08-17-2016, 12:45 AM
(08-16-2016, 11:33 PM)The ferret_imp Wrote: I think we can all agree that the bike is a sport bike by 1972 standards when the Z1 came out. But is it a sport bike by 2016 standards when the question is being asked? and there is an obvious answer to that.The issue at hand is purely pyschological and has at its core identity politics. Those, like me, who insist the bike is in fact a sport bike and present a video of Fast Freddie scorching asphalt to prove it like to think of themselves as youthful, dashing, and devil-may-care in world view and actions, arrant to the end. The Honda is a temptress, inciting bad boy behaviour and suggesting perhaps a James Dean denouement.
Those who staunchly maintain the bike is a standard and eminently suited to the role of stately transport -- a mechanical equivalent of "Old Dobbin" -- see it as reliable, amicable, non-threatening, and staid, an icon of longevity and social responsibility, emblematic of a wise and responsible choice.
We see the bike as we see ourselves.