Total Motorcycle Community Forums

whats going on in the MC manufacturers world?
nobody makes a real standard bike anymore,it took me almost 6 months to find my 93 nighthawk.
almost everything i saw for sale was a crotch rocket or a harley wannabe.

i'm an old fart for a new rider, 40 YO,and i like the standards from the 70's and 80's and couldn't find anything like those that wasn't a rat or a "collectable"

what's the deal?

you don't like any of these?

suzuki
- SV650
- GSR600

honda
- 599
- 919

yamaha
- FZ6
- FZ1

kawasaki
- Z1000



well maybe you're right since the SV650 is the only one on that list that is fairly newbie friendly.

after 20 years in construction,my knees and hips don't bend like they used so i need the pegs to be at 6:00 to 7:00 for me to be comfortable,the only bike i could find that was plain jane (i'm not into chrome) and comfortable was the nighthawk, and some older "classics"

The U.S. market sucks for the standard bike. The big sellers are flashy cruisers and sportbikes. Standard bikes are popular in europe but never make it over here because they wouldnt sell very well. There are alot of "sport" standards being sold in america like the ones VermillionX mentioned, but sadly the true UJM-style standard bike is a thing of the past.

Suzuki V-stroms are standards. You sit bolt upright. Triumph new Bonnevilles are standards. Going back and forth between my V-strom and my Bonneville is a snap, they have the same seating position, V-strom is just bigger all around.

Probably most of the adventure-touring genre are standards, I think? (Tiger, V-strom, R/GS, Caponord, Ulysses, Multistrada, etc.)

Your absolutly right about there being no true standard bikes anymore. I went to a show by Suzuki that claim the SV650 to be a standard. After sitting on it, its not close in anyway or shape. Just another rocket that has been misnamed.

I wish someone would ofter a midsize bike (500cc to 650cc) and one size up (900cc to 1100cc) of a true standard bike but with some modern technology in it. Especially in safety, comfort and power improvments. But there just isn't any mfg willing to.

Not all of us have all our joints still working great.

I also see a lot of what looks like sportbikes that are supposed to be standards. But they're still faster than sane and look like power ranger vehicles.

The honda 599 for example looks like a sporty standard to me, but it's in the sportbike category, but something like a sv650 looks nothing like a standard to me.

The549 wrote:
but something like a sv650 looks nothing like a standard to me.

really? even the non-S version doesn't look standard to you?

I thought the Ninja 250 is a "standard", not a sportbike. The footpegs are below, not behind.

flw wrote: I wish someone would ofter a midsize bike (500cc to 650cc) and one size up (900cc to 1100cc) of a true standard bike but with some modern technology in it. Especially in safety, comfort and power improvments. But there just isn't any mfg willing to.

BMW:

R1200R
R850R (now discontinued?)