The small ABC of motorcycle types, part 3 K ?? Y

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The small ABC of motorcycle types, part 3 K ?? Y
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The small ABC of motorcycle types, part 3 K ?? Y

The small ABC of motorcycle types, part 3 K ?? Y
No X in front of a U

Why are Z, X and V so abundantly represented under type abbreviations, while U, M and H are rare? Because the formal dynamics of the letter play a role.

Michael Orth, Norbert Sorg

01/28/2004

Some letters look sluggish. The U, for example. Somehow sags, slows down, and sounds a bit gloomy and dark on top of that. The V is completely different, although it is damn similar in shape to the U, just pointed. And when you didn’t write on parchment or paper, but chiseled the words in stone or scratched on damp clay tablets, the V even replaced the U because it was easier to hammer or poke. The reader had to deduce from the context of the word which sound the character V was currently using: u or v, Mvnd or Eva.
The U in abbreviations is rare on motorcycles, it just doesn’t fit
The speed and elegance of these machines. But the V, not just the Moto-
Because of its configuration, it is reminiscent of a thunderbolt, of irrepressible violence and energy. So it’s no wonder that
at companies like Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha, where abbreviations do not have any deeper meaning, certain letters are preferred, simply because of their appearance, the associations they lead to
to wake up. Particularly popular: Z and X. The shape of the Z is reminiscent of lightning, fire, speed, elemental force, threat. And the X? Exactly the opposite. It stands on the tank or anywhere else like an immovable monument. Even if it tips over, it still remains an X. You could almost say: literally a four-spoke wheel.

Type designation ABC part 3: K-Y

Kawasaki: The Japanese in Akashi also knew when the Germans asked
Dependance not what to deeper
Meaning once behind an abbreviation like
ZX-R may have hidden. Which of course they do
know is what content is hidden behind these letters. X is a mark for super sporty motorcycles,
Z stand for an in-line four-cylinder. That
R, after the hyphen, is mine
Racing, before the hyphen it symbolizes standard sport. Which is why the ZX-6R is a super sporty four-cylinder of the 600 class with racing qualities that ZR-7S on the other hand, a (standard) sporty four-cylinder with 750 cm3 displacement and fairing, for which that after-
S stands (S = sport, because in the past only racing motorcycles wore a fairing).
Interesting: The legendary GPZ models once carried the Kawasaki internal cipher ZX, which then mutated into the official one. GP could have been an abbreviation for Grand Prix, Z as above. GT stands for Gran Tourismo.
E is a symbol for a two-cylinder
in a row, an ER-5 is a (standard) sporty twin for the road with 500 cm3, a KLE that would work Kawasaki correct
systematically before, actually EKL would have to be baptized, one for the terrain. for
Terrain is KL, meaning unknown.
ZZR models don’t have eight, of course
Cylinders, only four of them. Which could be due to the fact that Z at Kawasaki can also amount to an increase form: Z = greater than 2, four for example. ZZ would then be the superlative of Z, i.e. a powerful four-cylinder. Today the ZZR motorcycles are considered sports tourers, although they started out on the market as super athletes.
Speaking of improvements: Even if the 750 ZR looks anything but similar to the ZRX 1200 models, according to the nomenclature, the big one is considered their superlative,
represented by the X, which of course does not mean supersport, but symbolizes the more compared to the ZR types (compare dress size XXL), R after-
placed ?? without hyphen! ?? serves as an abbreviation for Road or Roadster, that
S for sports (see above). So is one ZRX 1200 R the only one with a cockpit-
Large standard sports machine with four cylinders equipped with fairing.
V stands, as with so many other manufacturers, for the cylinder arrangement of the twins, but VN can also be read as an abbreviation for Vulcan, which was originally the proper name of the Kawasaki cruiser and chopper. Today they are called Classic or Mean Streak (bad prank, mean punch), so what classics or outlaws. Super athletes accelerate the traditional name for Japanese fighters ?? Ninja, and the entry-level model Twister is supposed to be something like a hurricane
evoke. The final secret remains
from Kawasaki the W in the 650s retro-
bike. Could possibly be from the valve-
control via vertical shaft,
where two pairs of bevel gears mesh.

