Retro Rides

Hello and welcome to the January/February issue of Motorcycle Classics.

While we tend to stick mostly to covering older motorcycles around here, since the very beginnings of MC way back in 2005, we’ve kept an eye on new-to-market, retro-styled motorcycles.

We’ve covered many of them over the years, from several Royal Enfield Bullet singles all the way up to the more recent Royal Enfield Continental GT and INT650. We’ve looked at the many iterations of the modern Triumph Bonneville family, along with Kawasaki W650s and the newer W800, a few Urals, Moto Guzzi V7s, and even bikes from U.S. upstart Janus Motorcycles. Ducati had their line of Sport Classics back in 2006, which were somehow short-lived. They may have been ahead of the curve. Today, since the reintroduction of the now popular Ducati Scrambler lineup back in 2014, we’ve heard rumors that the Scrambler models combined outsell the firms’ sportier, more focused bikes by quite a margin. That may sound surprising, but there are 11 models in the Scrambler family.

I say all this to point out that we’re inclusive around here, and while not every new retro model may grace our pages, from time to time we’ll highlight something fun.

In speaking with readers over the years, it’s no surprise to me anymore that there is a lot of interest in the retro models. Many of our readers, along with a classic bike or three (or many more), often have a late model touring bike, in addition to a modern retro classic of some sort.