[endo]

I don't know if something like this has been posted, probably has, but why do you ride a streetfighter? Why do you like them? Just to buck the system and not to be another sheep chasing a trend?

Here's my story...if anyone gives a shit. I'm bored and wanna rant on the subject!

:rant:
When I got back into street bikes a few years ago, I must admit, I didn't like the look of fighters. I didn't understand it. I have always loved fully faired bikes, in fact I still do. I owe my obsession to my friend 'e' (I'll just call him that, that's what he goes by). Joe knows him. Anyways, I bought an SRAD750 and shortly thereafter, met e. He also had an SRAD 750 and was a fountain of knowledge for me. He taught me a lot about that bike. He also sold me a lot of parts because he fightered his. He was born in Europe and grew up with fighters so it wasn't a new concept to him (in fact, he has a letter published in issue 2 or 3 of SSB). Anyways, I saw his bike and everyone called it ugly. I thought it was cool and original, but I loved my SRAD the way it was. Times moved on and a close friend passed away. I sold my beloved SRAD to buy Blaine's 00 GSXR750, as I had promised I would do when he was in the hospital (fuckin melanoma cancer at 26). I loved the new bike (still do), but I was hankerin' for something else. Then I got a phone call. Turns out that e was cleaning his room and found 30 odd issues of Streetfighters that he had brought over from Europe when he moved. He offered them to me as a gift, and I gladly recieved...I collect magazines it seems (over 500...sick I know). Anyways, I got to reading and fell in love with the power, personality, and engineering behind them. My tastes grew into a new love and my old love for Slingshot GSXRs was seen in a new light...I had to have one.

Shortly after this time I started at my current job, where my boss collects and races vintage Jap bikes. More power...excellent. More exposure to the high performance stuff, and, being a wrecker as well, I noticed that I was going upstairs, seeing parts and thinking, "Fuck, that would look sick on this bike"...the ball had started in motion. The raw look, the bare minimum, the engineering...I had to have a streetfighter, and had to have one now. I saved up a little bit of cash, about $1000 and went on the hunt. I looked at all sorts of stuff but they either didn't fit the bill of what I wanted or were too much. Then some guy came by the shop with a 1994 ZX6E for sale...he had just moved to town and he needed rent money more than a bike. $900 and one lien check later, I owned it. "This bike is in good shape cosmetically, what am I doing" was my thought as I tore into her bodywork, but I couldn't stop. You all know the rest of the story.

While I may never be satisfied with the bikes I have, I know now where my niche in this industry is.

This is my bike. This is my industry. This is my lifestyle. Go fuck yourself.

 

[Britjoe]

For me its a statement of originality, having something difernt, something reflecting my charactor,

Nothing on My latest bike happend by accident. I had been sketching and playing with my design before I even owned my bike.
Luckily and amazingly I happend to have the money, just as a oppertunity of the bike came up, it was exactly what I needed and I had money to spare, even though the bike was smashed, it fired up on the button.
the parts I made, and the parts I purchased seemed to go together easy, fluidly, without any problems, I was extreamly lucky, maybe it had something to do with skills in fabrication, and thinking through a problem, that I seem to be ok at, but I guess thats not for me to say.
I could of easily before I started to build my bike, gone out and bought a ZXR12, and nearly did,
but I hated the Idea of parking my bike in a sea of other machines, that all looked the same.

 

[endo]

Amen Joe...you know damn well I love your bike!

I should add to the above post that even though e got me into this, having a friend like Joe really helps. The guy always has a way to help out and work you out of a creative block...at least once in my case it involved an angle grinder, but still, thanks Joe!

