Faired Bikes

Idle thought...

When did faired road bikes become the norm and which models?

 

Mid-eighties?

900R/GSXR750/FZ750 sort of era?

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| ___ Salad Dodger
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_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
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\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
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'^' RBR Landmarks: 24 Pts: 400 Miles: 1589

 

sweller says...

It sort of started in the early 80s with little nose fairings on stuff
like GPZs and suchlike, and they just got a bit bigger until they
became the full sports bike fairings we see today. The first proper
fairings I saw on a production bike that looked like they belonged
there were on the GPZ A models. Prior to that bikes looked like they
were designed as unfaired, until some half-wit moulded a bit of plastic
to stick on afterwards. Unless you count shite like Goldwings and
CBX1000 Prolinks.

 

And a sad day it was IMHO.Why hide the engine?

Why think you are on a race-track?

And why do so many die every fucking day on bikes sold that are way
too powerful for the average person to contain :/

 

How many die "every day", then?

I doubt the power output has much to do with accidents, anyway.

How many of these daily deaths occur at full chat, then?
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| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..75830../..18846.../..3214./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^' RBR Landmarks: 24 Pts: 400 Miles: 1589

 

Shep© says...

Because they are invariably ugly.

Who says we are. Sure the bikes are race replicas, but the throttle
goes both ways and there's no-one telling me that I have to ride flat
out everywhere.

Speak for yourself.
Most of us can and do handle the bikes we buy quite happily. Deaths are
rare and most of them aren't caused by excessive power or even
excessive speed, they are caused by car drivers.

 

if they do so purely 'cos of the power output, viz. by driving too fast for
the conditions, then I regard it as Darwinian selection.

If, rather, they die 'cos some other **** is unable to take the elementary
step of looking before pullign out of a side road, then they or rather their
relatives have my every sympathy.

 

Why hide the battery.

Hmm. As I recall, you turned out to be a bit of a troll last time you
were here.

 

As Lozzo says, the GPZ "A" models in 1982 were the first mass market
jap bikes to have top half fairings, although Ducati and Moto Guzzi
had put fairings on some of their bike in the 70s (All the Le Mans had
fairings, no?).

The GPZ900R was, I think, the first mass market bike to have a full
fairing in 1984 (I'm excluding limited edition bikes like the CB1100R
here), tho the GPz750 turbo followed it very shortly. Then in 1985
there was the GSX-R 750, followed in 1986 by the GSX-R 1100, and
GPz600 - from here on any bike with sporting pretentsions had a full
fairing.

 

I don't, on mine...

hehe. I was starting to think that sort of thing too.

 

Personally, I find some engines a thing of beauty, and hiding them is a
shame. Then again, I find beauty in all kinds of mechanical contraptions so
wibble-de-flip..

*ding*

 

"If you expected to find the Ddol-las homepage here, then you're about
to be disappointed, because it's moved."

Time for a bit of a sig update, Austin

 

Only the norm for those that bought them

 

Well... you can go back a lot earlier than that: Ariel Leader, Vincent
Black Prince, Francis-Barnett Something-or-other, Excelsior Skutabike
(note how they get more & more horrible as the list progresses). I
reckon they all count as mass market models [1] but, going back to the
original question, they were hardly the norm.

[1] well, 3 out of the 4 anyway.

 

'Cos modern engines are ugly as sin. Even BMW don't make "clean"
engines any more. Which is a shame.

Eh? I'm sitting at home, nowhere near a racetrack TYVM.

Stats? Especially, stats that show that the many deaths are power
related?

 

1930s probably.

 

You need a better dictionary.

 

ITYM Calendar

 

It started well before that, of course earlier fairings were there to
make keeping dry and clean easier. Oh and of course the influence of
racing as well. Consider the Velocette LE, Aerial Leader and the "dustbin
fairing". Come to that there is the Vincent series D as well. If I go
through the books I have I can probably date windshields etc. back to the
thirties or earlier.

Disclaimer, it is about thirty years since I had a bike, I got soft when
I passed my car test.

Ken Young

 

Yes we know all this, but the question was more 'when did they become
the norm'.

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