Long-Term Update

Long-Term Update

Honda CBR1000RR Ups and downs

AFTER INTRODUCING THE CBR1000RR to our long-term fleet last December, we fitted the big Honda with a 25mm fork cartridge kit ($1760) and a TTX36 shock ($1399), both from Öhlins (www.ohlinsusa.com). We then headed to Utah's Miller Motorsports Park, mounted DOT-approved Pirelli Diablo Supercorsas ($728; www.us.pirellimoto.com) and lapped five seconds faster than we had during our "Turn & Burn" Open-class comparison (July, 2008). Impressive but costly.

Since then, we’ve also taken part in Hypercycle track days at Willow Springs, lapped with The Track Club at Laguna Seca and participated in a “Let’s Ride” track day at Buttonwillow. We used Dunlop D211GPAs ($419; www.dunlopmotorcycle.com) for all three events.

A Hotbodies Racing Undertail ($220; www.hotbodiesracing.com) nicely matched the stock paint and relocated (illegally?) the license plate on the back of the battery box. We also fitted Hotbodies’ Rear Tire Hugger ($180).

A slip in a muddy front yard broke the “ear” on the upper fairing ($265) and part of the rearview mirror/front turnsignal ($86). Labor for installation of those parts, on top of the scheduled 4000-mile service, set us back nearly $700 at Champion Motorcycles in Costa Mesa, California. Ouch!

$11,595

BMW F800GS Do-it-all (almost) Beemer

OUR MID-SIZED GS HAS QUICKLY become one of the most popu lar bikes around the CW offic es. Just about everyone on staff has logged seat time on this versatile paral lel-Twin and come away impressed. As such, the miles are adding up quickly, with Irv Seaver BMW in Orange, Cali fornia, performing the 600-mile ser vice ($145) at 1354 miles. Oops! Seav er also replaced a faulty battery.

We later put the F-GS to work on an 800-mile, on/off-road journey. Staff photographer Jeff Allen used the bike as a mule, packing the sidecases with gear and strapping a tripod across the top of them. Additionally laden with a 40-pound backpack, Allen accompanied Associate Editor Blake Conner, riding a KTM 990 Adventure R, through the high deserts of Southern California.

Despite struggling through knee-deep sand whoops, the heavily loaded GS performed well. Our biggest complaint is that the suspension isn’t up to the task of “real” off-road duty. The fork reacts harshly over rocky terrain, causing the front end to deflect. The shock, meanwhile, is too soft at anything above a casual pace. Öhlins (www.ohlinsusa.com) has offered to install a custom fork cartridge kit in hopes of eliminating the aforementioned front-end concerns; the shock will be next. The GS is currently most comfortable traversing gravel and paved roads.

$10,520

KTM SUPER DUKE Pipe-fitter

OF THE MANY AND VARIED PER formance modifications available for the KTM Super Duke, we're told the most common application is an exhaust system. No surprise: The Aus trian bike-maker's Hard Parts accessory line offers a trio of options, all made by Akrapovic. The full-titanium system will set you back $2740; a stainless steel header saves $5 10. We went with the Si 500 Ti slip-on, said to be the most popular choice among Duke owners.

Akrapovic’s beautifully crafted dualcan setup tipped CWs certified scales at 8.5 pounds, a substantial 16.3-pound weight reduction to match lean, purposeful looks. Detailed instructions, including photographs, made installation easy, although we were forced to tweak muffler alignment slightly to achieve adequate fender clearance. Our local KTM dealer uploaded a slip-on-specific fuel map ($40), which eliminated a low-rpm lull that the muffler change introduced.

Pulls on the CW dyno showed a 2horsepower gain in the upper 1500 rpm of the rev range and a similar dip-filling improvement at 5500 rpm. We repeated the test with the supplied muffler inserts removed and found no appreciable performance gain. Noise-level increases, however, were dramatic: Using a high-quality decibel meter and AMA Pro Racing’s measurement procedure revealed a 5-8-dBa bump at the designated engine speeds. Quiet wins.

$13,998