For Gotten Four

FOR GOTTEN FOUR

Honda Magna Kawasaki Concours Suzuki TL1000S Yamaha V-Max

Time travel and the theory of relativity

MARK HOYER

IF AMORTIZATION WERE ALLOWED to work freely, and we as con sumers were given the full benefit of it, a couple of the forgotten four bikes here should probably cost us about 8 cents apiece, out the door.

But that’s not how the world works, which isn’t to imply that I actually know

how the world works. What I do know, however, is that the two real oldsters in this group-the Yamaha V-Max and the Kawasaki Concours-made their debuts in the mid-’80s. In dog years this makes them almost 100. Even the other two are getting to be geezers in motorcycle terms, with the Honda Magna 750 around since 1993 in its current form, and Suzuki’s TL1000S with us for nearly half-a-decade.

So when it came to round up a crew for a two-day flog on The Good Road,

I’d break the news to potential throttle jockeys about our mounts and the reply was invariably, “They still make that?”

The reason for this is two-fold. First, we, like you, are a little myopic about the new stuff. Stunning 400-pound, 150-horsepower Superbikes-for-the-street like the GSXR1000, just for an instance, tend to grab the attention. But we’re not the only ones to blame. When’s the last time you saw one of these four manufacturers put the really big marketing push behind one of these bikes, or lavish it with a restyle and mechanical update? Been awhile.

Neglected as they are in this regard, they soldier on because they sell, and sell because they’re actually quite nice just how they are. And while none of them cost 8 cents, neither are they outrageously priced, with a couple of them certifiable excellent buys.

So press the starter button, my friend, and send yourself back in time...

In 2001, the definition of “sport-tourer” is much different than what it was in 1986 when the Concours hit the road for the first time. In fact, if you took this year’s Ten Best Sport-Tourer winner-Aprilia’s fabulous Futura-back in time to the mid-’80s, you’d leave the best fiill-on sportbikes of the day for dead, on the road or track. And feel a lot better at the end of the ride, too.

SUZUKI TL1000S

$9099

A Taut suspension A Fabulous brakes A Lean angle!

Downs v Taut suspension v Steering by Nautilus v Fuel-injection a liffle off v What's a "rotary damper?" v May not be in the lineup much longer

Which is one way of saying that of the four bikes here, this one presents the greatest time-capsule feel. Sealed for posterity within the engine cases is the classic Kawasaki inline-Four character. Dig the horizontally mounted carbs, the throaty, gruff engine note, and the unforgettable high frequency buzz of this old-style, big-bore four-banger. If you've ever spent any time on board something that actually vibrates (British vertical-Twin or Italian Triple, for exampie) this ain't no big thing. And anyway, the Concours' 997cc, Ninja 1000-derived powerpiant grunts out a satisfy ing 94 horsepower that is accompanied by a flat torque curve of abundant twist that means you neither have to rev~ this thing very high nor kick the cogs around much. Pick your gear when the road bends around a lot and ride the wave, or click it into sixth on the highway and warp along at 80 mph in serenity and comfort.

KAWASAKI CONCOURS

&8199

Ups A Long range A Big fairing A Big luggage A Comfy seat

Downs v Uninitiated mispronounce name as "canker" v Helmet buffeting for taller riders v Damping? What damping? v Engine buzz

But it's a ride not completely devoid of excitement, how ever. Certainly, riding straight up and down on the inter state is glide-along plush-just sit there on the cushy seat in the comfortable riding position behind the `b1ue door" fairing (so named on our ride for its near-vertical fairing "face"), and burning your way through the 7.5 freakin' gallon fuel tank (250-plus miles easy) is totally mental battle, because your body will have nothing to complain about.

Take it to the B roads, however, and things get a little ungrooved. In fact, one tester remarked that he thought the new Gold Wing was more of a sport-tourer than the Concours! Well, this is an old design, and the suspension in particular shows its age. The fork, for instance, is positively flaccid. This was actually kind of amusing, especially if you'd just gotten off the TL1000 with its comparatively giant, very-well-damped, fully adjustable cartridge fork.

