What if you held a retro party… and nobody came? In 2019, that’s very close to being a ridiculous question. Right now, the retro party is in full swing and everybody from BMW to Yamaha has slipped a ’70s-style dress over their modern-as-tomorrow underwear.
Twenty-two years ago, however, the notion of deliberately evoking the past in a big-bore sportbike seemed just a little… strange. It was the era of the mighty ZX-11, ram-air GSX-R750, and ethereally gorgeous Ducati 916. Why look back, when the present itself was bright enough to require sunglasses?
Ah, but there was something missing in that lineup of fantastic plastic road rockets. A little bit of comfort, perhaps. Around-town usability, for sure. Most critically, however, the Class of 1997 suffered from a bit of an image…