1990's Ten Best Motorcycles

1990'S TEN BEST MOTORCYCLES

Horsepower, handling and style times 10

SERIOUS BUSINESS, THIS TEN BEST IT IS THE POINT IN THIS MAGAZINE’S YEARLY schedule where Cycle Worlds editors all stop whatever they're doing, come together in the conference room and, using a list containing every motorcycle we've ridden during the past 12 months, determine the best motorcycles of t-he year.

Because as orderly thinkers we prefer nice, round numbers, we work with 10 categories, and these may or may not be modified from year to year, as the need arises. This year, for instance, there is no Cruiser category, as the interest in these bikes seems rather less intense than it is for other styles of motorcycles. Instead, because of what appears to be a renewed interest in standard motorcycles on the part of potential purchasers, and because of the response of manufacturers to that interest, there’s now a Standard category.

Winners in each category are determined by open ballot; what’s voted on are candidates that have been culled from each editor’s list. Oh yes, by Ten Best time each year, every editor has his own private lineup of 10 favorite motorcycles, and each of us is perfectly convinced that his is the True and Correct List. And each of us is additionally convinced that the lists of his fellow workers are wrong.

So when it’s time to vote, tne Ten Best meeting turns spirited, with snapping and snarling, table-pounding and accusations, and howls of protest from those whose favorite two-wheeled ox has just been gored. Impassioned attempts at logic and sweet reason follow, and, finally, there’s the call to vote.

As it has for the past 15 years, this spectacle yields a cross section of equipment which has, through countless miles of testing, shown itself truly to be the best of the best. And that is, of course, the point of the exercise, the whole reason we’re here: to ride everything, to find out what works and what doesn’t, and why—both in terms of subjective judgments and hard, track-generated performance numbers—and then to tell you about it.

So here are this year’s Ten Best Motorcycles, the 10 most interesting, most exciting, most desirable—and sometimes, most controversial—rides of the year.

600cc STREETBIKE Kawasaki ZX-6

TAKE A LOOK AT THE ZX-6. GO FOR A RIDE ON IT. YOU JUST MIGHT COME away thinking that Kawasaki knows a thing or two about making mid-sized motorcycles that nobody else has figured out. With its sleek, stylish fairing, the ZX is certainly handsome enough to make it as a showroom star. And in some classes, that might be enough; but not when you’re talking 600s. So Kawasaki’s engineers created an overachiever of a powerplant that sets new performance standards for the class, and got together a chassis and suspension that was nearly as performance-oriented, yet capable of maintaining a high degree of comfort. In short, Kawasaki has raised the ante in the 600 sportbike class. It has come up with a bike that is, by a wide margin, the Best 600cc Streetbike of the year.

OPEN STREETBIKE Honda ST1100

EVERY SO OFTEN THERE COMES along a motorcycle that causes us to rethink and readjust our riding preferences. Honda's ST1100 is just such a machine. Certainly there are motorcycles of similar intent that predate the ST. But none of them is as refined as the Honda, and none of them offers its complete mix of comfort, handling and mile-eating performance. Additionally, no other Open-class bike this year has broken such interesting ground. In its own unorthodox way, the ST1100 puts an unexpected accent on performance-touring, an accent with a European lilt. Think of the b6ike as a blend of dedicated sportbike and full-boat touring rig. The ST1100 can be both or it can be neither; it's your call. And for being capable of that, we'll call it the Best Open-Class Streetbike.

SUPERBIKE Kawasaki ZX-11

IN SIMPLEST TERMS, A SUPERBIKE IS a motorcycle that renders you unable to utter anything after riding it but, “Wow!” Kawasaki’s ZX-11 doesn’t leave many doubts about its superbike qualifications. Ride it, you’ll definitely say, “Wow!” Then you’ll ask, “When can I ride it again?”