Grab a handful of the decent front brake for the upcoming corner, and it's "going down!" Release the brakes and dial on the throttle for the exit and not only does the fork hyper re-extend itself, so does the rear end from shaft-drive torque effect! Yeehaw! While you might expect this to be very upsetting and antithetical to riding quickly through sporty going, everything works out okay, due to a couple of miti gating factors. The monkey motion is held in check by a good amount of wheelbase working in hand with some sta bilifying rake and trail figures (28.5 degrees/4.8 inches). Plus, it's got a big ol' 18-inch wheel at the front. The way it works out in the end is that not only can you get along fine with the squishy suspension, you even get to like it, and rolling it right down onto the footpegs cor ner after corner is completely cool-with you and the bike. It's made even better by the fact that you're still sitting corn fortably all the while, with your stuff tucked safely away in the easy-touse detachable hard luggage. And isn't that what sport-touring is all about?

As suggested by the fork cornparison, the bike most unlike the Concours is the Suzuki TL1000S. No surprise, really, since it's the newest of the old. Came out way back in `97, and it's pretty hard to believe it's actually been around for five years now. To expose myself as I type (not really...), the TL is the only bike in this group that I'd actually been in the business long enough to have had a free ride on—everything else predates my entry into “professional” riding.

HONDA MAGNA 750

$7499

A Middleweight cruiser with actual horsepower! A Easyto ride A V-Four character A Two V-Twins for the price of one

Downs v Call yourself Mr. Spinnaker on the highway V Not a V-Max v Vague front-end feel

As we milled around the parking lot prior to launch just after lunch, I could sense the mental wheels turning among the other testers, each one trying to calculate how the bike rotation could be manipulated so that on the best twisty roads he could be the one on the TL.

Weird how things turned out. While nobody was too stoked to take the sport-Twin plunge on the freeway, after some miles on roads with turns, nobody was too stoked there, either. This says more about the relative comfort and ease of riding the other bikes in the group than the TL, though. The riding position is pretty aggressive, with low bars, a high seat and footpegs to match—so it really stuck out as uncomfortable in this group, although in sportbike terms it's about average. And while the engine had a lot of snap, the EFI was very sensitive and seemed a little unsure at steady throttle.

What this means in street riding is that if you get aggressive and move your body around, you'll have a good time without ever coming close to the limits of this very capable and swift sportbike. It was particularly excel lent in flowing and fast sweeping roads, where its stability allowed it to shine. In the tight stuff, though, riding swiftly is sort of like a wrestling match with the bike. Blame in large part the steering damper, tacked on after a big hubbub in Europe over headshake com plaints that we in the U.S. never seemed to encounter. So do yourself a favor and either remove the steering damper or replace it with an adjustable unit that can be dialed back some. The stock unit literally puts a major damper on things, and more than anything, made riding the TL as high-effort as it was. Essentially, this is a ripping sportbike that needs to be ridden as such. Which really makes it seem redundant in the Suzuki lineup considering the fact that the TL 1 OOOR-the “race” version of the big 996cc fuel-injected Twin-sits alongside the S in the showroom. Sort of made us wish for a mellower version, perhaps an SV1000, especially when ridden in this comfortable, mellow crowd.

So while everybody else on the ride was making sparks dragging parts and grinning stupidly on our fun roads, the guy on the TL invariably had a narrow-eyed scowl and a demeanor that suggested he was looking for a fight. And while he may have arrived at most places first, there was sonic dcbat as to whether Or not he ias the winner.

YAMAHA V-MAX

$10,899

Ups A Still crazy after all these years A Planted front end A Look, decent lean angle from a cruiser! A Sounds and runs like a top fueler

Downs v Stupid grin on your face v Scoops still fake v Tach and speedo need to swap spots v You put the fuel where?

Our cover bhirb 1nj994 whLn we frist testd thc Fh)ntt~l

Magna 750 was ower Cruiser. And here we are sornc)O )fears 011 with power cruisers all the rag~ It was a good idea then, and it~s a good idea now, the Magna clearly iI1ustra~ing mis. [)espite having the smallest displacement in the group by a good margin, the 749cc V-Four is really lively, cranking out 80 horses and nearly 50 loot-pounds oltorque. The engine note, too, was excellent, although not quite as meaningfully deep and tbinhhinu i~ Mi Max `~-~ort of V M ix LItL

But while this is a po\~er cruisci, and the chassis is reasonably well planted, it is the :~`~ most boulevard-compromised of the group in handling terms. Still, with decent cornering clearance and snappy engine response, kicking back leav ing trails of liquid hot magma from scraping footpegs was a nice dose of harmless fun. When we conquered our first mountain of the ride, we parked it at the summit for a break. Canet offered that he thought the Magna would be a really good bike for a beginning or intermediate rider

owing to how effortlessly and smoothly it operated. We all agreed. The steering is light, the clutch smooth, braking predictable and strong without being overly sensitive, and suspension more than adequate for the bike's intended role. About the only complaint we could muster was that when we were pushing things, the front end had a vague feel.

