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fiveus
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 Posted: 18:34 - 13 Mar 2011  Post subject: what do all the letters in bike names mean????? |
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Looking at getting a newer bike bike soon .something sporty  .But what is confusing me is rr rrrrrrr k1 k2 k3 f fs you know all the letters after bike names eg cbr 600 rrrr.What do all these mean.And is their much point in them .
regards john |
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Benson_JV
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CarlosCBR
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27cows
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| MinhDinh |
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MinhDinh
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| Posted: 18:58 - 13 Mar 2011 Post subject: |
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ZX and B1H anyone?
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| fiveus |
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fiveus
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| Posted: 19:05 - 13 Mar 2011 Post subject: |
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cheers.So i guess i just choose the one i like and pay no attention to those letters  |
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| Bendy |
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Bendy
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27cows
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baldy
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| Kickstart |
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Kickstart
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| Posted: 20:13 - 13 Mar 2011 Post subject: |
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Hi
Most of the letters are pretty meaningless. CB was meant to stand for City Bike, with the CBR being the sportier ones eventually. Not sure what GS was meant to stand for but think the X was added for the 4 valve per cylinder versions. Ultimately they mean about as little as "Corolla" does on a small Toyota.
The letters at the end tend to be the model year. K1, K2, etc refer to that on Suzukis. Honda use a similar system.
All the best
Keith
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| 27cows |
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27cows
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| Posted: 21:32 - 13 Mar 2011 Post subject: |
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No, a large percentage of bike letters do mean something. Or at least they used to.
DT - dirt trail
DTR - dirt trail replica (of the YZ)
DR - dune race(r)
AR - aspirated rotary (valve)
VT - v-twin
KR1 - Kawasaki replica (of race bike)
FJ - far (or further - than the XJ) journey (bit of Jap pidgin English, I suspect  ).
The Z is almost always added to denote 'zenith' over previous versions, or a superiority over more basic models (such as RXZ or RMZ).
X frequently denotes a progression in the line (though not always a bigger, faster or more powerful version). GSX, KLX, ZX, CBX and RXS, of course
I remember the legendary John Robinson writing an article about it once many years ago. It was fascinating. To a weirdo like me with an interest in that kind of nonsense, anyway
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HD
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| Posted: 23:08 - 13 Mar 2011 Post subject: |
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THE DRIVERS a COCK
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Teflon-Mike
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Posted: 23:22 - 13 Mar 2011  Post subject: |
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| 27cows wrote: | KMX - Kawasaki moto X |
Actually, Kawasaki MotoX bikes were KX's.
Honda coined the 'CR' designation, which many old Brit factories had added to competition variants of road bikes standing for 'Competition Replica'
Kawasaki Came to the sport at the time 'Scarmbling' was being renamed 'Moto Cross' due to that being what the French called it, not wanting to 'polute' the French language with any more Anglasisms....... Hence Kawasaki moto X...
The 'M' was added to road bikes aping MX style, to imply competition 'pedigree'..... ie, a marketing thing with NO real meaning, like most of these acronyms!
Yamaha's DT, is another one, often claimed to stand for 'Dirt Track'.
In fact, it was the comletely arbitary prefix coding of engine series!
The series started with the AT series of engines, working through BT and CT, depending on the crank case castings.
The DT series of castings were employed on the YZ250 & YZ400 scramblers, and carried over to the 'Enduro' road bikes, which at the advent of the monoshock rear suspension were christened "DT"
The smaller bikes were later badged DT as it had become generic with the Trail Bike range!
| 27cows wrote: | RD - race developed |
That one is an urban legend. I read an interview with one of the TZ development engineers, probably twenty years ago, utterly refuting that one! It was I BELIEVE another entirely arbitary marketing badge. The 'Race' bikes were TZ's.
The early 'road' twins were YD1S, again a 'series' number, following the original sequence started by the YB1 (I believe for 'Yamaha Bantum{copy})
As I understand it, they were accused of 'hiding' the engine displacement, not badging the bike 250, so it was suggested to call it the YD250 at next revision. some one in marketing apparently commented that 'wide' (Y D) could mean 'crooked' in english Slang, so they chose RD, because it was like haRD.
| 27cows wrote: | GP - (100/125) - general purpose |
GP is the abbreviation in FIA & FIM regulations for 'Grand Prix', French for 'Big Prize'. at the advent of motor racing, roads were held on public roads. In Britain, we instantly BANNED tests of speed on Her Majesties Highway (then Queen Victoria!) Hence the British 'Big Prize' race was the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy.... a 'big prize' awarded to 'Tourists' who would go to the Island specifically to race, on roads NOT under the direct jurastiction of HM Govt.
