Sunday, April 12, 2015

Negative inspiration



   http://www.bikeexif.com/2006-suzuki-katana


Sometimes I'm inspired to try harder when I observe the results of a complete lack of effort, either by myself or someone else.

The following is an example because of BikeExif writing about this bike, the shop building it, and the customer paying for it, all as if it were a legitimate custom motorcycle worth writing about, building, and paying someone else to build.

Reason 1 this sucks:
A friend of mine bought a crashed katana for a few hundred bucks once and slapped a light on it, and it looked remarkably close to this.  It was a brilliantly cheap, fun bike, and he didn't try to pass it off as a professional custom job. This thing is basically a stock katana with the fairing removed and some cosmetic details.

Reason 2 this sucks:
The article says the tires were chosen for looks. Custom bikes and the articles about them these days feel like a budget interior decorating show on TV; “They seemed to really pull the look together.”

Reason 3:
It's a daily commuter with no front fender and no airbox? A shop that builds bikes for people needs to know something about riding them.
They call it's style "urban assault". What are you going to assault with this thing, ice cream stands on sunny days?
When it rains it might run over urban pedestrians because of the stream of water in the rider's face from the front tire--I guess that's urban assault.

Reason 4:
Someone really had to pay a shop for this? I would never put down a bike like this if it were not  a professional effort. Katanas are cheap and very capable bikes with fantastic engines--so what if the frame is heavy and hideous?

But a pro shop built bike?


2 comments:

Dan Yoder said...

This guys dailyrider800 rides his VFR daily without a front fender. I heard he likes streams in his face though

aaron said...

Bikes built by guys who like streams in their face qualify as radical customs, not commuters.