Streetfighter - When?

After a post in my naked conversion thread it got me thinking. When is a bike classed as a street fighter? A lot of people think, take the plastics off and put some bars on and your away. BigApe I remember a while ago on a thread backed the title up with his bike...

Originally Posted by BigApe

Mine is a true street fighter. It's tried (and lost) to fight the streets three times and counting.

So when is it classed as a streetfighter. Or what defines a streetfighter?

[G]

I always just thought it was a bike with lots of random bits all bolted on, but then I'm a relative amature in this game.

i though when its been dropped

it's in the eye of the beholder

personally a streetfighter is more than the some of it's parts

a flat barred matt black GSXR might be a streetfighter but a bandit 600 with renthal bars seldom is

I always thought a street fighter started off as a plastic rocket which crashed and lost the plastics and then over time had a lot of custom accessories made and fitted, like one off exhausts, USD forks, renthal bars, etc...

There are no manufacturer built street fighters!

Triumph Speed Triple.........

Originally Posted by Dangerous Dave

I always thought a street fighter started off as a plastic rocket which crashed and lost the plastics and then over time had a lot of custom accessories made and fitted, like one off exhausts, USD forks, renthal bars, etc...

There are no manufacturer built street fighters!

Good classic definition

[Supervox]

The grand-daddy would seem to be the GSXR 750 / 1100 - when they were thrown down the road (as quite a few seemed to be !!) a lot of owners didn't fancy / couldn't afford to replace the plastics - so they left them naked & added Renthals.

Next came the idea of actually building a complete bike from component parts that people either had lying around or just liked the look of & bought for the purpose either new or seconhand.

The 'breed' has kind of split more recently with the advent of 'chequebook' 'fighters - ie people who have no engineering / mechanical abilty or access to the neccessary tools but who like the style of bike - who merely choose the bits they want & then pay someone to build it for them.

One of the best 'proper' 'fighters I've ever seen is the 'Cadbury's Creme Egg' (see pics below) bike which is local to me & has won numerous prizes. If memory serves me correct it is a 'Blade frame & engine with ZX9 forks & a VFR 800 swingarm, wheels & discs with just about everything else made bespoke by the owner



Another that I saw a few years ago (no pics unfortunately) was an R1 frame & engine with GSXR 1000 forks, Ducati 916 swingarm & a pointy SV 1000 subframe.

[northwind]

I'll say the same thing I always say: "If you think you can define what is or isn't a streetfighter, you have no idea what a streetfighter is"

OK, lets play Is This A Streetfighter?



My bike as it is just now with no fairings. It's a lot more than the sum of its parts, it's not all cosmetic, it's faster and lighter than it came out of the crate, with upgraded parts all over. But it looks an awful lot like a standard SV. But it didn't used to, it used to be faired. And it has clipons, while the stereotypical streetfighter gets renthal flat bars inflicted on it because they look good. So...

Is it a streetfighter? Would it still be a streetfighter if it had started out as an N? If it had started out an N and I added a fairing, would that be a streetfighter? If it's not a streetfighter, would adding a pair of renthals or a pair of Bates headlights suddenly make it a streetfighter? Is it, dare I say it, a "cafe racer", and if it is does that mean it can't also be a streetfighter? Or does the fact that it's modern and liquid cooled mean it can't be a cafe racer?

OK, now, is this a streetfighter?



Functionally very similiar, just an older version and running with the standard headlight instead of the round one. Is this a streetfighter? Well, obviously it's a bit rat bike, but again, can it be both? The magazine thinks so. it's visually further away from either standard model so does that make it more streetfighterish, even though it's got more original parts than it does today?

[yorkie_chris]

Anything! Everything!

I'd say so long as it's built for being fun, and for performance, and not built by some ar$ehole with a big wad of cash, it'll do as a streetfighter.

They're supposed to be ridden not polished.

I'd also exclude any form of completely ruined busa from the USA, why the f### would ANYONE want to turn a perfectly decent bike into an over-chromed, over-cost, over-bling piece of shiiiite harley wannabe?