KTM: If only everything were so well organized and meaningful as it is with the Austrians. It starts with the brand name itself, the abbreviation for Kronreif, Trunkenpolz, the company founders, and Mattighofen, the company headquarters. LC means liquid cooled, LC2 two-stroke, LC4 of course not four-stroke, but four valves. The first in two
RC8 with R for Road (country road) and C for Competition (competition), which was released years ago, has eight valves. SXC means Supercross (with X as the internationally introduced symbol for Cross) Competition and SMC Supermoto Competition. Duke is English, Duke,
Adventure is also English, adventure. There are three variants of the LC4 that
Adventure as well as Supermoto and
Enduro, this time written out. The 950 series is also adventurous, the Adventure / S, the S designates (based on the English term suspension) the longer spring travel of the sporty version compared to the standard version.

Laverda: Only one model with the traditional abbreviation SFC. Still: only
the C is clear, means competizione (competition). And SF? One can speculate about this. Maybe Sport Formula?

Mondial: Piega (Italian) means sloping position, starfighter star warrior
and the data center at Nuda (naked) corresponds to the initials of Roberto Ziletti, the former owner of the company.
Moto Guzzi: Letters are made
rare with the machines from Mandello. For what
the V stands cannot be overlooked, i.e..,
means injection (iniezione elettronica) and EV evoluzione (development). Lots
the proper names are self-explanatory: California, Nevada, Club, Cafe Sport. The Breva is named after a wind that blows over Lake Como, the Ballabio after a town near the lake. And the Coppa Italia after the Italian championship, in whose naked bike series the sports version should shine.

MV: According to the importer, the abbreviation F4 has no meaning, but it should be an indication of the number of cylinders. The suffixes 1 + 1 (with pillion seat), Brutale, Ago (stini) and Tamburini (designer and head of development) are self-explanatory. Oro means gold and here means: particularly elegant furnishings.

MZ: Zschopau leaves it alone
new 1000 S apart (S = sport), with proper names, animal ones especially:
Black Panther, Baghira (big cats)
and mastiff (attack dog).

Suzuki: It’s a similar picture to Kawa-
saki: names whose original
Meaning, if they ever had one, no one knows anymore, only their function. The trend is towards proper names anyway, they say at Suzuki, and that’s why motorcycles that already wear one are reduced to it, the GSX 1300 R Hayabusa consequently becoming a haya-
busa 1300 simplified, the DL 1000 V-Strom to V-Strom 1000. But the GSX-R 750 remains the GSX-R. The G stands for streets-
motorcycle, the S for four-stroke engines (two-stroke engines were called GT). When the first four-valve engines came, they got an X, and with the oil-cooled models, a hyphen and an R were added to demonstrate that the machine had racing qualities.
Just as G indicates street, D indicates
on the terrain and V on the engine layout. If the V is in front, it is a chopper and cruiser, as with the VS 1500 LC
Intruder, which is now only called 1500 LC, where LC does not mean liquid cooled, but Legendary Classic. If the V moves to the second position, as with the SV types, it is a street machine (S = Street) with a V engine.
The name of the road enduro V-Strom is a purely artificial product. “Always more
Names are protected, so we have to come up with something ourselves, «stated
Suzuki. Something with V here, because of the motor, and the fact that electricity is a German word doesn’t really matter at all internationally. The main thing is that it sounds good. Everyone understands bandits, intruders are intruders, marauders
marauding fellows. Nobody at Suzuki Germany really wants to understand why the Intruder 800 bears the suffix Volusia: Volusia is a stuffy place in Florida, but it is the district capital,
also responsible for Daytona. Hayabusa
(Japanese) means a peregrine falcon.

Triumph: The English prefer
Names, reduce the abbreviations to a pinch-
most agile: to distinguish between
Roadster (RS) and Sporttourer (ST)
the sprint. Then there is the T100
(T for Tiger), reminiscent of the legendary Speedtwin from the late thirties, who was supposed to reach a top speed of 100 miles. Almost by itself
explain most of the proper names:
Tiger, America, Daytona (racing successes), Thruxton (English racetrack). With the speed, the speed you have in Hinckley: Speed ​​Four (four-cylinder), Speed ​​Triple (three-cylinder).

Yamaha: »There is only one philosophy
insofar, “writes press spokesman Karlheinz Vetter,” as the designations are always used for certain model series and are simply,, further developed ?? become. example
FZ ?? FZR ?? YZF or XV ?? XVS. Where XV is for
V-Motor Custom stands, the FZ and YZF series always means Supersport like XT and XTZ street enduro or FJ, FJR sport tourer. «As well as TDM for large travel enduro and BT for cardan all-rounder.
Look at proper names Yamaha like to go up to the stars, stars: Road Star (Star of the street), Road Star Warrior (Star of the street fighters or Star-of-the-street-fighters or whatever), Drag Star (English to drag: to drag). And then there is Bulldog and Fazer (English to faze: excite, date).

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