Getting older isn’t always the easiest of experiences, but there are certainly advantages to amassing a few decades on this planet. I’m old enough to recall a less-enlightened age when many of my fellow Americans sincerely believed ourselves to be the only denizens of this globe capable of great mechanical craftsmanship. Growing up in Pittsburgh and experiencing the region’s painful and rapid industrial decline in the early 1980s, it wasn’t uncommon to see cars and motorcycles adorned with stickers expressing anger at foreign competition, namely in the form of imported vehicles. “Hungry? Out of Work? Eat Your Honda!” read a T-shirt popular with riders in our area. I can recall far too many conversations with folks who felt the world of motor vehicle manufacturing was diminished and never to return to its past glories once American steelmaking faded away, and if I had a Buick for every former steelworker who reminded me that my Yamaha or Kawasaki was a n affront to “honest working guys” I’d own one hell of a used car lot by now.
I remember riding my new, 1981 Yamaha XS650 to a local rally, only to return to find the seat covered in actual rice grains(!) which II guess was an empty headed means of someone remining me they preferred corn or what-based delicacies.
Thankfully, those misguided prejudices have faded from our national psyche and we’ve come to accept that fine craftsmanship knows no geographical boundaries. It’s hard to imagine from the viewpoints popular 40 years back, but Japanese vehicle manufacturers are now considered leading edge in every technological field and motorcycles designed and built with components and engineering from disparate locations is what truly makes them awesome. Case in point- India’s Royal Enfield are rolling out a series of limited-edition 650 twins this year in observance of the company’s 120th consecutive years in production. These stunning black and black chrome customs feature handmade tank bagdes and pinstriping from some of the Indian subcontinent’s finest workshops, and the luscious detailing is undeniably on point and desirable, no matter where you hail from. Indian has a rich history of metalsmithing that’s produced some of he finest, hand-hewn artifacts of the industrial age, I’ve only recently come to learn and I wonder why our geography and social studies teachers never told of of things like this growing up.
And it’s not just Indian craftsmen who are hard at work. Motorcycle design this jaw-dropping can now be accessed from many different countries and it’s hard to imagine a time when many of my fellow countrymen would have balked at purchasing such a bike simply because it was made overseas.
These are great times to be into streetbikes when we have a whole world of stylistic and manufacturing influences to choose from and the bikes rolling into showrooms are imbued with the sort of handiwork once seen only in art galleries and museum collections. We’ve come a long, long way in the past 40 years towards appreciating things foreign and different and we’re all the better for it.