Dream bikes from the editors – please build these motorcycles

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Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles
Card design by Kar Lee

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles

8th pictures

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles
Card design by Kar Lee

1/8
Suzuki GSX 1500 Bandit. That would be something: air-cooled four-cylinder with a decent displacement in a classic look. The successful role model wasn’t quite as sporty.

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles
bilski-fotografie.de

2/8
It was simple, but good: double loop pipe frame, thick engine, no fuss – bandit.

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles
Card design by Kar Lee

3/8
Yamaha R-09. A lot can be done with an all-rounder like a 900 triple. Soon with a little less displacement also in Moto2.

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles
factstudio.de

4/8
The crowning glory of the series, the Yamaha YZF-R1.

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles
Card design by Kar Lee

5/8
KTM RC16: As a replica with the fat silencers, it is not a beauty. But when she flies by with 300 things, nobody sees it…

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles
KTM

6/8
The MotoGP-KTM is not a beauty salon, but the image is just right.

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles
Card design by Kar Lee

7/8
We still had this Honda CB 1000 RR in mind in summer 2017: clear lines, compact and strong as a bear, with a typical superbike frame.

Dream bikes from the editors - please build these motorcycles
Arturo Rivas

8/8
And that’s what we got: Honda presented the new CB 1000 R at EICMA 2017. The four-cylinder comes from the 2004 Fireblade, is supposed to make 145 hp and provide 104 Nm at 8,250 rpm.

counselor

technology & future

Dream bikes from the editors – please build these motorcycles

Dream bikes from the editors
Please build these motorcycles!

Why isn’t Suzuki resurrecting the big bandit? Why is Yamaha not building an everyday athlete with the famous MT-09 triple? Why KTM not a MotoGP replica? The answer: we don’t know!

Stefan Kaschel

08/03/2017

Of course we can easily talk about it. We, the MOTORRAD editorial team. We have no development department with limited resources, no world markets with very different demands to serve, no current (and above all no future) legal requirements to meet – and certainly no return expectations of the partners or shareholders. We only have our imagination and can simply develop something from our gut, based on the motto: Why don’t they just build …? For example, such machines as the computer retouching shown here.

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Suzuki GSX 1500 Bandit

Yes why not? For example, why doesn’t Suzuki build a new Bandit? The responsible product planners will surely find a thousand arguments against it. An example: Because we already have a GSX-S 1000 in our range … Our answer: Wrong, the argument doesn’t work because the GSX-S is a completely different, much more radical construction site with a former 1000 Superbike engine.

There is also another point: So far, Suzuki has left the retro bike faction almost entirely on the left. A look at the MOTORRAD catalog shows that only the SV 650 in the Cafe Racer variant is tentatively approaching the topic. This is called the sleepy trend. With consequences: This year (as of November 2017) Suzuki is just ninth (previous year seventh) in the German new registration statistics.

The big bandit could help: looking classic, with the good, old cooling fins in-line quad (already a classic today), with new injection and exhaust technology and with a decent displacement of around 300 cubic centimeters, but basically deeply down-to-earth. In view of these requirements, our computer artist Kar Lee promptly went nuts. These cooling fins inspire, no question about it. Kar immediately turned the bandit into a big block with racing spirit: Ohlins front and rear, the handlebars as stubs under the fork bridge. That goes so well with the classic rear end, says Kar. We think so too. But we also know what it feels like for those in their mid-fifties with disc damage. Really like in the past. Only: We were clearly younger then.

But back to the Bandit: We now simply call the Kar Lee variant in elegant black / gold that gives this story a shine “Limited Edition”. A basic variant with tubular handlebars and Japanese standard spring elements at an affordable price would of course also be included in the program. After all, there is not much to lose. In Germany, the best Suzuki, the SV 650, ranks 20th among new registrations (as of November 2017) – there is plenty of room for improvement. A lot.

Yamaha R-09

This statement is currently also valid for Yamaha again – albeit with a completely different sign. After a considerable interim high, which peaked in second place in the registration statistics last year, ahead of the industry giant Honda, in the first half of 2017 they found themselves in fourth place behind Kawasaki. One reason: The new, powerful Kawasaki Z 900 has overtaken the MT-09.

The compact Yamaha triple is still a very good engine. Small, light, strong – these attributes can even spark the imagination of sports motorcycle fans around the world. Why? Because, unlike the recently renovated R6, it is ideally equipped for everyday life and the slopes at the same time. This engine concept in this displacement region can do everything, because for a lot of pressure in the middle and fireworks at the top, it doesn’t need more than 130 hp. A breeze for a 900 triple.

And let’s be honest, doesn’t the MOTORCYCLE design look really tasty? We think so. The motorsport DNA of which they are part of Yamaha always love to talk. Our designer cast them in a wonderful shape. So why not repeat what is already a reality with the successful MT series and introduce an entire sports series? The R1 as a high-end device, including the R-09 corresponding to the MT-09, is much easier and cheaper. And who knows, maybe there is still room for the next generation of motorcyclists in this row, and the MT-07 could become an R-07 …

KTM RC16

At the upper end of the price and performance spectrum, the genre of thoroughbred racing machines has a hard time shining with pure beauty. The motto “Form follows Function” applies to the race replicas, something we have not only known since the now banned wings in MotoGP. The only thing that counts is the inner values: Praises what makes you fast. You can also see that in the RC16 we designed, for which we were largely based on the MotoGP model. But let’s be honest: A Honda RC213V-S or a Ducati Desmosedici does not capture us because of its formal finesse, but rather because of its status. These machines must reflect the MotoGP racers in all their functionality. Who could bring that to the road more believably than KTM?

“Ready to Race” – nowhere would that be more true than with such a replica, under whose carbon cladding all hardware and electronics lurk that can somehow be brought onto the road in compliance with the rules. Unfortunately, that also means that you will not be able to avoid the appropriate silencers – not even during racing training. The pure MotoGP sound would therefore be reserved for Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaró. But only that. Because if you want to put a GP replica on the road, you shouldn’t save on material. This was recently shown by BMW with the HP4 Race and Ducati with the 1299 Superleggera – without any MotoGP model. KTM should also succeed.

Honda CB 1000 RR

Finally, an even clearer case from the “Why not …?” We formulated it as a wish in the summer of 2017: a radically naked Honda CB 1000 RR based on the current Fireblade. With competitors BMW S 1000 R (165 PS) and KTM 1290 Super Duke R (177 PS) something radical would have to be found. We therefore had a power naked with the 2017 Fireblade engine in mind, which would easily have been good for 160 hp. The four-cylinder of the new CB 1000 R for the 2018 model year, however, comes from the 2004 Blade and should “only” Provide 145 hp. It should be a whole twelve kilograms lighter than its predecessor.

But above all we want the great chassis of the current Fireblade, this handling and this feedback, this fine balance. The naked bike should have all of that too. But with a more comfortable vote, please. That is why the fat bridge frame with its sweeping engine mounts would have to stay, even if it contradicts the common ideals of beauty so cold and technoid. We’d still love her. Therefore: please build.

The new CB 1000 R im “Neo Sports Cafe”-Style, on the other hand, is rolling out with a new frame made of steel profiles. We are looking forward to the first driving report and the subsequent test.

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