 

[The Green Lantern]

good write up josh,and might i say your whoring skills are gettin fucking awsome.
ive only had 1 fighter(my ninja) and it was barley even starteed befoe it got todaled off.but ive helped to build a couple of them,and all my bikes since have beeen plastic,its not that i dont like the naked bike i just ride them with plastic till i fuck it up then yank it off and fighter the bitch,id be hard pressed to do this with a new bke,but my financial status is all changing and ii need to beable to sell a bike if shit really hits the fan and the market for street-fighters here is really small and the people that are into street fighters would never buy somebody else allready built bike,they would rather buy a stock one and make their own

well thats my rant ,good post josh

 

[BLONDE BOMBER]

The first fighter was a push bike , a Dawes 10 speed racer. My Dad bought it new for my 14th birthday. All shiny , unmarked paint , full mudguards , racer bars, rear rack etc etc. Forward 1 week and we have a matt black bike , wide cowhorn bars , wider rims with fat tyres and everything else removed. My Dad hit the roof and went wild , my brother laughed and i was never bought another new bike ever again!!
Think for me i have my Dad and older brother to thank for the "Fighter" thing as i was brought up surrounded by bikes. . My dad now 74 , rode bikes until 3 years ago and had alot of tasty unusual big bikes over the years. My bro's always had bikes and been more into the Harley/Chop stuff though since the early 90's has always owned "Fighter" style bikes. Owns a nice Vmax , not my bag but well tough looking fighter.
As a kid i was influenced by US Flat track bikes big time. As the years rolled on and getting to read my bro's secondhand " Streetfighters" mags nearly every bike i have owned has gone the same way. Saying that i've applied a simlar style to all the w'end/sunny day cars i've owned. Almost a 4wheel fighter style if you like. Be it a bike , car , etc , for me if it looks tough , clean and purpose built fast , it will get my nod.

Take it easy

Dan

 

[DougZ]

I just wanna be as cool as Adam someday. :skrooz:

 

[The Green Lantern]

I just wanna be as cool as Adam someday. :skrooz:

that'll never happen

 

[catman]

I always liked the look of streetfighters, but always had too much going on. I gave up some off road activities and bought another bike to stunt and kill the streets on. It HAD to be a fighter. I knew realy nothing about it. I just thought they were awesome looking. So I found this site and havent left. Every direction i go with the motorcycling ; I get just as excited as the last arty-smiley: arty-smiley:

I'm already sketching and saving other idia's for my next one, that doesn't realy go with this bike :LolLolLolLol:

I'm also such a nonconformist ; this shit fit's me OH SO WELL !!

 

[dogbreath]

I just want to make a bike that looks the way I want it to, instead of settling for the best looking stock one I can find.

 

[DougZ]

that'll never happen

A guy can dream. :nuts:

 

[rg700b]

I guess it was back in 98 or 99 saw my first streetfighter and automatically fell in love with them. In 2000 I came real close to doing a FZR400 w/yzf motor and forks but never committed. Then me and a group of riding buddies decided to go to a racing school. So we jumped in head first. That lasted for about two years for me(couldn't afford it anymore). Only two of them are still racing today. I even tried the cruiser thing for about a year. That ain't happening again. Now I've finally committed to doing a streetfighter. Only took me 8 or 9 years. Started doing a little research on the web and found CF. As all of you can figure out once I found this place the search stopped cause I found my new home.

 

[Scrapyard]

I was always into old chops and fenderless hot rods. I was originally a car guy. I've always thought a bit outside the box. How many 13 sec, N20 injected Cadillacs have you seen? When I first got into bikes I was intending on building a little traditional chopper. Bought a Virago to ride around on while I gathered parts. about 3 months into owning that bike I realised how crap cruisers were and traded it in on a YZF. Always loved bike racing and all the neat parts and inovation that was involved with them. fell in love with sportbikes after that. About 6 years ago I was visiting home from school. Decided to stop in to the book store one day and found a copy of SFmag. Got home and started fliping through it. Saw all the wounderful bikes and ideas and realised it was the perfect mix of the 2 styels of bikes I loved. Slimed down minimalism with superbike performance. Soon after that I striped the YZF, broke out the rattle black and made a new tail for it. Rode that bike for about a year untill I got My TLR. That too got the fighter treatment for a bit befor I sold it. Which brings us to the current bike. I do tend to have a different sense of ideals then many people but I don't build these bikes inspite of the status quote. Typically, I could care less what people think of me or my bikes. If they like it great, if no... oh well. These bikes are mine. Fit finish and purpose.

