could want. I would enjoy a well done GSXR 1100 even air oil cooled like the original but with 120hp. The older bike look with fresh new everything and the little issues(like spongy brakes and tiny frame rails) sorted and best of all-- financing available. Really hard to convice the wife that a 40+ year old bike that comes with payments is a good investment

 

[Gimlet]

Speed and power aren't the issues for me. It's "tech", electro gimmickry, built-in obsolesence, down-to-a-price plasticiness and daft styling. Bikes aren't pieces of engineering anymore. They're consumer ephemera. Buy it, flaunt it, park up at a bike meet and talk about your tft dash/phone connectivity/cruise control/radar/auto this and auto that, and when it goes out of fashion trade it in and buy the latest thing.
A motorcycle for me should be an engine with a wheel at each end and somewhere to sit. I'd rather have an analogue 160 bhp bike with the barest minimum of electronics than a 200 bhp commputer that basically does the riding for me and is impossible to fix when it goes wrong.

It would be nice if motorcycles actually looked like motorcycles as well. That doesn't mean they have to be retro-styled (although there's nothing wrong with that when it's done well - think Triumph Bonnie range, Kwak Z 900 / W800, Guzzi V7's etc), just something an adult would buy rather than a stylised child's toy.

There are some good looking contempory styled bikes out there - the latest Guzzi Stelvio springs to mind, plus the X-Diavel and Desert X, the out-going Honda CB1000r (not the new Hornet) and Africa Twin. But there aren't many that do much for me.

Of course, emissions and safety regulations have a lot to answer for in killing off "proper" bikes. It's not all the fault of manufacturers.

 

[Gimlet]

I have to say, owning a Harley changed my view of bikes. Prior to that, performance figures and handling were all that mattered. They still matter, but pride of ownership is a massive satisfaction facter that's missing from so many bikes nowadays. I got it from the Harley but in ways I wasn't expecting. I didn't care about the badge. I wasn't interested in the whole Harley culture and lifestyle shite. I just enjoyed owning something that was actually made of metal, not plastic; and metal with a beautiful deep gloss paint finish you could see your face in. The enormous, lazy, understressed engine helped as well. As did the simplicity and the fact that everything worked and kept working. Performance was irrelevant (though it wasn't actually slow - when you have 125 ft/lb of torque you do notice). Riding it and owning it just made me feel good and it just felt like a bike I could keep forever. (Unfortunately I couldn't because the riding position killed my back).

I get that sense from my Streetfighter as well, in a way I wouldn't from any of Ducatis current line-up, but my SF is heavily modified mechaniclly.

I also got it from my old KTM SMT. That was mildly modded, but more importantly it was fettled and sorted and perfectly set up. I'd fettled it and smoothed all the foibles away and in applying that bit of polish I discovered the diamond underneath. Admittedly it was a bit of a marathon getting it there and I almost gave up. But the foundation in design and engineering was there. I just don't feel it is with most current bikes, certainly not any of KTM's current line-up. That's what I miss in modern bikes.