Ten Best Bikes 2003
BEST STANDARD
Suzuki SV650
THE SUZUKI SV650 IS NOT A beginner’s bike. Well, actually, it is. But expert riders can also take great pleasure in its many and wide-ranging virtues. And how! On a twisty backroad, the unfaired, tubular-handlebar-equipped SV will make short work of all but the best riders on the finest sport-oriented hardware. This year, a complete makeover has endowed the newly fuel-injected V-Twin with enhanced performance and a crisp, fresh look-fresher yet on the half-faired SV650S. Yet the sporty upright still costs a lot less than many other middleweights, including Suzuki’s own Supersport championship GSX-R600 and long-running Katana 600. An Honorable Mention in past vote-getting, the smallest SV has now become one of the Ten Best elite.
BEST TOURING BIKE
Honda GL1800 Gold Wing
IT’S GETTING TO THE POINT THAT THE BEST TOURING BIKE category should have its trophy retired in perpetuity with the name of one machine etched thereupon: Honda Gold Wing. From the first time our cheeks hit the seat on OKs big “Lap of America” tour following the GL’s 2001 press introduction, and every time we’ve hit the road since, nothing but nothing Hoovers up highway like this big luxo-liner. Comfortable seating, large luggage, a monster of a civilized six-banger and an accessory catalog so thick it shames J.C. Whitney and the Sharper Image, most other manufacturers just run and hide rather than try to topple the king. Twentyeight years, 15 wins: Luxury touring has a name, and it is the Honda Gold Wing.
BEST MIDDLEWEIGHT STREETBIKE
Yamaha YZF-R6
WHILE LAST YEAR SAW LITTLE CHANGE IN THE MIDDLEweight Streetbike category, 2003 has produced a bumper crop of 600cc sportbikes. With its new CBR600RR, Honda looked set to extend the two-year win streak it’s enjoyed in this Ten Best category, unless one of Kawasaki’s pair of new ZX-6s could unseat it. So it came as a bit of a surprise when Yamaha’s not new but revised YZF-R6 came out on top of our recent six-bike comparison test. Not only was the R6 quicker than the others around the California Speedway road course (a result vindicated by Jamie Hacking’s victory there in the AMA Supersport National), it also proved to be more civil in a civic setting. Considering the name of this class, that’s an important consideration-actually, the most important.
BEST SUPERBIKE
Suzuki GSX-R1000
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK AS THOUGH A PERMANENT PARKING SPACE LABELED “SUZUKI GSX-R 1000S ONLY” MAY BE WARranted for this category. In its three-year existence, no bike has come close to challenging the mighty Gixxer’s blend of power, speed and handling prowess. A host of refinements have made the 2003 edition all the more capable in every area, while its performance is now more accessible than ever before. Hey, if you must wear a bull’s-eye on your back, you might as well make it a moving target! With recent rule changes now allowing lOOOcc Fours to compete in Superbike racing, safe to say the balance of power will soon be challenged, but for 2003 the scale weighs heavily in the Suzuki’s favor.
BEST OPEN-CLASS STREETBIKE
Aprilia Tuono
IT TOOK ABOUT 60 feet and 6000 rpm to get the idea that the tubular-handlebarred Aprilia Tuono R was a different kind of animal. Yes, in about 2.9 seconds, umpteen traffic regulations were not only broken, but shattered into tiny bits. The only fly in the fabulous ointment was the $17K-plus price tag. Enter the regular Tuono, minus a few of the more expensive bits (bye-bye Öhlins
suspension) but with all the fun and then some, based simply upon on its $5000 more affordable price. Commute, throw your own stunt show or own the local backroads, the winner of this class has never been more open to fun. After being on anything else, riding a Tuono is like getting out of jail. Good luck staying out!
TEN BEST BIKES 2003
It's been a very, very good year
IT’S A GOOD TIME TO be in the market for two wheels. In fact, we’ve never had it so good. This year marks the 28th time Cycle World's editors have checked sensibilities at the conference room door and gathered together to hash out the Ten Best Bikes of the year, and as a group the machines we’re about to add to the list of 271 previous winners-there was a tie for Best Motocrosser in 1977-may be the finest yet. Hey, some years are just better than others!
But the Ten Best Bikes of 2003 are more than just the brightest stars of the model year. They’re also harbingers of change. This is the year that bike-makers from five different countries are represented, a Ten Best record and an indication of just how good everyone’s game is.
