Ten Rest, 2007
Ten Rest, 2007
UP FRONT
David Edwards
WITH SOMETHING LIKE 500 MODELS TO winnow down, forgive us if in our rush to choose the year’s Ten Best Bikes, a few got lost between the cracks in the categories. What follows is an attempt to address that editorial oversight, sometimes with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Best Reason to Marry Rich: MV Agusta F4CC
Where’s Paris Hilton when need her? Cooling her shapely heels in the slammer, poor
thing, doin’ hard time, when she should be wooing me with suitably expens’ boy’s toys. You’ve heard of K-Fed?
Meet D-Ed, and my undivided affections can be had for one of these $120,000, limited-edition, carbon-fiber-clad missiles, supposedly good for 200 horsepower and 200 mph. Now, that’s hot.
Best Return to Form:
Harley-Davidson Nightster
Back in 1969, a Harley Sportster was the meanest mo’scooter prowling the streets. Stoplight-to-stoplight, you lined against one at your own peril. Then began a long decline where the Sporty's street cred was eventually supplanted by loss-leader-or worse, beginner-bike-status. The Nightster, all hunkered down, with the shine sucked right out of its paint, is still no threat to blow off ’Busas, but it most assuredly ain’t your sister’s Sportster, either. Coolest bike of 2007.
Best Surprise Sport-Tourer: Moto Guzzi Norge
Aprilia’s Futura RST was damn good, but went the way of the dime phone call, leaving the Ducati ST3 as Italy’s only dedicated sport-tourer. So up steps Moto Guzzi with the Norge, successfully wrapping that old sideways V-Twin with zoomy long-distance bodywork. Call it charisma with locking luggage.
Best Forbidden Fruit: Kawasaki Versys
Darn foreigners get all the good stuff, right? That was the original theme of this issue’s riding impression of the Versys 650, a bike we borrowed from our friends/amis at Kawasaki Canada. But just as we were
lamenting the unavailability of this highly competent all-rounder came news that the Versys is indeed on its way to the US of A for 2008. Well, that’s more like it.
Best Cruiser That Howard Hughes Would Love: Star Roadliner
If you’re going to go retro, go all the way-which is what Yamaha’s design team apparently had in mind with the Star Roadliner. Taking cues from the art-deco style that pervaded most forms of design in the 1930s, the sleek Roadliner captures the spirit of a fondly remembered time long past and mates it with a powerful, handsome big-inch VTwin engine that delivers thoroughly modern performance.
Best Backroad Big-Rig: BMW K1200LT
Anyone who thinks you can’t play-race through the twisties on a full-dress touring bike hasn’t ever tried it on a K1200LT. With an excellent chassis, oodles of cornering clearance and a motor that’s surprisingly stout despite being “only” a 1200, the big Beemer makes absolute mincemeat of backroads. And what happens when you hit the open highway? This backroad bomber immediately transforms into a luxurious long-range roadeater.
Best Motorcycle That Really Isn’t: Piaggio MP3
No, this MP3 isn’t a digital music file. And neither is it a motorcycletechnically speaking. It’s a three-wheeler that leans like a two-wheeler. This unique vehicle from Piaggio is fundamentally a scooter with two front wheels that articulate in a way that allows the machine to lean into turns. That way, you get the same basic kinesthetic experience as delivered by a motorcycle on a machine that won’t tip over when you walk away from it. Oh, those zany Italians...
Best Bike in Need of FuelInjection Disinfection:
Yamaha YZF-R1
Yamaha’s latest-gen YZFR1 came soooo close to sweeping the board this year. As you can read in this issue’s MasterBike megacomparo, though, it was derailed by its own software, which caused problems with the advanced computer-controlled throttle system. News is that a patch is on the way. Good. Here’s hoping the R1 is only a simple upload away from greatness.
Best Politically Incorrect Motorcycle: Confederate F131 Hellcat
With its muscular, big-inch V-Twin motor and truly original design, the Hellcat is an intriguing piece of eccentricity—which, by the way, also aptly describes the company’s founder and president, Matt “The South Shall Rise Again” Chambers.
Best Lost-in-the-Shuffle Motorcycle: Suzuki 650 V-Strom
Since the SV650’s introduction in 1999, everyone from novice to expert has heaped tons of praise on this remarkably versatile standard (as well as the sportier SV650S that came along two years later). But quietly operating outside the spotlight shining on those two stars is the DL650 V-Strom, a model perhaps even more multi-talented than its like-size siblings. It’s called an adventure-touring middleweight but it’s really a do-practically-anything, go-practically-anywhere machine that-like Goldilocks said-is not too big, not too small, but just right.
