Retro bikes, comparison.

[JustPassinThru_imp]

I think Honda captured the retro look better than the Yamaha. To me, from the rear of the engine back looks too modern. JMO.

The irony there is that the Yamaha SR400 is NOT a replica - it's a continuation.

I had a 1981 SR500. The machine never made it in the States - this when electric-start was becoming the New Normal that no successful model could be without. Mine was in dealer inventory new for five years and was sold heavily marked down - $999 in 1986. Since I was a new rider and my training bike was kick-start, that, to me, was normal - and what I wanted.

The SR was good and bad. Great handling and light and quick - I don't remember wishing I had a bigger engine; I'd cruise the thing at 70...that was in the era of the Double-Nickel; that was plenty fast. Even then I wasn't into street racing. But the thumper vibration...my previous was a twin.

But the SR 500, with its motocross engine put into a street chassis, was clean-sheet modern in 1978. And as it continued in Europe and Asia, it just never was modernized. So...what we're seeing with the SR would be as if VW had just brought the old Type I Beetle...BACK.

I would love to have had one. Did look at one. But while the SR is apparently forever, I'm now old and grey and not wild about the elaborate kick-start routine.