What are your favourite mods to such bikes? What do you prize most? speed, acceleration, fuel economy, signature? Would you swap engines or otherwise alter, custom-order, or customise it? If yes, would your ideal engine be electric, IC, or mixed?

Of course cost matters!

Edit to add: why choose one over the other? How does what it has match what you need (or want)?

Oh, you're looking for a fast motorcycle, eh? Well, you've come to the right man! Take a look at the latest model, the mighty Puma Light Cycle. Behold its almightly statline . . .

Statline: H2/3 Sp300 Ac20 B2 Ar4 Sig-2 An0 P0 Cf2 L60

Yes, that is a signature of negative 2. The engine is loud enough to deafen nearby children. In addition to this, it comes with headlights, and an electric-shocking Rating 6 Security system. Its powerful Gasoline Engine has 6 cylinders and will get you 16 kilometers per liter, allowing you to travel a wicked 240 kilometers on a full tank. It even has a spacious carrying case for carrying your stuff. The cost? Nothing in life is free, my friend - this beast comes with a MRP of about 57,000 n¥. But if you want the best in your motorcycles, don't hesitate.

On my motorcycles, I like the raw stats. Other stuff doesn't work too well on them because of their tiny CF. You could make a tricked-out chopper, though. I'm working on it.

I go for NOS,Turbocharhing and high speed. And when you are a shadowrunners, especially a decker you don't have cash problems. The money are a always a few creative runs away. Look in my The Most Evil Weapons And Vehicles? post for what I mean. Ideal engine is Gasoline and custom order. I don't care about armor because a bike cann't carry a lot anyway (minimum armor for my tastes 4).

I'd choose the bike bsed on looks, myself. Unfortunately, I've never seen a picture of the Rapier, though I think it might be the one in R3. If that's it, I'm impressed.

Although even one point of armour cuts out the "nuisance" weapons, and a light motorcycle can certainly stand that much.

I think the highest I ever tweaked a motorcycle to - not a light one like these, but a security model - came close to 500 km/hr. But would I ever, ever ride it at anything even coming close to half that speed? The darn thing would be trying to get airborne! (Yes, I know vehicles are designed to plough their noses to the ground instead for precisely that reason ... but I like the image - and it is faster than most single and twin-engine propeller-driven airplanes.)

I'm surprised no one's yet mentioned the range / fuel economy question. Perhaps - unless you specialise in smuggling - shadowrunners need highly populated (and thus resource-accessible) areas to thrive?

Just how common are Auroras v. Rapiers anyway? Is there anything in canon or otherwise to give an indication?

I prefer trucks but if you're on a bike- unexposed and under modified, go for speed.

Other: The Dodge Scoot!

Nobody suspects the dodge scoot to be a getaway vehicle, the cops'll just speed right past you.

Yamaha rapier with NO2, Turbocharge [2], Chameleon paint, Morphing License plate, and biometric safety (modded for anti-theft, house ruled) provides my decker with a sweet ride.

if its a bike then iwould go for a hoglike the scorpion. if not then a westwind 2k is perfect as i have a feel that with morphing licence and chameleon paint it would be the hardest car for the cops to find, ever!

I don't know about a scooter. watch the right shows and you know a woman on a Vesper with a guitar can do all sorts of damage.

FLCL, cartoon network at 11:00 CMT. well used to be, it's only 6 episodes long and they took it off after running it twice. one cracked-ass show but hilarious, can't wait for em to release it on video. waaaaaayyy too many drugs

Honda Viking. "heavy" is relative.

motorcycles make great drones.

removing the passanger, you should (in theory, ask your GM) get another 80kg of weight, and 4-5cf of space. that's enough for a small/mini turret. (can't remember havent done it in a while)

mount a grenade launcher, or maybe an assault rifle or two.

uh-no. Unless it's forward firing the recoil is gonig to knock a bike on it's side. It's only got 2 wheels. unlike a car it will topple over if it comes to a full stop without someother support and a turret rotating and firing sideways is going to blast it sideways.
Remember a rider's wieght is distrubuted down the sides of a bike as your legs hang down, a turret would put all the weight on the top and further throw off the balance. Since we're talking light bikes here, they already tend to be top heavy and don't need the help!

Not to mention that the addition of all the equipment (Gyro stabilization, r/c gear, rigger adapt, sensor package) really decreases the performance of said motorcycle nullifying any advantage gained by using a bike chassis. Of note, most motorcycles don't have reverse gear, and if they do, handle poorly in with it. (mostly limited to backing out of a parking space.) This would severly limit the utility of such a vehicle. Motorcycle drones would really be limited to use maybe as highway interceptors.

Because of the performance decreases, motorcycles are one of the few vehicles that it is not an advantage to rig. A rider with hopped up reflexes and a good bike skill will beat a rigged bike every time.

As for me, I have to stick with the Suzuki, a little bit of brand loyalty on my part. As for how common an Aurora would be, just check out how many Gixxers there are on the road. The latest GSX-R1000 is pretty close to the Aurora performance wise.

Light bikes do not have reverses gears.l It adds a more complicated transmission to a machine that is just easier to push back with foot pressure.
The only bikes I've seen with reverse are the really BIG fraggers like honda's Goldwing that is generally too damn big to back up mannually.

Like you'd be caught dead on one of those. Don't you refer to those as "grandparents' bikes" dear?

They are grandparent's bikes. They come complete with permanent left turn signal...

My shaman has a skateboard, does that count?

Sunday.

Oh, that gives me an idea

(Also - remember the marketing for the Aurora? Judging by these results, the Rapier seems far from outdated!)

Not really a speed freak, so I'll take a small off-roader, like the white-eagle or something. Increase the cargo space, run-flat tyres etc. Cheaper and less likely to be stolen, probably more common too, so less conspicuous.

But handles less well on city streets and actually stands out more in urban settings.

We term these "racing" motorcycles - and yet their top speed potential is roughly half that of the true choppers ...?

How is their top speed potential roughly half that of choppers? From what I can see it's about the same, give or take a little. Certainly not half anyway. I'm willing to be convinced by solid figures though!

Top speed for the Aurora (fastest of the light bikes) was what, 210? with top speed for the Blitzen and Electroglide 285? All souping of engines is usually proportional to original base speed; loss of increments of speed will also tend to be higher proportionately for something slower to begin with. So "half" was a bit exaggerated ... and yet the heavier bikes do seem to be distinctly faster than the so-called "racing" bike - say on (non-tweaked) average by 50%?

However, I don't have Riggers 3 yet (wish list and hinting). Could be changes I don't know about yet.

In R3R the Electroglide (fastes listed Chopper) has a speed of 225, and the Aurora's is 210, so any mods would have similar effects there I guess.

However I've just noticed that the Aurora only has CF 1, which isn't enough to take any Nitros as a customisation. So that makes a pretty damn big difference I guess. Which, in turn, is pretty stupid since you'd expect a Racing bike to be much faster. Unless you can get Increased Cargo Space as a design option in your Racing bike, which I guess most people can't.