Otherwise, the Magna stood up to our two-day flog fine, save for the fact that we dragged off the chrome footpeg ends! In the end, though, it's a bike you could imagine as a "transition" machine, because a sportbike rider looking for something a little more mellow could be perfectly happy on a Magna~wh11c~hTIore trathtlQnal cru~ser~.iyei Iooking for sc~nie rno~e zap W0UJ4 feet r~ht at home, tQo,

; A cruiser with performance^ Who would have -thought sonrethinglike that would ever have caught on. Of course, all you have to do is look a few years deeper into motorcycling history to the Yamaha V-Max to lind that a cruiser with real performance was a cool idea. Although right from the start we found that our testbike's 1198cc V-fc'our was completely lacking power. Out of gas! f ven a click on the handlebar-mounted Reserve switclfhad no effect, so dry was the tank. As a result, the Road Test Editor still carrying in his left teg the impressive amount of Spanish plumbing hardware ’he picked up:after a crash at El Circuito de Jerez ended up pushing the, V-Max to the gas station. It was the last time the VFMax, or Canet for that matter, was anyw here near the back of the pack.

Still, jn a world that contains off-thc-showToom-floor «

160-bhp Hayabusas, the Vaiuaha.^*fd 4 horsepower doesn’t ' „ seem as shattering as it onee did-

And yet. it hasn’t lost its flavor. Credit the delivery, and the rumbling, mean1 sound that goes w ith the production of its horsepower. This was my first ride on the Max. and having pored oyer the original Of test way back in May, 1985, as 1 contemplated my first new-bike purchase at the time, my expectations were set pretty high by our praise-rich test of the bike.

Just putting around, bottom-end power, while abundant, didn’t suggest anything earth-rippling was really going to happen. So as the revs climbed, I thought, “This thing ain’t so fa ...holy Hello V-Boost! Right about 6500

rpm, solid bottom-end power changes to a super-strong midrange burst that hurtles the tach needle toward its 9500rpm redline as the bike leaps forward with equal urgency. Yeah, baby! If s an addictive rush of power that we just couldn’t get enough of. If you never found a comer while riding the V-Max, it just wouldn’t matter.

But the tmly surprising thing about the V-Max was its agility. While of course not as capable as the TL-S in terms of outright handling, the V-Max was nonetheless impressive. It felt surprisingly small and short (though it's neither), and the iront end wasTeally planted. The implication of calling something “cruiser” is that lean angle will be severely limited. This bike deserves a title more along the lines of “muscle standard7’ than “power cruiser."

It was sort of like riding a. bull dog with chrome ears and four aluminum testicles. Attacking the serpentine S22 that heads into Borrego Springs, the V-Max seems to pig-dog its way along the tarmac like if s just never going to" let go. Y oo cool. As w e bobbed around in the, pool for a post-ride sw im, praise w'as heaped upon Mr. Max for how enduring its personality has been. It did not .lee bold in the least, and expressed a wonderful, soulful character that is a real rarity.

1 here were a couple of complaints, though none of them big. First, if somebody doesn't-tell you w here the gas goes on this thing, you'll end up pushing the bike like Canet did. The tiller is hidden behind this kooky Hip-forward piece of the scat that is released by two hidden levers that must be activated in unison. So if you have to stop for gas whilst ditching the cops, forget it, you're going to jail. Also, an open-road bike this is not, as windblast, like on the Magna, makes freeway riding a long-term pull-up kind df affair. Of course, you already knew you wouldn’t be ripping along for more than, oh. a quarter-mile or so from your house anyway, right? Which is cool because the 100 miles on a tank of gas we got when really flogging this thing cracked us up. That’s about it for negatives, though. Otherwise, you’ve got decent suspension, ripping engine response and a nice degree of cornering clearance. Plus an awesome, staccato V-Eight-like rumble that complements perfectly all the fury. A true classic available brand-new on the showroom floor.

At the end of our two-day ride, we couldn’t wipe the silly grins off our faces. Even with three certified motorcycle-market ancients here and the fourth well on its way to geezerdom, we simply had a good time riding bikes-which is the point of the whole exercise, after all. Each survives in its niche for different reasons, but all deserve the lifespan they have enjoyed. The Forgotten Four are forgotten no more.