Similarly expansive and shapely bodywork.
Back in those early days you had to flick a
few postal orders across the Tasman to buy
a quarter fairing, which took a fair old time
to arrive and then you had to drill it, carve
it to fit and get it painted appropriately.
Then you’d wait for the remarks of “That’s
pretty cool” and “Where’d you get that from?”
Of course evolution then stepped in, in the
form of Kiwi fibreglass and plastic building
crews coming up with locally made adaptations
to what were effectively standard-looking bikes.
Today, evolution has determined
the few standard survivors (in terms
of bodywork) as “naked” bikes.
It’s always fun and enlightening to see the
evolution of motorcycles at work, although
there are always occasional evolutionary
glitches, which I daresay Darwin would
describe as recipes for extinction. Like
Suzuki’s RE5 tilt at the art of rotary engines,
and for a while back there everyone was
scrambling about in the engine design rooms
to find spaces to implant turbochargers.
The age of the turbo indeed… didn’t last.
When you wander the showrooms of
today, as well as the on-line pages of fine
publications like this, you kind of end up
slightly stunned at how far that thing called
design and construction evolution has come.
Today’s top-range items, and middle-range
for that matter, are just remarkable.
Maybe I am one of those slightly tiring old lads
who sigh and simply mutter “How can it get
any better than this?” Even the design march
over just the past five years has been striking.
So then, what are they going to roll out in
2029 to get the motorcycle fraternity excitedly
pondering “How can it get any better than this?”
As long as they fit just the one modest-sized
battery (to get the refined petroleum engine
running) then all will be well. Yeah okay, maybe
I am in denial of the evolution of propulsion
but, hey, one needs to be able to leave the
door open for after-market mufflers.
KIWI RIDER 99