In Style
In Style
SUPER CRUISER shootout
Power-cruisers meet the Art Center School of Design
STEVE ANDERSON
NO MOTORCYCLES TAKE STYLING more seriously than the V-Twin power-cruisers gathered here. Each bike's designers were trying to blaze a new trail that combined the American custom look with hints of raw power. How successful were they? To answer that question, we took all four machines to Los Angeles’ Art Center College of Design, the school that turns out more automotive and motorcycle designers than any other.
The plan was simple: We arranged with the administration to place the bikes in an open area near the student center, and had a couple of professors in the Transportation Design program spread the word to their students that they could see some innovative new motorcycles. Then we stood back and took notes.
We quickly learned that the V-Rod was the true eye-candy of the bunch. While the students and other professionals who wandered by spent some time looking at the Japanese machines, it was the Harley that they crowded around, the one they most studied and commented upon. Part of it may have been the V-Rod’s fame (many of the students had seen the Discovery Channel television show on the bike’s creation), but mostly, it simply had more presence.
Of course, not all of the budding designers agreed with every bit of Harley’s handiwork, and those with the strongest motorcycling backgrounds tended to be the most critical. Student Jeff Nield thought the V-Rod’s “swoopy, flamboyant exhaust pipe doesn’t fit the ‘Terminator’ theme. They need to make it a little more uniform, less of a megaphone.” Fellow student, club roadracer and former Pro Italia employee Bernard McKennzie agreed, and picked on a V-Rod component that would prove a lightning rod for most onlookers: the instrument nacelle. “If they just took it and widened it,” he said, shaking his head. “You want this meaty, muscular look.” But overall, both were impressed with the Harley. “It’s really clean,” concluded McKennzie.
He was almost more impressed with the Honda VTX: “Its headlight is much more robust, and the pipe is clean, long, throaty-it’s the type of pipe the Harley should have had.” Onlooker Brian Wilson disagreed: “The Honda’s pipe shouldn’t extend past the rear tire; that’s just wrong.”
Student Savanna Deckles, owner of a Yamaha SRX600, wanted to try them all. “I like the styling of the Harley,” she said, “but why does it have so many covers? And the radiator shroud is too big.” She also liked the Honda. “It’s really aggressive, but really heavy.” In the end, though, she decided that “The Harley and the Honda look like the most fun.”
Art Center student Igor Burt exemplified a common reaction to the Harley when he asked in slight disbelief, “It’s a production Harley? It’s not a prototype?” Many others also assumed the Harley was a design study, and found it equally surprising that such a stunning machine came off a production line.
BMW rider and Art Center instructor Gaylord Eckles observed, “One of the reasons Harley appeals to its market is that its finish is better and more durable.” He then proceeded to point out the noticeably higher-quality chrome work on the Harley, comparing it to some anodized and clearcoated parts on the Yamaha that he doubted would look as nice after a few years of wear and tear.
After the V-Rod, the bike receiving the second most attention was the Yamaha Road Star Warrior. Art Center students uniformly liked many of the details on the machine, though a few thought “the wheels look almost too small for the bike.” Almost no one liked the muffler. “That really makes the tire look undersized,” said McKennzie. “But I like the whole midsection.”
Scooter rider Marcello Mezzera made note of the Harley’s aluminum finish, saying, “It makes it look like a million bucks-not $16,995.” But he was almost overwhelmed with the V-Rod’s slightly delicate appearance. “I’m afraid I’ll break it,” he admitted.
As for the best bike, Mezzera had a simple solution. “I want one of each. Each has a different attitude. But if you want to impress, you want the Harley,” though he did concede the Yamaha was “smoother and more integrated than the other bikes.”
As to which machine got the least attention, it was clearly the Kawasaki. No one had much bad to say about it, but no one was enthused, either. When one nameless future designer was told it was the least expensive machine, he replied, “Well, it looks it.”
In the end, the enthusiasm for the V-Rod simply overwhelmed the other machines. Student B. Lim, noting that the V-Rod was Harley’s first all-new design in almost 70 years, said, “This sets the bar higher. They’ve really redefined the cruiser. It’s more about the machine, and it has all those hot-rod billet clues.”
The V-Rod even sucked-in design professionals who happened to walk past, including Ken Dowd, a former Art Center student who is a VP at Teague, an industrial-design studio that does a lot of work for Boeing. Dowd was impressed. “When I was a student, we had a saying for a perfect car. We said, ‘It looks just like a sketch.’ Well, the V-Rod looks just like a sketch.”
ADVANTAGE: HARLEY-DAVIDSON
