stripped sportsbikes as the new café racers

Yesterday’s Ducati Monstersedici RR got us thinking. While we liked the idea of a naked bike powered by a 200bhp MotoGP-inspired v4, the highly advanced engine didn’t look at home in the Monster’s svelte lines. In fact, contemporary roadsters like the Monster, Honda 919, Triumph Street Triple and Yamaha FZ6 all look a little over-styled and limp wristed next to the sportsbikes that donated their engines. What’s missing is a strong technical element to the look, something that isn’t provided by the sharply creased plastic and weird exhaust cans of bikes like the Kawasaki Z1000 and Suzuki B-King. That look is surprisingly easy to achieve. Strip the fairing from most current sportsbikes and what you’re left with is a perfectly functional motorcycle, just one whose style is provided by its mechanical components, not plastics. Motorcycle design’s mantra has always been form follows function, it should be: function is form. Click through to see the three bikes we think are best suited to this treatment