In the late 80’s Japan clamped down on its own motorcycle market, the bikes profiled in this article are how the main motorcycle manufacturers responded to this legislation.
This is a companion article to the one I wrote about Japans 700cc bikes that were designed to skirt American tariffs.
http://www.xs650.com/threads/remembering-japans-hot-700cc-bikes-from-the-80’s.59884/
In the late 80’s motorcycle road racing had reached its zenith of popularity in Japan and the home market was absolutely flooded with large displacement repli-racers. This lead to a rise in accident and fatality rates which many in the government were quite concerned about. Public perception of motorcycle riders were also taking a beating. They were associated with criminals and “anti social behavior”. High schools began banning them on their premises and they were fast becoming social pariahs. Parking is hard to come by in the cities and many / maybe most of them ban motorcycles. All of this led to a whole slew of rules and regulations, taxes, insurance hurdles and inspections that exist to this day. I began researching the Japanese regulations surrounding motorcycles and in a word, they are ponderous. I wont even try to list them all but they make it very hard to own anything larger than 125cc. They have four different class licenses depending on displacement and rider age, and their tests are notoriously difficult. Anything over 400cc is considered a “large motorcycle” and they make it hard to qualify for them. Foreigners living in Japan may not own any motorcycle over 400cc. The list goes on and on….
It amazes me that the country that supplies most of the motorcycles in the world, makes it so hard for it’s own citizens to own them.
So in order to try and satisfy consumer desires for performance and still be in compliance with new strict regulations, the era of 250cc and 400cc , fully faired high , performance , sky high redline, all out sport bikes began.
First up the 250 class, here is a sampling,
They all weigh just a tick over 300 lbs, have very peaky motors with the bulk of the power band between 12,000 - 16,000 rpm , inline fours, air cooled , they average about 45 h.p. , they have scalpel sharp handling, and there are some interesting features on some of them, like aluminum frames, inverted forks, and check out Kawasaki’s ram air intake ducts on either side of the windshield, Honda has them too built into the fairing.
1988 Yamaha FZR250
1988 Suzuki GSXR250
1988 Yamaha FZR250
1991 Honda CBR250RR
1991 Kawasaki ZXR250
Would you like to hear them run? They sound like Grand Prix cars ( sorta )
And here’s a super short video of the Suzuki screaming past.
End of part one, next up the 400cc sport bikes.
This is a companion article to the one I wrote about Japans 700cc bikes that were designed to skirt American tariffs.
http://www.xs650.com/threads/remembering-japans-hot-700cc-bikes-from-the-80’s.59884/
In the late 80’s motorcycle road racing had reached its zenith of popularity in Japan and the home market was absolutely flooded with large displacement repli-racers. This lead to a rise in accident and fatality rates which many in the government were quite concerned about. Public perception of motorcycle riders were also taking a beating. They were associated with criminals and “anti social behavior”. High schools began banning them on their premises and they were fast becoming social pariahs. Parking is hard to come by in the cities and many / maybe most of them ban motorcycles. All of this led to a whole slew of rules and regulations, taxes, insurance hurdles and inspections that exist to this day. I began researching the Japanese regulations surrounding motorcycles and in a word, they are ponderous. I wont even try to list them all but they make it very hard to own anything larger than 125cc. They have four different class licenses depending on displacement and rider age, and their tests are notoriously difficult. Anything over 400cc is considered a “large motorcycle” and they make it hard to qualify for them. Foreigners living in Japan may not own any motorcycle over 400cc. The list goes on and on….
It amazes me that the country that supplies most of the motorcycles in the world, makes it so hard for it’s own citizens to own them.
So in order to try and satisfy consumer desires for performance and still be in compliance with new strict regulations, the era of 250cc and 400cc , fully faired high , performance , sky high redline, all out sport bikes began.
First up the 250 class, here is a sampling,
They all weigh just a tick over 300 lbs, have very peaky motors with the bulk of the power band between 12,000 - 16,000 rpm , inline fours, air cooled , they average about 45 h.p. , they have scalpel sharp handling, and there are some interesting features on some of them, like aluminum frames, inverted forks, and check out Kawasaki’s ram air intake ducts on either side of the windshield, Honda has them too built into the fairing.
1988 Yamaha FZR250
1988 Suzuki GSXR250
1988 Yamaha FZR250
1991 Honda CBR250RR
1991 Kawasaki ZXR250
Would you like to hear them run? They sound like Grand Prix cars ( sorta )
And here’s a super short video of the Suzuki screaming past.
End of part one, next up the 400cc sport bikes.
