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rpsmith79
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PostPosted: 07:50 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

linuxyeti wrote:
Needn't look like that though..

https://cdp.azureedge.net/products/USA/TM/2018/MC/CRUISER/BONNEVILLE_T100/50/NEW_ENGLAND_WHITE_-_INTENSE_ORANGE/2000000005.jpg

2018 Bonneville looks fine to me, exhaust wise, and number plate location,

Or the new Royal Enfield 650's

https://media.zigcdn.com/media/model/2017/Nov/royal-enfield-interceptor-int-650-right_600x300.jpg

Or even the Euro 4 Mash 400

https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5336/31302860586_7b5a999743_b.jpg

So, I don' think the exhaust has to look like that, and there's no need for your number plate to be stuck on a litter picker sticking out from the end of the bike !!


That is a matter of opinion though, i still think they could all be improved upon by tucking the plate and rear light right under the seat

Especially the Mash, that rear chromed mudguard looks like an afterthought, especially as the seat ends around the midpoint of the rear wheel
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G
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PostPosted: 10:51 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

"If you can see the bike while you're riding, you've done something wrong" Smile.

Fairly low - I do find I also start to appreciate the aesthetics more once I've owned a bike I may not have initially liked so much for a while.

When I got it, the K6 GSXR1000 was probably the least aesthetically pleasing of the choices (well, if we consider the C1H ZX10); but the ergonomics and performance specs best matched my requirements.
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chickenstrip
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PostPosted: 11:18 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

G wrote:


Fairly low - I do find I also start to appreciate the aesthetics more once I've owned a bike I may not have initially liked so much for a while


Have you never seen any bike for the first time and just thought, "I want one!", as an almost visceral reaction, not even thinking in that first instant of any kind of practicality of actually owning whatever you were seeing?
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BusterGonads
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PostPosted: 13:10 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

linuxyeti wrote:

Needn't look like that though..

https://cdp.azureedge.net/products/USA/TM/2018/MC/CRUISER/BONNEVILLE_T100/50/NEW_ENGLAND_WHITE_-_INTENSE_ORANGE/2000000005.jpg

2018 Bonneville looks fine to me, exhaust wise, and number plate location,

Or the new Royal Enfield 650's

https://media.zigcdn.com/media/model/2017/Nov/royal-enfield-interceptor-int-650-right_600x300.jpg

Or even the Euro 4 Mash 400

https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5336/31302860586_7b5a999743_b.jpg

So, I don' think the exhaust has to look like that, and there's no need for your number plate to be stuck on a litter picker sticking out from the end of the bike !!


I love the looks of all of those Linuxyetti.

My middle son has a 2016 Triumph Street Twin, which I am sure is a fine bike but I am a bit put off by the fact that it is a water cooled bike made out to look like it is air cooled as it has cylinder fins as well. I suppose the finned barrels and head will lose some heat, but it is mainly water cooled.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha
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PostPosted: 13:45 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

chickenstrip wrote:
G wrote:


Fairly low - I do find I also start to appreciate the aesthetics more once I've owned a bike I may not have initially liked so much for a while


Have you never seen any bike for the first time and just thought, "I want one!", as an almost visceral reaction, not even thinking in that first instant of any kind of practicality of actually owning whatever you were seeing?


Yes!! But they were all old and shit (by the standards of today's performance and reliability).

Strange bike / aesthetics equation - the better a bike is, the shitter it looks.

Kind of.

I think that point above about warming to the looks of a particular bike - once it's proved itself - ring true. I've always thought that, by the late '80s and onwards, the Big 4 were hugely overcome by the notion that form had to follow function. I think this didn't always sit well with the western eye - where we expect a balancing of the two, and may even sacrifice function if the form is seductive enough. America in particular was guilty of this with its cars of the '50s and '60s. Those land yachts had many shortcomings - but they looked astonishing. Remember the '59 Chevy Impala? Those folded rear fins? It was said that above a certain speed, they acted as an aerofoil, lifting weight of the rear wheels and thus creating dangerous instability. But who cares when you've got a jalopy that looks that swish??

