some rat bikes are street fighters, not all street fighters are rat bikes.
Well, the terms streefighter, ratbike, and naked bike are usually tossed around, and to some people, are even interchangeable. However, if you ask me, they have their differences.
A ratbike is a street bike on which a lot of the parts are not stock, jury rigged, from a totally different bike, or homemade. They may or may not be naked.
A naked bike is one without lower fairings. A lot of naked bikes nowadays have a windscreen over the gauge cluster and upper fairings, but are still considered naked bikes.
A streetfighter is a modified supersport. They are usually naked, with dirt bike bars, bar-end mirrors, chopped or raised tail, and a fork-mounted aftermarket headlight. They are usually not ratted out.
Of course, these categories overlap. However, they have their distinctions.
personally, i like a bike that's stripped down and mean, but runs well and is user friendly. something that can get knocked over while parked and come back up looking no worse for wear. that means no polished frames, custom fabbed fiberglass up tails, etc. but i can still appreciate those things and i know those are still streefighters, just of a different ilk.
That's why I love my bike. It still runs great, but isn't a liability if I park it at the curb and have some driver knock it over - no expensive plastics to break. Hell, I think it runs
better now that I took off the ~15 pounds worth of fairing and bodywork.
...I'm not a Duc fan either.
