What is your favorite era of motorcycle?

I don't believe anyone would argue that motorcycles have ever been as good as they are right now. They are lighter, faster, more efficient,better brakes, abs, blah, blah, blah and the list goes on. But, for me at least, nothing that I can go out and buy new really pulls at my heartstrings. I like old things, and strangely my tastes in motorcycles do not correlate with my favorite era for cars. Yea, I could go through and cherry pick a bike or two out of any era since they became a thing but most of the ones that catch my attention and give me a major case of the lust all hail from the mid 80's to early 90's.

Stuff like these;

So what does it for you?

The GP bikes of the "big banger" era give me wood.

I love anything that looks like an all-purpose motorcycle from my childhood with knobby tires. A 70's Scrambler fits the bill but anything of that basic type does too.

I dislike dressers and big cruisers and superfluous chrome in the same way I dislike Escalades and modern bikes trying to be old bikes. They need to be really well executed not draw my ire ... but a real old bike from the WWII era is pretty neat. I've never ridden anything like that so I can't say if I really like them.

I love from the 70's to current day....

Late '84 to '99.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

That is pretty specific, care to elaborate?

1936-1957 Harley for me. Yeah I am that specific.

Brass through art deco era is the most beautiful to me. I love the artistry of these machines. I say that having never ridden a one.

I don't argue a whit that the more modern machines are eminently superior from a reliability, performance and feature perspective. There's more to it than that for me. For me, motorcycles are a very visceral thing. I don't want a practical one, I want one that stirs me emotionally. I don't mind a modern one, but it had better do something to me inside that races my pulse some how. Otherwise, it's the appliance equivalent of a Toyota Camry or Ford Taurus, and holds just as little interest for me.

That praise said about modern motorcycles, there are two serious strikes against them. At least for me there are. One is heat. The catalytic converters generate tremendous heat. The second is the increased inability to repair them when they break out in the wild. I say that, laughing at myself thinking I could or would really repair a broken Henderson with a rock and a stick.

I'm a product of my youth:

Funny thing is the motorcycle I have now is NOTHING like any of those. But I really wanted them back in the day.

I like big air cooled 2 strokes. They were what I read about in magazines when I was riding a XR75

These are awesome. I had a 1995 900rr then a 929rr

I don't know that I have ever seen one in person, but I had a FZR600 and 400

This is the bike I would like to have next

Nick_Comstock wrote: In reply to Dr. Hess: That is pretty specific, care to elaborate?

It's the Era of the Evo motor. Like this one:

Best motor the MoCo ever made.

That's like being the thinnest guy on "The biggest loser".

Pre-war FTMFW:

Hmmm. For me it's not so much the age as the style. I like naked standards. Fairings and garish 80s paint jobs turn me off just as much as excessive chrome. My recent thread about retro bikes illustrates pretty much what I like. While I really like old stuff, it's quirkiness and the history that rides with it nowadays I am less tolerant of 'character'. While I want an engaging experience, I also don't want to push it home. Ever. So my tastes, much like my lust for a 2005 Mustang instead of a 1967 Mustang, have been swayed by the retro-look modern stuff. I know a lot of people strongly dislike that sort of thing, but for me it ticks all the right boxes.

Definitely the modern era. The Speed/Street Triple, Tuono, Monster, etc. are things of beauty.

I must admit some of the sport classic ducati's make me want to do bad things.

If the wife would allow it I would but a MH900e in the living room.

I like Italian bikes from the mid-sixties to the nineties (basically the era before they lost the plot design-wise). For actually working bikes I tend to prefer BMWs from the 80s to the early 2000s...

Ditto SEADave.

In reply to SEADave:

We seem to be on the same page. I have been watching the CL closely for a deal on something. First I need to get a shed built so I can clear the junk out of our one car garage. SWMBO would kill me if I started piling up old broken motorcycles in the backyard.

Being a Jeep guy for so long, anything with a square headlight looks dated to me. I guess I am a YJ hater.

I also don't like the squared tail on the sportbikes, that looks dated as well.