Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

70s, 80s, 90s biking icons The lure of the ‘bad’ bike...

Things do change, don’t they, over time and with the benefit of hindsight. I do recall riding Suzuki’s TL1000S back in 1997 and thinking what a ruddy handful it was on Blighty’s bumpy, blighted roads.

I had it better than most – my not inconsiderable bulk kept the frontend more planted on the Tarmac than some of my lighter motorcycle journalism colleagues, but the mix of grunty V-twin and iffy rear suspension had the bars out of my hands more than once. But maybe I was braver then? I even did a feature a few years later called ‘Bad Bikes’ for a magazine at the time.

We had the original Honda CBR900RR FireBlade, a Kawasaki H2, a Laverda Jota, Suzuki’s TL1000S and a Suzuki GSX-R1100K. The older bikes just seemed actually ‘quite nice’; even the Jota, a bike that – in race spec – would have two or three steering dampers fitted because it was so ruddy wayward! Only the TL out of all the bikes still seemed to have that nasty edge when you gassed it…

‘‘‘‘ ‘‘ Like th e ladies who like a b ad boy’, many of us like a ‘bad bike’...

Fast forward 20 years and I ride a TL1000S once more and wonder what all the fuss was about? Has it been more modern tyres (they were the issue with the old 1989 proddie race GSX-R1100s); has it been people modifying the machines (the one I rode dispensed with the rotary damper and separate spring); who knows? It just seems that some bikes mellow over time – like the riders, I guess.

Of course, like the ladies who like a ‘bad boy’, many of us like a ‘bad bike’, and while many of us aren’t up for quite as much excitement as we used to be, it doesn’t hurt the old image, does it?