Motorbikes were once just bicycles with engines. Then, what differentiated a standard motorcycle from a sporty one was basically the engine. Nowadays things got really complicated, the nomenclature is murky at best, and we had to find a way to separate different styles for our users to find what suits them, using our filters.
Here’s how we call them so far:
- Adventure: the original idea was probably a big bike, for long distances and every terrain. Today we have small capacity bikes that are not that capable but “long distance” can be a country house outside a city, where you have to use some dirt roads. So anything with a big front wheel, standard riding position and good ground clearance.
- Adventure sports: essentially adventure bikes with road tires and 17 inch wheels. Still for long rides, upright riding position, with some focus on sporty riding but reasonable ground clearance.
- Classic: bikes that resemble old bikes
- Cruiser: low seat height, feet forward
- Dual-sport: dirt bikes that can legally ride on the street
- Naked: it appears this started as sport bikes that lost their fairings, which nowadays are identified more as street-fighters. Today any standard bike can be called a naked, mostly associated with modern design
- Retro: it’s clearly modern but with elements of classic bikes
- Scooter: scooter
- Scrambler: a standard bike with some off-road capability
- Sport: motorcycles with aggressive body position, full fairings
- Sport touring: sport bikes with more comfortable ergonomics for long rides
- Supermoto: dirt bikes with street tires
- Touring: cruisers for long journeys. Wind protection and storage are part of the difference
This will be updated with more details and examples of differences and similarities.