I digress. My point is that I think we on this side of the world have often expected form to trump function somewhat. Whereas the Japanese bent the stick in the other direction. Which, now that I think about it, you might have expected them to emphasise balance, given how much neighbouring ideologies like Taoism, yin and yang etc. etc. prioritise it.

I think the Japanese have got their priorities right, but my god they come out with some fucking ugly crap. Bikes, cars and everything else. It's just a cultural thing though. I'm sure to the Japanese eye, all their stuff looks beautiful.
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linuxyeti
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PostPosted: 14:06 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

rpsmith79 wrote:


That is a matter of opinion though, i still think they could all be improved upon by tucking the plate and rear light right under the seat

Especially the Mash, that rear chromed mudguard looks like an afterthought, especially as the seat ends around the midpoint of the rear wheel


Perhaps a little, on the Mash, that extra gap is just right for the rear rack & top box
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G
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PostPosted: 15:34 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

A woman... yes.
Then you hear them talk and realise aesthetics aren't everything! Razz

A bike - not really; certainly not based purely on aesthetics.
Actually, the opposite a bit - when I first read about the S1000RR that was what I thought, but I didn't really like the looks when it first came out - the specs, however were definitely enticing.
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chickenstrip
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PostPosted: 16:25 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

G wrote:
A woman... yes.
Then you hear them talk and realise aesthetics aren't everything! Razz


Wrong kind of bike Wink Laughing
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 18:45 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree with Trevor, especially about the Japanese cars, bikes, cameras whatever.

I do get the clinical G ethos though too, of just wanting to buy the best tool for the job, or the one that offers the most potential for a price and with aesthetics not being able to compensate for a crap design, performance or level of reliability etc. There's plenty of these sort of people out there, who make logical well informed buying decisions based on getting the best item for their needs.

Its probably less common in the world of new bike sales or classics, but then bike riders are pretty much going back to the VFM commuters and the rich must have a flash toy, with very little middle ground.

Look at all the Crossover car buyers, none of them with decent eye sight could ever be accused of looking at a new Quashqi or Tiguan or Kadjar and thinking Phwoor that looks the bollocks! They are all buying for perceived practically, safety and status.

Oh and I agree about Japanese car design, but I'd love to meet the bloke that designed the Nissan R34 Skyline GTR and thought "fuck me I've nailed it and penned a true masterpiece of beauty and form there" Laughing

I wonder what the Alfa GTV, Brera, and 4C designers thought of Godzilla when they looked at its tacked on looking bodykit and square jawed chiselled from ugly stone profile.

Id like to think Japan deliberately said "you know what, we will make this machine so devastating capable and unbeatable that it could look like the front of a crashed truck and it'll still sell like crazy". I suppose if a cobbled together Mitsubishi Lancer with loads of crap tacked on the outside wins all the Rally championships, then it really doesn't matter how pretty your Lancia Stratos is if it never sees a podium or finishes a stage etc.
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Old Git Racing
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PostPosted: 19:22 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

chickenstrip wrote:
G wrote:


Fairly low - I do find I also start to appreciate the aesthetics more once I've owned a bike I may not have initially liked so much for a while


Have you never seen any bike for the first time and just thought, "I want one!", as an almost visceral reaction, not even thinking in that first instant of any kind of practicality of actually owning whatever you were seeing?


The only bike I ever had that reaction to was the Yamaha RD350LC. It had the added bonus of living up to the aesthetics when you rode it. I sort of had it with the 999 Ducati, although good it never gave me the same satisfaction as the LC, something I think is reflected in prices today.

OGR.
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 20:26 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

I might have once almost felt this way about the MV Brutale, but I wouldn't have one now as I'm passed it.
Put a Sanctuary Z1300 in front of me though and I might have to sell my house and live in a Caravan park. Laughing
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Polarbear
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PostPosted: 20:49 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

G wrote:
A woman... yes.
Then you hear them talk and realise aesthetics aren't everything! Razz


Ah, you see that's where aesthetics are really important.

If you have to listen to the outpourings from the random thought selector that passes for a brain in 80% of the female species, surely it's better to have a good looking one doing it.

