[redhedrednek]

Rat on. Post away

 

[Island Combat]

This thread needs more pictures I tell ya whuuut.

 

[Erki]

not a fighter but I rode this way for a season.

 

[HTH Streetfighters]

Seat looks comfy.

 

[Erki]

Wasn't bad most of the time. Just good the pegs were straight down so i could stand up slightly over the railroad tracks.

 

[gsf1200R]

how come people think all naked bikes that look different from stock are ratbikes?

i saw a sweet fighter and said so and dude said its a rat bike .... uh ok.
then i saw a sweet cafe twostroke and everyone was callin that a rat bike...

i consider my bikes ratty bikes with fighter characteristics. to me if its cool its watever the ownee calls it

 

[redhedrednek]

Yeah...no clearly drawn lines to distinguish. Rat to me is pure function first then thr aesthetics to make it look badass

 

[Erki]

a first impression to me for rat bike would be similar to rat rod. put together and driveable but paint and body work still left to do. rusty parts,missing parts....but it has the essentials and still works and can have fun.

 

[gixxer1100]

I have had a Ratbike B4 ... not anymore ;-)

 

[redhedrednek]

I have had a Ratbike B4 ... not anymore ;-)

Something about this just kinda screams ratbike...Almost as if it were painted right on it...

 

[Nailhead]

i am so so sick of this whole "rat bike" thing

 

[JohnBridgeDesign]

non of these bikes are rat...they are just bikes that people havent finished or ripped things off without any thought.

A rat comes from Patina which early hotrods were famous for...non of these guys im sure purposely built hotrods that way its just what they could get and could afford.

There is no way a GSXR with its fairings off and some nuts and bolts showing can be justified as a rat.
These people who put hazard tape and chalk board paint all over the bikes...that is not rat..that is just a black bike with no imagination.

All these terms for bikes/ cars have been diluted and lost over the years and its a shame as people use the term rat if they cant be arsed to actually restore/ fix or customise to high standard as that may cost a lot of money (understandably)

Hazard tape on the bike...its kills me every time i see it on someones.

If you want to build a rat bike. Do it properly and build it from scratch

Just my pennies worth. Other opinions are optional

 

[OneSickPsycho]

I always thought they were bikes and cars cobbled together from spare parts and junkyard gold, with little consideration for anything other than function. Its kinda like music, everything's gotta be so neatly defined it its own little classification.... Like thrash metal vs. grindcore , whatever the fuck that is...

Is it cool? Do you like it? Then who gives a fuck what someone wants to call it?

 

[Cruisingram]

Rat bike:

 

[make that thing forkless]

I agree with several of the comments already made. To me a rat-bike is much more than just a bike missing some parts. I also don't think a rat-bike is a bike with a bunch of random crap glued on. There is a very fine art that includes hand crafted parts, proper amount of a "patina" and/or raw metal, and certain attitude which may not be possible to put into words. So here are a few examples of what I'd consider to be nice rats, starting with my own CHOPPRD Rd400...

I think just about all of the bike you see each year at the Dirtbag Challenge fit the category nicely... especially these two bikes built by the Turk...

A few others from the DBC...

and I think some of the choppers from AfterHours Bikes are quite nice examples of the rat look...

Anyway, those are a few rat-bikes that come to my mind.

 

[make that thing forkless]

and one more from the DBC...

 

[gixxer1100]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_bike

 

[n0regret5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_bike

For those not interested in clicking links;

"Rat bikes are motorcycles that have fallen apart over time but been kept on the road and maintained for little or no cost by employing kludge fixes. Survival bikes look similar to but are different in purpose from rat bikes — they are modified for stylistic reasons."

What you've posted up there, forkless, while nice, are not rat bikes.

 

[n0regret5]

http://www.ratbike.org/

By definition, my last gixxer project was a ratbike.

 

[DrJellyFingers]

even though its not flat black (lol), i think my bike fits as a rat bike