Yeah,, all they know out here is "crotch rocket." What's funny is some of them know it's derogatory, so they hesitate, but they still say it because they don't know what else to call it.

"Oh its a. . . .crotch. . .rocket."

"Sport bike" makes people think of dirt bikes out here. Motocross guys with helmet visors and backflips.


My personal response to girls asking "Oh, you have a crotch rocket?:"

"yeah, but I as a rule don't take it out on the first date."

 

We get a good mix around here, one girl I work with calls them belly bikes, that I don't like.

 

I like 'sport bike'

While we're on this topic, would it be proper to use the term 'super bike'? What I mean is, is there an engine size minimum to call a bike a super bike?

 

Super bike is more a term for either racing or insurance. I've never heard someone refer to their sport bike - even Busas and ZX-14s - as a super bike.

I, personally, don't care about the term crotch rocket. I use it myself often. I say sport bike if talking to people who know bikes well enough, and crotch rocket to everyone else.

 

Never cared for the term crotch rocket. Always used the term sportbike, but as already said, most peoples eyes just glass over, then you have to say crotch rocket and they imediately understand.

Ive also heard the term rice rocket, which I feel would be even more degrating that crotch rocket.

I hate to stereotype, but here I go as this has been my experience. The people that ride motorcycles and like to use the term crotch rocket are the ones who are driving ninja 250's and 500's.

I would consider superbike anything 1 liter or bigger. Just based on the race classes, superbike classes are always 1000cc or bigger. the lower classes are usually reffered to as supersport, However, the term super bike just seems to warrant something special, not just engine size. Sportbike suits em all just fine.

 

I never heard 'crash rocket' or 'rice rocket' before. Funny.

An uncle of mine, at a family gathering, saw my parked bike and kept asking me about my 'rocket.' He just used that one word. It dawned on me later that a repressive catholic upbringing kept him from saying 'crotch' in mixed company. On the upside, I now have some aunts who think I work for NASA.

 

The term "crotch rocket" doesn't bother me, though some people definitely use it in a derogatory way. Those kind of people don't understand why I ride anyway and probably never will, so I don't hold it against them. Besides, there's been plenty of idiots out there to give them a bad taste for us on our "crotch rockets".

Funny story, I was parking my bike one day at the hardware store, and this old dude comes out and tells me I can't park where I did but I could park over by where he has his bike. And he tells me, "I don't like rice burners, but I'm just trying to look out for ya." Funny thing is, this guy's bike is some kind of (I'm guessing) 500cc Honda "Cruiser" that was probably from the mid-80s. I wanted to get into it with the guy about what makes mine a rice burner when my F3 was made by the same company as his. I couldn't believe it. Call it a crotch rocket if you want, but a rice burner?? That chapped my ***..

 

Yeah, rice burner to me goes with cars, not bikes. That would just be insulting to me.

Super bike doesn't have to be liter or bigger- I know Kawasaki classes several of their 600+ bikes as supersport.

 

all 600's are supersports, 750s n up are are superbikes per their AMA racing status now or in the past.

 

Oh, gotcha. Didn't realize there was a distinction between supersport and superbike.