Rather like an MV, whatever it's shortcomings, at least you can admire it's beauty while sitting at the side of the road waiting for the AA to rescue you.
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Hong Kong Phooey
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PostPosted: 22:34 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

If it goes like shit off a shovel, but looks like somebody actually did a shit on a shovel then I'm not bothered, in fact I regard it as a positive.

I love wasting fancy Dan in his brand new S3 Audi in my tatty looking old grandad estate car.
I also enjoy whipping some litre bikes on my old scruffy CBR6 on b roads.

I hugely like the way I can park them up without paranoia, and not get the unwanted attention that having four exhausts poking out the back sometimes generates.
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grr666
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PostPosted: 22:48 - 12 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hong Kong Phooey wrote:

I love wasting fancy Dan in his brand new S3 Audi in my tatty looking old grandad estate car.


Whats the car?
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 00:15 - 13 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm guessing a nasty Ovlov brick estate with a big turbo, or a Saab 95 with the same treatment.

Ive always struggled with subtle and sleeper cars. Don't get them that much really. My old Rover has Magnex, Omex, and turbo systems motorsport stickers in the rear windows and that's as understated as I want to go really. Laughing
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barrkel
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PostPosted: 11:34 - 13 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

stevo as b4 wrote:
Not to mention the EU and US are probably around half of all the total bike market today?

Honda makes more two-wheeled vehicles than it does cars, but you wouldn't think that talking to the average westerner. India alone is 30% of Honda's two-wheeled sales.

About 9.5 million scooters + motorbikes sold in ASEAN in 2016. About half a million are sold a year in the US, and about 1.1 million in Europe.

Scooters are easily the most popular kind of bike, and EU + US doesn't compete with east Asia.
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Hong Kong Phooey
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PostPosted: 20:07 - 13 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

stevo as b4 wrote:
I'm guessing a nasty Ovlov brick estate with a big turbo, or a Saab 95 with the same treatment.

Ive always struggled with subtle and sleeper cars. Don't get them that much really. My old Rover has Magnex, Omex, and turbo systems motorsport stickers in the rear windows and that's as understated as I want to go really. Laughing


Well guessed Thumbs Up

0-30 I'm fwd + limited torque in 1st gear but after that I'm reeling them in with 420nm of torque.
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 20:50 - 13 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cool!
I'm in the fwd club too, so we won't have any of this 0-30mph speak. I think my car's best increment is 70-90 in 4th. That's what fwd and power is good for, when all that 4wd drag starts to kick in and get in the way. Smile
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Mr Hammers
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PostPosted: 22:16 - 14 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

stevo as b4 wrote:
I might have once almost felt this way about the MV Brutale

The Dragster 800 RR is, i think, the most beautiful looking modern machine out there. Just..just gorgeous. Those spoked wheels...those pipes...mmm Razz Probably never get one though, not before buying several other better performing bikes in a similar class first (assuming i even had the money to, of course..).
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davebike
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PostPosted: 09:18 - 15 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

March 1974 RD200 rode to test centre rode around the block a few times
It started snowing Tested asked if I wished to postpone as I Still had to do emergency stop
I went ahead bit of sliding and locked and unlocked rear wheel " should fail you for locked rear but as is is snowing and you didn't come off that is a pass" !!
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Soggz
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PostPosted: 19:03 - 15 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m not bothered. I tend to cut them about anyway, to make them look different from stock!
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winz
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PostPosted: 19:18 - 15 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=101657
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recman
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PostPosted: 19:24 - 15 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

Soggz wrote:
I’m not bothered. I tend to cut them about anyway, to make them look different from stock!


Which makes you bothered about the way they look.
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stevo as b4
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PostPosted: 19:30 - 15 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

Or you could read that as he doesn't like/want a pretty looking bike to chop around or butcher, so he can justify he hasn't ruined a rare classic etc.
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recman
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PostPosted: 19:51 - 15 Oct 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

I understand that but he still mentioned he wanted to change the look so it would seem that esthetics are a priority to him.
Shirley he wouldn't go to such extremes if they weren't?

I can't believe I'm debating something so unimportant. Laughing
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