The ZX-11’s engine helps uphold Kawasaki’s reputation as King of Horsepower Hill by pushing the bike to 176 miles per hour, the fastest top speed ever measured by Cycle World for a production machine. But there’s more to the ZX than brute force, for mated to that engine is a chassis that delivers the sure, surgically precise handling required to make this bike one of the most exciting and satisfying rides ever to come our way. Superbike of the year? The ZX-11 might just turn out to be the Superbike of the decade.

UNDER-500cc STREETBIKE Kawasaki EX500

CHILDREN, CAN YOU SAY, “CONSISTENT?” KAWASAKI CAN, FOR THAT’S THE word that defines the performance of the EX500, Big Green’s tidy little twin-cylindered sportbike, which cops the honor as Best Under-500cc streetbike for the fourth straight year. The EX500 was a terrific bike when it was introduced in 1987, and it still is. With its rev-happy, Ninja-based engine, slick good looks, genial riding position and nimble chassis, the EX just hasn’t required much in the way of updating over the past four model years. It is able to provide vigorous performance without being intimidating, and provides it at a very reasonable price. Don’t think of this bike as “just a 500” or “only a Twin.” Think of it as one of the 10 best motorcycles of this year—and the past four years.

750cc STREETBIKE HondaVFR750F

IT MIGHT JUST BE THE SHADE OF THE BIKE’S LUSCIOUS RED PAINT. IT MIGHT be the high-tech look of its single-sided swingarm. Or perhaps it’s just that engine. Actually, it’s all those things, and more, that point us towards the Honda VFR750 as the year’s best 750cc sportbike. The VFR isn’t the fastest in its displacement category, and it won’t set the quickest lap times around the nearest racecourse. What it will do, with its balance, poise and deftness, is give its rider the best all-around motorcycle in the business. Yes, it’s more expensive than most of its competition, but it’s half the cost of an RC30 while carrying many of that bike’s most important and desirable attributes. A pretty good deal; in the 750cc class, in fact, the best of the year.

TOURING Honda GL1500 Gold Wing

IF YOU’RE IN THE MOOD FOR A TWO-WHEELED MAGIC CARPET, LOOK NO FARther than the Gold Wing, a motorcycle with predecessors that reinvented touring. Sure, there have always been touring bikes, but until the first Gold Wing Interstate rolled into the world of long-distance riding, many of them forced their riders and passengers to make compromises. Not the Gold Wing, and most especially, not the Wing in its current form. With its velvet-smooth six-cylinder engine, plush suspension and seats, terrific weather protection and massive luggage capacity, all the Gold Wing requires of its riders is the desire to go somewhere. Once you’ve toured on a bike like this, you’re spoiled, and that’s why, for the seventh straight year, the Gold Wing gets the nod as Best Touring Bike.

STANDARD Harley-Davidson FXRS-SP

FOR AN ALL-AROUND FUN RIDE, IT'S TOUGH TO BEAT A STANDARD MOTORcycle, and when the subject is standards, it's tough-no, make that impossible-to beat the 1990 Harley-Davidson FXRS-SP.

A Harley as a standard? Trust us an this: We rode the big Harley in company with nine other standards, and we're sure. The FXRS-SP is the pick of the litter, even in the face of such stirring competition as Suzuki's new VX800, Honda's Hawk GT. BMW's K75 and Kawasaki's new Zephyr 550.

Unadorned by some of the more radical styling affectations seen on other Harley-Davidsons, the FXRS-SP uses its simplicity to go about the business of delivering a thumping good time every time it is ridden. And if in the bargain it’s got that familiar ca-chunking exhaust cadence and a solid-as-a-Sequoia feel, well, that’s just icing on the cake.

