9 BIKES WE WISH WERE STILL HERE...

No one’s worked out how to bring things back from the dead, but if we had our way, these are the bikes we’d oe see makingareturn.

- BIG MAC

After listening to Bruce waxing lyrical about the brilliance of the longer available Suzuki GSX-R1000 elsewhere in this issue, it won't come as a surprise that I inevitably couldn't help wondering what other bikes have been discontinued and in the process made the motorcycling world a poorer place.

Now, the thing about looking back is that there is a danger of getting all misty-eyed and coming across as a boring old fart, spouting that things aren't as good as they used to be while tucking in to a pack of Werther's. With that in mind, I limited my thinking to bikes that aren't here anymore but would fit right in with today's current offerings without any changes, just as the Honda CBR600RR and Kawasaki ZX-6R have. Obviously, when I say could fit right in with today's offerings, I mean with the exception of the necessary tweaks to clear current emissions standards.

So, without further ado, and not wanting to waste any further space in attempting to justify my choices, let me introduce you to the nine bikes which I believe if they were reintroduced to the market, would not only fit right back in as if they'd never been gone, but also potentially fill in a few gaps in the market and provide some muchneeded variety in some sectors, too. In no particular order....

Suzuki GSX-R750

Absolute no-brainer... however, there are caveats. The GSX-R750 goes all the way back to 1985, and as brilliant and groundbreaking as those early ones were, they don't belong in this era, so at the risk of upsetting a few people, I would say any of the GSX-R750s from 2006 through to the 2011 version, which essentially was the final version until it was discontinued in 2018, could easily be put back into production exactly as they were.