Motorbike questions, answered.
Straight answers to the motorcycle questions people actually type into a search box: what a cafe racer is, what cc means, why a bobber looks the way it does. Free to read, and plain about the ones nobody official has ever defined.
Jump to a section · 3 sections
Two kinds of question turn up here, and they don't behave alike. The engine questions have hard answers: cc is a measure of volume, and the stroke count is something you can literally count. The style questions aren't like that. Cafe racer, bobber, streetfighter and the rest are words the sport settled between itself, with no standards body anywhere behind them, so those pages describe how each term gets used and say plainly that's all they're doing. Start with the main types of motorcycle if you want the whole map, or the bike to read this stage of the site in order.
Bike types and styles
- What are the main types of motorcycle: seven broad families, from sports to off-road, and not one of them defined by anybody official.
- What is a cafe racer: low clip-on bars, a solo seat, and a stripped-back look borrowed from the 1960s.
- What is a scrambler motorcycle: a higher-set exhaust, an upright stance, and tyres meant for tarmac and rough ground alike.
- What is a bobber motorcycle: a shortened rear end, a solo seat, and bodywork cut back to the essentials.
- What is a naked bike: little or no fairing, an exposed engine, and a riding position built for everyday use.
- What is a streetfighter motorcycle: a sports bike relieved of its fairings and given wide bars in place of clip-ons.
- What is a superbike: a broad term for a high-performance sports machine, not one model or make.
- What is a chopper motorcycle: raked-out forks and a long, stretched stance, built for how it looks.
- What is a tourer motorcycle: a full fairing, a tall screen and hard luggage, for covering distance in comfort.
- What is a cruiser motorcycle: feet-forward pegs and a low seat, built around torque, not outright speed.
Sizes and paper
One question, because it is the one that costs people money: the metric sizes sold here are not A sizes, and ordering 50x70 cm expecting A3 means ordering a print half again as large. The answer below sets both out in millimetres so the wall can be measured before anything is bought.
- Is 50x70 cm A3?: no, and it is not an A size at all.
Engines and terms
- What does cc mean on a motorbike: cubic centimetres, the volume an engine's pistons sweep.
- What is the difference between two-stroke and four-stroke: two movements of the piston per cycle against four, so one fires twice as often.
Written by Craig Fearn, Throttlefolio. Last updated .
Keep reading
- Next The main types of motorcycle
Sports and superbikes, naked roadsters, cruisers, tourers, adventure machines, off-road bikes, and retro styles like the cafe racer and scrambler. Seven broad families, none of them defined by anybody official.