Street Bikes

A streetfighter is a sport bike that is customized by removing the fairing, and making other changes that result in an overall more aggressive look.^[1][2] Beyond simply removing fairings, specific changes that exemplify the streetfighter look are a pair of large, round headlights, tall, upright handlebars such as those on a motocross bike, and short, loud, lightweight mufflers. Streetfighters is also the name of a UK motorcycle magazine.^[3]

Later streetfighters used custom-built frames intended to overcome the weakness of the tubular steel frames of the early 4-cylinder superbikes of the 1970s and 80's. Many of these frames turned out to be "beautifully crafted pieces of metallurgical art," perhaps only unintentionally.^[4] Many were also originally racing machines.^[5]

Made popular by European riders,^[6] this type of custom motorcycle gainied popularity all over the world, and motorcycle manufacturers began responding in the late 1990s by adopting the terminology^[7] and producing factory built streetfighters, beginning with the 1994Triumph Speed Triple^[8] and the 1999 Honda X11,^[9] up through the 2009 Ducati Streetfighter.