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. Instead of replacing the fairing, they finished the job: wide bars in place of low clip-ons, round headlights, 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's since become its own category, not a modified sports bike, with models built that way from new. Recognised by riders and by manufacturers, that is, not by any standards body: the types of motorcycle page explains how these names really get settled.
What changes from the sports bike
- The fairing goes. Frame, radiator and engine are left in full view.
- The bars change. Wide bars take the place of low clip-ons.
- The headlights change. A pair of big round ones is the classic look.
- The performance mostly stays. The engine underneath is usually the sports bike's.
Where the streetfighter came from
Much of the early story happened in Britain. According to Wikipedia's streetfighter entry, the look was first drawn in Bike magazine in 1983, in a comic strip called Bloodrunners about dispatch riders on big four-cylinder machines with every spare part thrown away. By the late 1980s London had a crop of rough, home-built streetfighters, and Streetfighters is also the name of a UK motorcycle magazine. Plastic fairings were costly to replace after a crash, so riders left them off, fitted cheap parts and kept riding.
The style also goes by the names muscle bike and supernaked. The classic changes go further than losing the fairing: a pair of big round headlights, tall straight bars like a motocross bike's, short lightweight silencers, and different sprockets for quicker acceleration at lower speeds. Some later builds went further, with custom frames made to get round the weak tubular steel frames of the big four-cylinder bikes of the 1970s and 1980s. Makers began building streetfighters in the factory in the 1990s.
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.
Buying for the owner of one? Motorbike gift ideas is the fair starting point.
Written by Craig Fearn, Throttlefolio. Last updated .
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.
Why do streetfighters have tall, straight bars?
Wikipedia's streetfighter entry says the high, straight bars came after better headlights, added to help with wheelies and other stunts. They also sit the rider upright, which is a big part of how the style looks.
Keep reading
- Next What is a superbike?
A superbike is a high-performance sports motorcycle built for speed and track-style handling, a broad, generic term rather than one specific model or make.