04-14-2015, 03:36 PM
Honda Lover, it looks like your uncle owned a KZ650 and a CB400.
Sorry to dilute the conversation at 52 years of age, but I can tell you even at half my age my preferences weren't all that much different than they are now. In my youth, my interest in bikes had decreased as the amount of plastic covering up the mechanicals increased. Then Honda came out with the Hawk GT — one of the first so called "naked" bikes. To my eyes, it simply looked beautiful with its exposed engine and frame and almost no plastic to speak of. In fact there wasn't much to the bike period, even the swing arm was single sided. Just the bare essentials. That almost became my first street bike purchase, but I didn't go through with it and sadly Honda didn't end up selling all that many of them.
Fast forward a couple of decades and the few bikes that I found interesting besides the retro models were very similar to the list that Jim21680 rattled off above. The common thread amongst the bikes I'm attracted to, and always have been, is the pure, basic qualities that they exhibit via their designs. As Setchman emphasized, these are the elements that make a motorcycle a motorcycle. The CB1100 has this quality in spades and I'm certain that I would have been just as attracted to it in my 20's, 30's and 40's as I am in my 50's. To me, the design (and the attraction to it) is timeless.
Sorry for the interruption, I'll let you young whippersnappers get back to your conversation now.
Sorry to dilute the conversation at 52 years of age, but I can tell you even at half my age my preferences weren't all that much different than they are now. In my youth, my interest in bikes had decreased as the amount of plastic covering up the mechanicals increased. Then Honda came out with the Hawk GT — one of the first so called "naked" bikes. To my eyes, it simply looked beautiful with its exposed engine and frame and almost no plastic to speak of. In fact there wasn't much to the bike period, even the swing arm was single sided. Just the bare essentials. That almost became my first street bike purchase, but I didn't go through with it and sadly Honda didn't end up selling all that many of them.
Fast forward a couple of decades and the few bikes that I found interesting besides the retro models were very similar to the list that Jim21680 rattled off above. The common thread amongst the bikes I'm attracted to, and always have been, is the pure, basic qualities that they exhibit via their designs. As Setchman emphasized, these are the elements that make a motorcycle a motorcycle. The CB1100 has this quality in spades and I'm certain that I would have been just as attracted to it in my 20's, 30's and 40's as I am in my 50's. To me, the design (and the attraction to it) is timeless.
Sorry for the interruption, I'll let you young whippersnappers get back to your conversation now.