This is the year that a tiny dirtbike outfit (total production 60,000 units) made its first real streetbike and won as many Ten Best trophies as the world’s largest motorcycle company, producer of 8 million annually.
This is the year that the Best Superbike truly is but a few hours shopwork away from being a winning Superbike racer.
This is the year that the naked-bike class came of age and made good on the promise we knew all along it could keepn-real-world high performance without the agony of a speedboy racing crouch This is the year that while one legendary American motorcycle company celebrated its centenary, another, just five years old, stole all the cruiser-class thunder.
This is the year that marks a waters in the sport-touring class. It’ll now take more than just tall gearing, hard bags and an electric windscreen to stand out.
This is the year in the 600cc class that
proved a good, lightweight design thoughtfully updated can run with-and ahead of-all-new bikes packing more horsepower and a heavier advertising budget.
year that the Best Standard is anything but standard, priced so low your paperboy could probably swing the )ayments. In fact, it may be the most for folding-green ever to span a 56-inch wheelbase.
So, read on and consider yourselves lucky. What follows are the Ten Best Bikes of this or any other-year.
BEST DUAL-PURPOSE BIKE
KTM 950 Adventure
DUAL-PURPOSE BIKES HAVE LONG been lauded for their versatility, but never has a motorcycle been as versatile as the new KTM 950. Part rally racer, part dual-sport, part adventure-tourer, it’s the best multi-tasker ever to wear semi-knobbies and a whaf sover-that-next-rise attitude. A winner in more than just performance, the Adventure is noteworthy for two reasons: 1) It’s the Austrian manufacturer’s first real streetbike, and 2) it’s their first with more than a single-cylinder engine. Notice has been served. Best DualPurpose Bike winners have traditionally vacillated from one end of the street/dirt spectrum to the other, but in this case, KTM has moved the goal posts!
BEST ENDURO BIKE
KTM 450 E/XC
IT’S GETTING TO BE A BIT ORANGE around here, isn’t it? Writing the book on How To Build Enduro Bikes will keep you winning awards until someone else reads it. But despite a strong challenge from one or two blue bikes this year, the 450 E/XC keeps KTM where it seems most familiar. It took a little work, however, the lightweight Thumper-motor going from 400 to 450cc, the suspension getting a good going-over, a smoothing of the layout with new seat and tank, plus detailing the bike with even better componentry than before. We tried to kill our enduro challengers this year with a 100hour comparison test, and long past the conclusion our winning KTM is still running like clockwork.
BEST MOTOCROSSER
Honda CRF 450R
SURPRISED? DON’T BE! IF YOU’D WON A 17-bike motocross comparison, you’d be a shoo-in for a Ten Best award, too. Honda’s CRF450R did just that. It didn’t do it by being a well-rounded package or by excelling in any one area, either. It kicked ass, plain and simple! The 450cc four-stroke is the flagship of the CR line, boasting huge horsepower, great handling and awesome suspension in a light-yet-durable package. Totally rideable, too! The fact that the CRF won Best Motocrosser honors two years in a row shows that the Honda team-the engineers, test riders, product planners, right down to the guys who count the beans-know what changes to make, and how to keep from messing up a good thing.
BEST SPORT-TOURER
BMW K 1200GT
AH, THE JOY OF WARM paws and a toasty tush! Before this year’s rollout of the new BMW K1200GT, such enviable overthe-road amenities could only be found on the Bavarian bikemaker’s top-of-the-line touring rig, the $22K-plus K1200LT-E. The same could be said of the optional “Navigator” globalpositioning system, another industry first. Combining these novel creature features with a decidedly more comfortable and upright seating position, greatly improved wind protection and a neat electrically adjustable windscreen, has elevated what was previously marketed (mistakenly, in our humble opinion) as an Openclass supersport bike to sporttouring’s upper echelon. Way to go, BMW!
BEST CRUISER
Victory Vegas
FTER LAST YEAR’S EXPLOSION OF POWER-CRUISERS, NOT A LOT OF NEWS IN THE CLASS THIS YEAR. OOPS, WHAT’S THIS OUT OF Minnesota, previously a land of earnest but unstylish cruisers? To arrive at the new Vegas, Victory’s designers went back to the drawing board and, with the help of master choppermen Arlen and Cory Ness, built a production bike that looks more custom than many customs. Until now, Victory has been a fledgling start-up from a parent company better known foi its ATVs, snowmobiles and personal watercraft. The Vegas changes all that. No gamble, it’s a sure thing.
