Time Machines Retro Bike Reviews | MC SPECIAL!

Eight brand-new motorcycles that restore the man-machine interface to pure analog terms.

For every tangible benefit technology, sophistication, and modern design bring to motorcycling, we lose a tiny bit in the translation. As computers become wedged between flesh and machine, our connection weakens. Always strongly mechanical, motorcycles have become inscrutable over time.

But what if there were a way you could go back? To buy a brand-new motorcycle that restores that man/machine interface to pure analog terms. In a general sense, we call them retro bikes—designs whose styling recalls or recreates significant motorcycles of the past. And whose performance isn’t the totality of the sales pitch.

Simple, honest, motorcycles.

BMW and Yamaha have new product this year, aimed square at the retro contingent. The RnineT and the SR400 couldn't be more different and still represent a vibrant class of two-wheelers. Joining them are the usual suspects in the Triumph Bonneville, Moto Guzzi's Griso and V7 Racer, and Honda's CB1100F. Plus a couple of cool outliers.

It's true you can't really go back. But perhaps one of these new-guard retros will make you feel like you never left. Click on each one and tell us what your favorite Time Machine is in the comments below: