Up Front

UP FRONT

Ten good 'uns

David Edwards

ACTOR CARY GRANT, SMOOTH AND suave as he was, never won an Academy Award. Slugger Ted Williams, baseball’s best batman, never played for a World Series-winning team. O.J. Simpson, holder of numerous NFL rushing records, retired without a Super Bowl ring. The lesson to be drawn here is that sometimes even the best in their fields don’t get the recognition they deserve.

So it is with motorcycles.

In this issue, you'll find the winners in Cycle Worlds Ten Best Bikes of the Year awards. Deserving motorcycles, one and all, yet they don’t tell the whole story of motorcycling in

1989. What follows, then, is an attempt to fill in the cracks, a chance for 10 more bikes to share some limelight. In no particular order, they are:

Best Bike Not Sold Here Honda CBR1000

In the year of the superbike, a year of the Yamaha FZR1000, Suzuki GSX-R 1100 and Kawasaki ZX-10, Honda had . . . nothing. At least not in America, land of the free, home of the frivolous lawsuit, where a conservative corporate attitude deemed that a big-bore sportbike might not be the wisest thing to have in the model lineup. Overseas, though, there was the ultra-refined CBR1000, a Mercedes-Benz of a motorbike. “America, you need this bike,” we said after sampling the CBR in England. I hope Honda took notice.

Best Exotic Bike Honda RC30

It’s cramped. It’s hot. It’s wonderful. Honda’s limited-edition RC30, like the CBR1000, isn’t sold in the U.S. in 1989, though there’s hope for

1990. Honda desperately needs a basis for a Superbike racer as well as a bulging bicep to do away with its limp-wristed performance image, and the 750cc, V-Four RC30 is just the ticket. A friend of mine paid $15,000 for one smuggled in from Canada. He let me ride it for a weekend. He got his money’s worth.

Best All-Around Bike Harley-Davidson Convertible

This bike set a record in 1989’s Ten Best balloting, being nominated in three different categories: Best Open Streetbike, Best Tourer and Best Cruiser. In each instance, there were other bikes that got more votes, but none that were more versatile than the Harley. If we had a Bike of the Year award, the Convertible would be a contender.

Best Controversial Bike Honda Pacific Coast

Love it or hate it; nobody straddles the fence when it comes to the Pacific Coast. And while I can understand those critics who scoff and call it The Ultimate Scooter, I think there’s a place for a distinctively styled bike with integral storage, room enough to accommodate two in comfort and the intended goal of introducing the sport of motorcycling to people who hadn’t been interested before.

Best Handling Bike Yamaha FZR400

You think you've finally got that pesky series of tight corners figured out? The 1000 was just too unwieldy; ditto the 750. But your new 600 zigzags from apex to apex quicker than anything this side of a 250 GP racer. Well, think again, because an FZR400 will make that 600 feel like a Rambler running on second-hand shocks. If you’ve got a corner that needs rubbing out, give the contract to the FZR400, the cleanest trigger in the business.

Best Race Bike John Kocinski’s Yamaha TZ250

How to make a million dollars in motorcycling: Buy a fleet of TZ250s, build a race course and then charge a per-lap fee to ride the bikes. Sort of like a Malibu Grand Prix for motorcyclists. I spent an afternoon getting up to speed on Kocinski’s TZ250, having such a giddy time that I almost wet my leathers in the process. Nearly a year later, the thrill lingers.

Best Aftermarket Bike Vance & Hines Suzuki GS500

The GS500 is a dandy bike in its own right: relatively inexpensive, lightweight and easy to ride. But a GS500 outfitted by the folks at Vance & Hines with uprated chassis components, stronger engine and deeper-throated exhaust system shows just how good, just how enjoyable, an air-cooled, 500cc Twin—a type of motorcycle thought by many to be obsolete—can be if done right.

Best Blatant Bike Kawasaki ZX-7

As subtle as Dolly Parton in a string bikini, the ZX-7 is a study in two-wheeled conspicuity, a greenblue-and-white standout in a sea of black-on-gray and red-white-andblue sportbike color schemes. I think the airway antennae snorkeling into the fuel tank are a little over the top, but if you’re looking for a bike that'll get you noticed and provide the performance to back up its appearance, the ZX-7 is it.

Best Innovative Bike BMW K100RS Special

Before riding this, the first bike to come with anti-lock braking as standard equipment, I used to think that ABS was a good idea for the masses, but not something that expert riders should be saddled with. After all, I’d spent years perfecting my braking technique, why should I turn over the binders to some unfeeling computer chip at such a decisive moment? That was before I played tag with a wellridden GSX-R 1 100 on a tight, downhill section of mountain blacktop. Now, I'm a believer.

Best British Bike Honda GB500

No, it doesn’t come from the Land of Tea Bags and Yorkshire Pudding, and purists will surely toss their crumpets, but the made-in-Japan GB500 is everything the best English bikes were (simple, agile and goodlooking) while possessing qualities that somehow eluded the Brits (reliability, oil-tightness and electricstarting). Now, if only the GB weren’t as overpriced as airport food, Honda might be on to something.