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Performance
Bike or Streetfighter?
There
are mainly two types of 7/11's - Each with their own philosophy
behind them. First there is the 7/11 with standard 750 looks, also
called a "sleeper", mostly the result of GSX-R750 owners looking
for a cheap way to get more power and keeping up with more modern
machinery like Blades and ZZR's.
Then there are the guys that completely customize their 7/11's or
build them scratch to create something personal that stands out
from the crowd.
Performance
Bikes
A Performance Bike is built with one single thing in mind - to create
a bike that will outperform anything in terms of handling, accelleration,
top end speed and last but not least braking. Building a good performance
bike has got more to do with skill and using your brains than with
money. You spend your money where it the most improvements can be
made, like getting the right pair of matched tires instead of purple-anodized
aluminium bolts which weigh a few percent less than the originals.
Streetfighters
The original streetfighters were built by people inspired by the
movie "MAD MAX" which means something like painting it matt black
with an aerosol paint can, putting a sheep's hide over the saddle
and neglecting it for it's further miserable life. Today "fighterizing"
a bike means something like taking the fairing of a sports bike,
fitting straight motocross-style handlebars and dual cibie headlamps
for that "frog look" (no - I don't mean like in frenchman - the
reptile!). Most don't stop there but put every penny they earn into
carbon fibre bodywork, titanium- or anodized aluminium bolts, a
Simpson Bandit, a screaming paint-job and engine tuning parts resulting
in a 20th century custom (or chopper) - a field previously occupied
by Harleys. So, a streetfighter is mainly built for pose value which
ain't a bad thing - everybody likes some attention.
So,
what will it be then? It's all a matter of taste and personal preferences,
I'll save my own opinion for my Project Page.
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