Back in the 1970s, there was a specific bike you could buy from Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, or Yamaha: The Universal Japanese Motorcycle. It was a successful formula, successful enough to get the attention of the entire Big Four, yet it’s a bike you can’t go out and buy today. Why?
To be clear, you can go out right now and pick up a vintage-looking Japanese bike with vintage specs and, in some cases, even pretty vintage construction. That’s all fine and good, but there’s something the modern market is missing: Bikes that adhere to the spirit of the UJM.
UJMs were, in their day, fast. They handled well, they had upright riding positions, and they had flat bench seats. That’s a fantastic formula, but for some reason modern bike manufacturers just refuse to iterate on it. No manufacturer today offers a bike with modern power, modern handling, but that same flat bench seat.
The Kawasaki Z900RS might be closest on the modern market, with three-figure horsepower and an only lightly split seat on the SE model, but it’s not exactly in keeping with modern lightness trends — 471 pounds isn’t heavy, but it’s not exactly sportbike light either.
The original Yamaha XSR900, before the 2022 redesign, is a solid entry as well. It’s lighter than the Z900RS, thanks to its fewer cylinders, but it lacks the flat seat that’s so distinctly of the UJM era. Why is this such a hard formula to find?
Flat seats allow your pillion to cozy up to you on a ride, they make possible the idyllic version of two-up motorcycling that primarily exists in car insurance ads. Why can’t I get a flat seat on a 120-horsepower bike that weighs 430 pounds? That would be a true do-everything bike, sportbike and tourer and city runabout all in one, but no manufacturer will sell it to me. Maybe BMW, with the R 12 Nine T, but I’m already tired of paying German parts prices.
Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, please make this bike. Upright ergonomics, a flat seat, modern handling and lightness, and three-figure horsepower. This would be the perfect bike for me, one I’d gladly swap out my GS for, but it’s just not out there to buy.