The acronym has been used by many car and bike makers to suggest a 'sporting' pedigree, or suggest a race bike..... NEVER has it so been missaplied to a machine as the GP100..... except perhaps the case of the Pontiac 'GTO'....
the 'GT' badging is another one appropriated for the sporting connotation by Suzuki. again from offical FIM/FIA bulatin, its the offician acronym of 'Gran Torisomo' italian for Grand Tourer.
Back in the 18th Century, wealthy nobility send thier young men on a 'Grand Tour' of the classical world, supposedly to 'finish' thier education... more often to let them get drunk and aquire syphalis well away from the scrutiny of their families native 'society'. Popular with the more affluent middle classes, during teh Victorian era, at the advent of the motorcar, it superceded the coach and horses for fine young gentlement on the 'Grand Tour'.... racing each other, over longer distances than the one day 'Grand Prix' events popular at the time, the sport evolved into modern day 'Rally' and 'endurance' racing......
during the 1920's FIM drafted regulations for 'Gran Tourisimo' racing, to define it as for cars capable of carrying more than the driver, and having 'full bodywork', to distinguish it from Grand Prix racing which had evolved its own 'type' of car, having only accomodation for a driver, and unfendered wheels.
Etoir Bugatti, consequently modified one of his GP cars, to acconodate a very small passenger, and fitted cycle mudguards to the wheels, in order to compete in GT racing, much to the Anoyance of WO Bentley who considered it 'unsporting', and designed to prove he could beat etoir's little CP cheaters, with a 'propper' Touring car, sporning the immortal Bentley 4.5 'Blower'.
The FIA, however effectively outlawed the GP 'specials' or at least attempted to, after WWII by introducing 'homologation' and insisting that to qualify as a 'road' car, it had to be sold in certain numbers to the public.
In the 1950's & 60's, a certain jumped up Italian Alfa Romeo mechanic tested these rules, with a series of ever more GP based 'sports cars' Eventually humbled after being shown to have perpetrated a fraud, providing dealer 'orders' for GT cars, in leu of cars, orders that were imedietly cancelled after FIA homoligation.....
The FIA created a NEW class for Ferrari, 'Gran Tourisomo Prototype'... for which there was no homologation quantity. This was abreviated to GTP, where upon the 'production class' was rechristened Gran Tourisimo Ordinare' or 'Ordinary' GT cars!
In the 1970's Fors started aplying GT badges to Ford Cortina's to suggest they were a bit sporty...... Austin, trying to dodge the insurance loading applied to teh Mini Copper, did the same, rechristening a cost cutting version of the Copper, the 1275GT, to save paying John Copper royalties for using his name!
Then came the 'Hotch Hatches', lead by Voltswaggen... dubbing thier 'sporty' new hatch back the GT, but with then novel Fuel injection, added an 'i' to the end! To give us the GTi.
| 27cows wrote: | RS - normally road sport |
another having many deravations. Ford, offered the RS badge on many cars built by Ford AVO special developments, basically homologation special Rally Cars.
The first time it was applied to a car though, appears in the Chevrolet range, where the 'Camaro' built for the new 'TransAm racing series, was offered with a huge catalogue of after market options. However, there was actually a separate catalog of optional equipment, offered for aspiring TransAm racers, containing all sorts of goodies like limited slip differentials and alternative gearbox ratios. To make the 'optional extras' legal for competition regulations, they had to be fitted to a 'production model', hence the catalogue described as the "Racing Spares" was abreviated to RS.
The 'Model' they were fitted to was the Camaro Z28, but advetrising teh spares catalogue, they had distinctive RS badges in factory racing livery, spawning a model in its own right.
| 27cows wrote: | GSXR - giant sausage, xtra relish* |
Sigh! GS was an Americanisation of GT. Where in Europe, we had Gran Tourisimo racing, in America, in the 1950's that got blanketed by european 'sports cars' detracting from the large american 'touring cars' that had been its main stay. Hence the fore runner of the american TansAm race series was the Gran Sport series, for larger engined Yank mobiles.
Again, appropriated by SUZUKI when they wanted to flog motorcycles in the USA and suggest some kind of sporting prowess.
When they gave the GS series of DOHC aircooled accross the frame fours four valve heads, the famed Suziki Twin Swirl Combustion Chamber or TSCC, licenced from Heron, (Ie NOT suzukis TSCC at all!) they added an 'X' to the end, for I suppose GS 'eXtra'.
The 'R' came later when they stuck the motor with beefed up oiling, and milled down fins in an aluminium frame with a faring, mimicing the endurance racers, for GS eXtra Racer.
They went on adding 'R's at the end, for good measure every time they made yet another homologation Special version.
| 27cows wrote: | NR - new racing |
I think that's another legend one, TBH.
