Freeloadeur wrote:I realised last night that I got on a bit of a high horse somewhere in between chatting with Sprockette about starting a flat-tracker/etc./etc. thread on here and actually starting one.
What was meant to be a gentle thread with plenty of pictures turned into a manifesto for the neo-retro, nu-custom, call it what you will scene. Butt as I'm on my high horse I may as well have a bit of a gallop.
First off, apologies for posting a bunch of bikes that all look the same, I was wanting to stick to the theme a bit. A glance through the BikeExif site reveals a huge number of bikes which look nothing like any of the bikes I posted, some of them are way out there showbikes, some are C90s. But the thing they all have in common is that they were designed and built by or for the individual who rides them and not for the masses.
Personally I have a thing for the classic bike style, round headlight, miinimal bodywork, tubular frame and twin rear shocks. All thrown together with a set of wider bars and a knobbly tyre or two. So I end up with something in between a flat-tracker, a scrambler and a desert sled. To me that combines just about everything that appeals about motorcycling in a bike that can be used everyday. A bit of a jack of all trades bike.
Of course in many ways it's all just re-inventing the wheel. At some point in the past Ted Simon's round the world Triumph morphed into Steve McQueen's Husky which morphed into any number of 70's Japanese dirtbikes and on to the big Dakar bikes which led to the early Adventure Bikes and here we are now 40 or so years later with huge machines capable of munching thousands of miles but which are so far removed from those earlier machines as to be almost unrecognizable and where we are reduced merely to consumers of the latest bike or farkle.
The new scene gets the rider involved, in the creation of their machine and in the day to day running and repair and that's why I reckon they might just be the future for all types of biking.
So what you are saying is that instead of having corperate dealers such as Honda, Yamaha etc, we will have dealers by another name I.E. so called custom builders?
Who won't be backwards in coming forwards when charging for their products, and remember anyone who can't or hasn't the engineering nauce to make something for themselves will be pretty much at their mercy, so prices will inevitably rise.
BTW Here is something that I built back in the early Ninties.
I didn't then nor do I now concider it as underground, or bubbling below the surface of the mainstream.
And FYI Bobber, Chops, Rats, Desert sleds, Street Scramblers and Streetfighters etc, have been around since the New Testiment when the Triumph was heard throughout the land, so hardly new.
I'd say that the real reason for the likes of BMW making "Retro" rides is because the harking back to the good old days appeals to the potential buyer who remembers them, that is to say someone in their 40's - 60's today.
In 20 or 30 years time ask a 50 year old what retro is to him or her and you'll probably see ATs, Teneres, GS, GSXR, YZF's etc; anything built prior to their particular place in time would probably attract the lable of being vintage or vetran. Retro is exactly that a retrospective look at things.
BTW, I don't think that there isn't anything modern that couldn't be labled as a "jack of all trades" as most bikes are comfortable and reliable, and easily capable of going to the shops on, as scratching around on a Sunday morning, or taking to the trails.
I'd also question the morphed linage from Ted Simons Triumph to McQueens Husqvarna, to any number of japanese dirt bikes?
As for the"NEW SCENE" being the future it certainly isn't new as Chops, Bobbers, Cafe Racers etc wouldn't even be heard of if people were satisfied with a standard product, call it modifying, farkeling or whatever you like, it aint new nor is it a groundbreaking descovery; so the future?? not from wher I'm sitting.