Confessions of a Speed Creature
I like fast bikes. Always have, always will. My first bike was a 1986 YX600, which technically makes it the great granduncle of the R6. And I could get that little sucker up to 130 and she still had room to run. My current ride is a 1997 ZX-6E, and I'm looking to upgrade to either a Speed Triple or Daytona 955i.
But when someone says "Honda," I don't think CBR, VFR, or Blackbird XX. I think CB360, CM400, CB500, et al. The small, economical red "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" kind of bikes. Go figure, right? But in Chicago, where gas is +$4.65/gal for 87 octane, these babies are selling like discounted Nintendo Wii's on Christmas Eve, and at prices that a year ago, you would've asked someone to take that bike and perform a definite anatomical impossibility with.
With gas prices at well over $4/gallon nationwide, I wonder if this will be a resurgence in the sub-middleweight (featherweight?) class that was so popular in the '70's? I talked to a buddy of mine who works at a motorcycle dealer out west- he says those crappy little Chinese and Korean scooters are being sold as fast as they can get them out of the crate. You'd think the Big Four would start cranking out updated versions of the old classics- KZ440, GS450L, CB450, etc- I mean, if you're gonna get a budget bike, why not get one from a name brand, right?
But when someone says "Honda," I don't think CBR, VFR, or Blackbird XX. I think CB360, CM400, CB500, et al. The small, economical red "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" kind of bikes. Go figure, right? But in Chicago, where gas is +$4.65/gal for 87 octane, these babies are selling like discounted Nintendo Wii's on Christmas Eve, and at prices that a year ago, you would've asked someone to take that bike and perform a definite anatomical impossibility with.
With gas prices at well over $4/gallon nationwide, I wonder if this will be a resurgence in the sub-middleweight (featherweight?) class that was so popular in the '70's? I talked to a buddy of mine who works at a motorcycle dealer out west- he says those crappy little Chinese and Korean scooters are being sold as fast as they can get them out of the crate. You'd think the Big Four would start cranking out updated versions of the old classics- KZ440, GS450L, CB450, etc- I mean, if you're gonna get a budget bike, why not get one from a name brand, right?