We already mentioned what we believe to be two declining trends in motorcycles, one is the racer replica motorcycle designed to be road race ready and pretty darned close to being so, and two is the category killer, the one motorcycle that is so in demand that everyone will want one because of universal appeal. Let’s look at the flip side, a rising trend, something that’s growing and in fact, already has a pretty sizable following.
Rising Trend 1 – Stunt bikes and Drag bikes on the street
At the same time that repli-racers are less in demand, the custom streetbike crowd, the guys and often girls, too, who radically alter and customize all manner of motorcycles for either stunts or straight line speed is growing. It has certainly been around for quite a while but it’s getting bigger fast. These riders don’t plan to do any road racing and when you really think about it, unless you happen to live close to a road course, how many track days have you signed up for? Most riders simply never set tire to track but everyone rides on the street.
The Hayabusa and the new ZX-14, are not road racers by any stretch of the imagination and their top speed is far beyond legal but they are surprisingly comfortable long distance rides and at the same time, straight line monsters. The latest info on the new Kawasaki puts it in the low nines in the right hands and with a few mods and excellent riding, high eight second quarter miles are possible. Although road racing tracks are not everywhere, drag strips are numerous, and, yes, so are long straight stretches of highway.
Just because someone isn’t planning to be a road racer doesn’t mean they have no competitive urge it simply means they exercise the urge in ways that are accessible to them and drag racing a street bike is far more accessible to most guys who like high performance. The extended swingarms, fat tires and lowered bikes have that drag racing look and you can still ride the bike on the street. Wild paint and chrome finish it off if you need the full custom look.
Stunt bikes are the street equivalent to road racing in a way, most riders don’t drag their knees in the turns and don’t have the opportunity to practice but anyone that wants to can try wheelies and stoppies and anything else the stunt guys do. It’s a way to develop and display skills most riders don’t have. You can get good at stunts without any access to a track, a big parking lot will work. Even if you have no desire to stunt, you have to appreciate the skill some of these guys display.
The apparel manufacturers like Icon target this trend directly and a lot of other companies are joining in. The custom shops like Roaring Toyz and Custom Sportbike Concepts, build bikes for this crowd. It would be interesting to see if any manufacturers start looking at their bikes and go after this group directly instead of letting the aftermarket do all of the work. Kawasaki gave a couple of preproduction ZX14s to Roaring Toyz for the full custom treatment so they would be out there immediately when the bike was introduced, so Kawasaki seems to be looking in that direction. Will any other companies join in?
One big question is, how long will this trend last? The tuner craze with import cars exploded but has been declining for a while now. Will this follow a similar trajectory or is the drag bike and stunt bike trend a longer lasting phenomenon? What do you think?
The Kneeslider: Motorcycle Trends – Declining Trend 1
The Kneeslider: Motorcycle Trends – Declining Trend 2
aaron says
and on the stuntbike side, you’ve already got a major manufacturer selling this… http://www.motoglas.com/imm_mgv/moto_dizajn_2004_files/image020.jpg
looks like fun, a trials/commuter bike called the tricker.
liam says
aaron, is there an english version of that site ? or somewhere i could look at that bike in english ?
im interested as to the possibility of importing one to australia.
aaron says
I’d dig around for info at the local yamaha dealers, or someone involved with grey bike imports. the “tricker” seems to look different every picture I find of it, with at least 2 concept bikes that came out a few years ago, plus 2 versions claiming to be production models. I picked my favorite photo of the production versions, but this version seems rare in the internet picture world. maybe a dress up kit from yamaha? or maybe an aftermarket company got their hands on one. most or all sites I’ve seen are in japanese.
Jeff Rittter says
It seems you’ve contradicted yourself. You say racer replica bikes will decline but stunting could rise. One or the other, it cant’ be both. Stunters are not out there doing circle wheelies and 750 ft rolling nose wheelies on ‘busa and zx-14s. Yes, those two bikes get seen in the same venue, but they are out there for the looks and the straightline speed and thrill of it all. The stunters are out on the racer replicas, the GSX-R1000s, zx-10’s, r1’s and their little brethern the 600’s. Yes, there are those out there with the sport standards, the Ducati Monsters and a few speed triples, but the bulk of these guys use the same bikes to stunt with that you say will decline. I think this stunt thing will continue to grow, maybe not to the level of freestyle motorcross but if x-games or gravity games stepped up who knows, but it will continue to grow. And while race replicas may not grow very fast they will not decline. I do see a split though, the old racer replicas being resold and relabled. Take Kawasaki for example. They sell the limited number ZX600RR for their road race endevors, the ZX600R for the masses, albeit that the R is missing some key elements of the RR but the both look the same and the R has 36 more CC than the RR. Now look at their ZZR600. What? It’s a small sport tourer you say? Not so. It is the old ZX600R. Before the 636 and RR came about there was the ZX6R and it was raced and won. Now that very same bike is repainted and named the zzr600. A former supersport race bike now a sport tourer. This is what I see. Milder versions of the race bikes with limited number of the actuall racebikes to meet the rules of stock racing. The milder versions though is a bit of a misnomer. They’ll be milder only compared to the racier versions, they’ll still be much faster than what one could use on the street. Won’t keep people from buying them. I’ll ride sportbikes and sportstandards as long as my body lets me. Cruisers just don’t do it for some of us.