With many manufacturers pointing to their histories with machines inspired by the style of yesteryear, but with modern performance and reliability, Australian Road Rider thought it was about time to have a collective look at what’s available. Our idea of a retro is a bike that isn’t a cruiser (that’s a story for another time) and has styling and design inspired by yesteryear.
BENELLI LEONCINO
Available as 500 or 800 in both standard road or “trail” configurations, these parallel twinpowered machines are capable, affordable and attractive, although their styling is very “modern classic”.
The trail versions are looking to take a slice of the scrambler market popularised by Ducati, at a lower price. The smaller versions are LAMS approved and are priced affordably at around 10 grand.
ARR tested the Leoncino 800 Trail in issue #172.
BMW
BMW’s R nineT was so popular with customisers and customers that it quickly spawned a heap of variants. Today we have the R nineT 100 Years, the R NineT Pure, the R nineT Scrambler and the R nineT Urban GS.
Built as a standard motorcycle with retro style, the model features fork suspension (rather than a Telelever front end) and innovative features that make modifications easier, including separate wiring looms for the chassis and engine, a bolt-on subframe and a big range of factory accessories. The engine is an “oil head” too, without the water-cooling or variable valve timing featured on many of the more modern-styled bikes.
BMW is teasing the new R12 nineT with some images, but not