 

[dogbreath]

And now you make some pretty sick bikes

Good thing you found that SF mag!

 

[929_adam]

[quickest answer possible, as im whoring someone else's net.]

Streetfighters have the attitude that we all reflect. I dont need my bike to make me fit in with everyone out there. I dont care if i look all pretty driving down the road. i dont need to look like im going 200mph while standing still. Im not trying to impress anyone.

I like motorcycles. i like riding. and i like expressing myself. thats where the fighter comes out in me. im into the roots of motorsports and where everything comes from. streetfighters, to me are a way of paying homage to that custom rodding culture!

:cfrocks:

 

[DougZ]

True dat yo.

 

[Gixerman]

I was 16yrs old when i read a review on the first GSXR 7/11 conversion in PB magazine and vowed i'd have one on day 12 yrs later i owned one in street sleeper form, i had been into SF mag since issue 2 some 4-5 years before I got the Gixer so when i wiped out one winter totaling the bodywork there was only one way to go but i didn't want it to look like a crashed bike with mx bars and headlights so i spent 9 months and every penny i earnt building my baby, it starting to look a bit dated now but hey!! it's still a work in progress and i don't think it'll ever be finished

 

[enrico vespa]

As far back as I can remember,
I always wanted to have a Streetfighter.

To me...

...having a Streetfighter was better than
being president of the United States.

Even before I went to the fruit stand
for an after-school job...

...I knew I wanted to be a part of them.

It was there that I knew I belonged.
To me, it meant being somebody...

...in a neighborhood full of nobodies.

They weren't like anybody else.
They did whatever they wanted.

They parked in front of hydrants
and never got a ticket.

When they revved their bikes all night...

...nobody ever called the cops.

 

[Scrapyard]

As far back as I can remember,
I always wanted to have a Streetfighter.

To me...

...having a Streetfighter was better than
being president of the United States.

Even before I went to the fruit stand
for an after-school job...

...I knew I wanted to be a part of them.

It was there that I knew I belonged.
To me, it meant being somebody...

...in a neighborhood full of nobodies.

They weren't like anybody else.
They did whatever they wanted.

They parked in front of hydrants
and never got a ticket.

When they revved their bikes all night...

...nobody ever called the cops.

You been watching Good Fellas again Enrico? I love that flick.

 

[g-style street-fighter]

Pretty goofy but brutally honest.....I watched "Motorcycle Mania 2" (I think it was 2 - doesn't matter). And Jesse James said "everythings been done, I guess the only thing left thats cool is to build a streetfighter or somethin".... At the time I was runnin' a fairly proficient chopper shop buildin' cool stuff on other peoples dime, and I was really BORED. The guy was right, it's all been done. After this I went through a short lived flat black, rough, rat, "bobber" stage that still didn't fulfill my "emptyness". All along Jesse's words loomed in my head.
Fast forward a little, and I'm outa the shop and just livin' simple, I decide I've had enough of the whole my chome is shinier than yours thing and I know I gotta have a sportbike again, like I rode when I was younger.......
I look on the internet for streetfighters, just to see what it's all about, and I find that the way we used to run our bikes in Highschool is now all the style.....Sweeeet. We always ran our GSXR's (and other monsters) without fairings, flat black, open header etc., etc.. Shit back in school my buddy even ran fog lights when he tore the originals off in an accident (not the projection style, the old rectangular ugly ones!!)....This was nothing new, but rather, the best time of my life personified.....

The streetfighter thing has renewed my excitement for motorcycling on the whole, and with some real power and technology these bikes ensure I never know what'll happen on a weekend ride!! And I've even started building choppers again this last month, as long as I don't gotta ride one I'm good........

G-style

P.S. Thanks Jesse.......

 

[enrico vespa]

You been watching Good Fellas again Enrico? I love that flick.

haha, Just readin all the other posts just reminded me of the whole "as far back as I can remember" line.