ENDURO KTM300 E/XC

TAKE AN EXTREMELY LIGHT, rigid frame, add high-quality suspension at both ends, then mix in an engine that provides power delivery over a rev range as wide as Nebraska, and what you’ve got is the KTM 300E/XC. Based on the company’s all-new-for’90 250 MXer, the E/XC is a sure bet to give the Open-class bikes a run for their money anywhere it’s entered, but most especially on the tight trails of the eastern U.S. Its super-smooth engine allows the bike to be ridden at low speeds like a trials bike; but whack the throttle open, and the E/ XC leaps for daylight just like a proper motocross mount. With its crisp steering, fine balance and narrow chassis, the 300E/XC is going to be hard to beat. And in the race for Best Enduro Bike title, it couldn’t be.

DUAL-PURPOSE Suzuki DR650S

IN CHOOSING THE SUZUKI DR650S for inclusion in Ten Best list, the Cycle World staff makes clear its preference in dual-purpose bikes, rejecting, at least for the purpose of these awards, thinly disguised streetbikes clad with almost-knob-bies, as well as underpowered dirtbikes that are simply street-legal. What we want is the best of both worlds. Yes, we might be inviting compromise, but that’s what dualpurpose bikes are about in the first place. At least the Suzuki DR650S makes its compromises with a certain rugged elan, and if it isn’t particularly at home on tight, narrow trails, it is an absolute blast on fire roads, while providing a large helping of street usability.

Dual-purpose bikes do come in other flavors, but the big Suzuki is the one that makes our mouths water.

MOTOCROSS Honda CR250R

WHEN IT COMES TO MOTOCROSS, EVERY RACE IS A WAR, AND FOR THIS year, the best weapon the 250-class racer can have in his arsenal is the Honda CR. First, there's that engine. Honda's engineers have endowed it with smoothness and flexibility, and with nearly as much horsepower as Open-class bikes made just a few years ago. They've given it a solid chassis that offers a good balance between corner-to-corner quickness and straight-line stability; a positive-and light-shifting transmission; and controls that just feel right.

So, is that enough to give this bike the title of Best Motocrosser, Any Displacement? We’re convinced it is. Until someone figures out how to make Open bikes this agile or 125s this powerful, the CR250R is still motocross’s top gun.

HONORABLE MENTION

Honda RC30

Yamaha FZR400

Suzuki DR350S

, turning lead into might be easier to achieve than total agreement among the Cycle World staff, an issue as potenUious as the year’s Ten des. This is part of the in Best picks are chosen te, not by unanimous vote; the only time unanimity is reached in the CW offices is when someo e to go to lunch.

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We’ll take them purely in order of engine size: First, comes the Suzuki DR350S. which completely captured the imaginations of, well, some of us. The DRS is very closely based on C i i 1/ < ^ r f* AM f »*a1; /4**t*r\ bike, Ut I/ n softer suspension and a tamer engine.

The DRS was a favorite because of its light weight and nimble nature, but lost out in the final tally simply because its big brother outmuscled it. Nevertheless, the DR350S is successful enough in its maiden year to be our second-favorite dual-purpose machine.

Horsepower—pure, raw horsepower-goes a long way towards brightening our days. But the Cycle World staff includes a vocal minority which counters hallelujahs for horsepower with hurrahs for handling. And this group values Yamaha’s FZR400, with its peaky, revvy little engine and taut, secure chassis, above all other sportbike rides—especially when the going becomes narrow, steep and circuitous. This group was unable to muster the votes to knock Kawasaki’sEX500from itsTen Best position, but that doesn’t minimize the FZR400’s hard-edged, single-minded excellence.

Much the same can be said for the Honda RC30, that limited-production, race-inspired streetbike introduced in Europe two years ago and now finally available here. No apex is safe when an RC30 is on the prowl, and we’ve yet to meet a soul who hasn’t fallen under the bike’s spell. That it failed to make the Ten Best list is a reflection not of any deficiency in its design, but of its narrowness of purpose and of the all-round excellence of the VFR750, to which it is so closely related.

So, if these three don’t have the golden performance required to make the Ten Best list, they at leastget silver medals. And that ought to be good enough for any modern alchemist.