Questions
What is a streetfighter motorcycle?
A streetfighter motorcycle is an aggressive naked bike, usually a sports bike stripped of its fairings and fitted with wide handlebars in place of clip-ons.
The style began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when riders who had crashed or simply removed the bodywork from a sports bike found they preferred how the naked machine looked and rode. Rather than replace the fairing, they finished the job: wide bars in place of low clip-ons, a small round headlight, and the frame, radiator and engine left in full view. The result reads more muscular and upright than the sports bike it started from, while usually keeping most of the donor bike's performance underneath. It has since become its own recognised category rather than just a modified sports bike, with dedicated models built that way from new.
Our sportbike art page covers the performance end of this family, or send a photo of your own build through the Paint Shop. See also what is a superbike? for the fully-faired end of the spectrum.
Written by Craig Fearn, Throttlefolio.
Transmissions
Questions, answered
Is a streetfighter the same as a naked bike?+
It is a sub-type of naked bike - specifically one built or converted from an aggressive sports bike, with the stance and attitude to match.
Are streetfighters as fast as the sports bikes they come from?+
Often close to it - the engine and chassis are usually shared, so most of the performance carries over even with the fairing gone.
From the journal