Bike bloat - when is enough enough??

For the past several years motorcycles have been growing larger and larger.  The new VFR1200 is a perfect example: does anyone beside me think that the rider in the photograph looks like an ant sitting atop a rampaging bull?

It seems that a percentage of the population - from apparrel and motorcycle manufacturers, to larger-than-average people - think that the world is constantly growing to *their* standards.  I noted this in the recent June 2009 issue of Motorcycle Cruiser, where in the "Four for $10,000" article 6-foot tall, 33-inch inseam Bily Bartels considered himself as having (quote) "[my] average-sized body"  

As Cherney noted: not on this planet, Bartels.  Look at the figures and the average adult American male is (now) 5 foot 10, not your 6-foot with 33-inch pants.

What ever happened to "To Add Speed, Add Lightness"?  

With the exception of the supersport class, with the 600's in particular, motorcycles have been growing and growing, getting heavier and heavier each year.  The new Yamaha 950 cruiser is just 50 pounds shy of the same make's 1300, yet with a 1/3 power penalty for tossing away "all" of those 50 pounds.  The new Kawasaki cruisers are almost 800 pounds, up almost 70 from their previous incarnations.  In the "standards" realm many models are coming with seat heights equal to their supersport betheren, sometimes even more, and even modest displacement models come with seat heights so inappropriate for the beginning riders who seek them out they frighten away some prospective newbies.  The bar for a "middleweight" is now at least a 600 in supersports and a 900, if not 1100, for cruisers.

What in the world is going on?  

I have a feeling that it is both market demand AND a market driven by the reviewers.  Go through the pages of most mainstream motorcycle review magazines and you'll find that they have almost NO test riders below 5 foot 10, with 6-foot being the "average" for these employees.  This means that a large majority of ride tests end up biased towards the larger rider when comfort is described, and what manufacturer wants to get a bashing in the magazines that their bike is "uncomfortable"?  So, IMHO, they are scaling the bike towards both the reviewer average as well as the "larger" (well, let's say "heavier" and be truthful here) male that is quickly becoming more and more common here in America.  

Leaving us truly "average"-built guys in the lurch.  

As noted in some threads across the internet (like one on this very forum), some people are downgrading their bike's size...and find they are quite happy.  Why?  Because it is all too easy to buy too big of a bike in today's market!

Besides supersports, can't the manufacturers make a reasonably-sized motorcycle - cruiser, standard, dual-sport - that also has decent performance?  It seems that there are indeed a few, note "few", and it seems that the non-Japanese companies like Triumph, Ducati, Aprilla et al. are doing it best.  BMW comes out with a 800cc dual-sport...that is taller, and longer, than their 1200!  WTH?  

Bike bloat became so bad just several years back that Honda has now backtracked and discontinued their 1800 series cruisers.  Too much was simply...too, in the end.  But that was only a drop in the bucket with almost all models continuing their upwards slide to higher seats and / or higher weights (besides supersports, does any new model get *ligher* than the previous version anymore??  Even considering the improved materials and manufacturing that can be used?)  

You think you have it bad, the only time I reach 5'10" is when i have on my three-inch stiletto MC boots.

A pal was going to let me ride his new 990 ktm dirt-ish bike, I sat on the thing and my feet missed the ground by miles.  I passed.

People are getting big though, must be the hormones in those burgers.

Joe  

Certainly American adults are getting bigger...both in height and in width    Getting back to the point and not being a smart-a$$, I was a perfect "American average" 15 years ago (5'8", 32" inseam, etc) but now that average has moved to be 2" taller.  I understand that I am now considered a touch "short" as compared to today's generation and that vehicles must be modified to compensate.

But it has moved beyond the level of "compensation".  The weight and displacement differences, versus just 10 years ago, it tremendous.  Kawasaki's new 'sport-tour' Concours is a 1400, LARGER in displacement than the previous (original) Kawasaki Voyager, their full-dress tourer.   Kawasaki's new Vulcan line are 1700's, up yet again from their previous 1600...which in itself was up from the original 1500.  The new Honda VFR looks like it will be a 1200, not only larger than the previous VFR series which lasted 15 years but will also be the largest Honda V4 VFR-style engine EVER.  The new 950cc cruisers from both Yamaha and Kawasaki are a paltry 50 pounds lighter than their larger brothers, yet contain an engine 2/3's the displacement.  And, as you note, let's not talk about dual-sports - a person of even "normal" height needs a ladder to board one of those things.

Heavier bikes, larger displacement and therefore lower mileage and increase running costs ...at a time when we are also supposed to be concerned, as educated worldly citizens, about resource management, pollutants and waste.  

Hmmm.  Makes me wonder what these manufacturers are thinking when they develop these things.  Who are they appeasing?  The consumers, the dealers, the magazine testers...??  

I'm thinking the weight on those big v-twins is a selling point.  More Lbs for the $.  Like tomatoes.  

Remember when a sub-200 pound dirt bike was the holy grail?    

Joe  

I guess I'll just have to be in the minority.
I am 6 feet /33 inch and I weigh about 210 lb. I don't care if I'm average, I am the size that I am. And I want a bike that fits. The bikes with low seat height require a foot forward arrangement to give me somewhere to put my legs. But I like my feet under my butt for balance. I figured that I'd have to just put up with bikes that don't fit me until I sat on a V-Strom 1000 at a bike show. It's darned difficult to give up the amenities of the ST1300abs, but for 200 pounds less weight and plenty of leg room I'm sure thinking about it.
There are lowering kits for bikes to put the ground closer to the seat. But my issue is the relationship of the pegs to the seat and there's not a lot to work with in that situation. I'm thinking a lift kit with peg lowering brackets. That'll be sweet deal
They'll make what they want, but I want the option to "Biggie Size my Order".  

I agree!!