Honda GP bikes were always RC, again a derivation of traditional British factory practice of denoting competition replicas with the CR suffix, and I think it was for 'Road Competition' ie tarmack road racing.
When HRC wanted to run a two stroke GP bike, They had to develop it without Sochiro Honda finding out, and there is a quirk in the 'N' nomencature that gave rise to the NS designation of the two strokes.... I seem to recall it said it stood for 'Non Sporting'... and implying an 'in' joke within Honda.
Point was though, it was a 'project code' given to the project so that Sochiro Honda wouldn't look at it... basically, it wasn't an RC code, therefore it couldn't be to do with racing therefore he wasn't bothered!
| Benson_JV wrote: | CBR600RR = CBR600 Race Replica |
| Big_Ham wrote: | CBR = Cross Beam Racer. |
Honda had applied the CB designation arbiterily to its 'sporting' inline twins. When they built the CB750 'Four', it was migrated to the fours as well.
It has NO intrinsic meaning, other than CB implying an inline engine configuration.
| Big_Ham wrote: | VFR = Vee Four Racer IIRC |
In 1983, Honda saw the future in V configuration water cooled engines. People believed that the already wide inline fours would only be more so if water cooled. Honda concieved the water cooled V4 as the way to molify such fears, and launched the VF750 on an unsuspecting, and unready world, proving only that IF you have a reputation for weak cam shaft chains and adjusters, you do NOT go and build a bike with twice as many and expect people to NOT be worried about reliability!
The sold poorly, consequently they perpetuated the sale of the CBX550 and CBX750, which following Suzuki's lead added an 'X' to the existing model designation, to denote four valve heads.
The CBX1000 'six' showing that CB has little intrinsic meaning, other than perhaps 'inline engine' and 'sporting'.
Two years later, Honda tried to push the V4 once more, having gone back to the drawing board and hastily nicked the gear cassette cam drive used on the VF1000R homologation special endurance Racer, and stuffed them in the 750.... only to realise they had been hoplessly outclassed by both Yamaha and Suzuki, with the FZ750 'Genesis' with watercooled inline four engine and Deltabox beam frame, and the GSXR750 with its aluminum frame and full fearing.
Honda baged everything into the VF'R'750, adding an 'R' to denote the model change as Suziki had done with the GSX'R', giving it ali spar frame and full fairing......
The 'Racer' was the RC30 homologation special, the 'R' had no intrinsic meaning, it was merely keeping up with the Jones' at Suzuki. Yamaha added one a year or so later to teh FZ to make it the FZR.... all THEY added was a fairing!
Which brings us back to the CBR, which was launched a year after, going back to an inline four engine, hence CB, dropping the X denoting four valve heads as that was taken for granted, and putting an 'R' in its place to be trendy!
Thr RR suffix, oft quoted as 'Race Replica', wasn't actually used on a road going honda, where the Race Replicas were the actual race bikes, the RC series machines, until the 1993 Honda CBR900RR Fire Blade.... it wasn't ACTUALLY eligible for any Class Racing Regulations.... it was NOT a 'Race Replica'!
The suffix had been popularised by Suzuki, adding it to 'homologation special' versions of the GSXR750.... Honda simly slapped a fasionable badge on thier bike.
In some cases the model designatin might hold some kind of coding, but for the most part, it's down to the marketing man and what they think will 'sell'.
Hence codings like RR that could imply Race Replica, if thats what you want to read into it.
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Howling TerrorOutOfOffice
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27cows
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| Posted: 08:57 - 14 Mar 2011 Post subject: |
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Sorry Teflon, I might not know much about much, but I do know a bit about bike prefix and suffix lettering and most of what you've said in the considerable above post is cobblers
NR certainly does stand for new racing - if Honda say so, it is so.
RD certainly does stand for race developed and DT stands for dirt trail. KX is Kawasaki cross. The M was added simply to differentiate the road bike from the competition model. RM is replica motocrosser. e-mail the Jap manufacturers PR depts and ask them
I'll try to find an online version of John Robinson's article, in which he spoke to people such as Erv Kanemoto, who discussed at length what all the letter (and sometimes number) configurations actually mean.
RR almost always stands for road race or road & race - meaning the bikes were homologated for use in certain race series (such as WSB).
GS was, I think, originally general series, the point at which Suzuki moved from making strokers exclusively (regarded as sporty and less serious bikes) into the more general biking market.
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| Posted: 09:40 - 14 Mar 2011 Post subject: |
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Teflon, it just is cross beam racer I'm afraid. Honda has said so. Also the nr750 does have an rc model code too, I just can't remember what it is at the mo.
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 15 years, 32 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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