HOW DID WE GET HERE?

yet weigh 20 percent less than the well-loved classic sit-up literbikes of the 1970s and early ’80s. With much lighter wheels and tires yet more capable brakes, today’s bikes stop and turn with agility impossible to their forebears. Chassis, swingarms, and forks of improved design provide stiffness essential to stability and hard braking yet are laterally flexible enough to stay hooked up in corners on unsmooth pavements. Most recently, the coming of aerospace-derived electronic rider aids supplement human reactions to better control wheelies and wheelspin regardless of the bike’s angle of lean.