Cycle World Ten Best Bikes

CYCLE WORLD TEN BEST BIKES

Our current favorites will be tough to beat in 2014

One of the beauties of being a motorcycle enthusiast is that we get to see the genius that human beings are capable of expressing on an annual basis. It's easy to think the world is coming unhinged if you pay attention to current events, and it’s probably easy to think the same thing if you’re one of those guys who believes motorcycle development peaked with the Brough Superior. We who are fortunate enough to have the new year’s moto bounty dropped at our garage door every spring know better. Every year may not offer groundbreaking developments, but nearly all of them offer a new model or at least a new twist or two on an existing one. The cumulative effect is to restore our faith in humanity and keep us feeling like the kid who’s still wedged inside all of us on the CW staff.

BEST SUPERBIKE

BMW HP4

Now we are well and truly into the electronic age, with a motorcycle that senses the road surface and the rider’s intended aggression level in dispatching it. Dynamic Damping Control lets the HP4 be a Cadillac when you want it to be, as you roll along with toasty digits wrapped around its heated grips. With the push of a button, though, the HP4 is suddenly serious enough to match lap times with the Ducati Panigale R around Laguna Seca under guys as seriously fast as Eric Bostrom. One hundred seventy-nine horses are probably more than enough, but BMW’s second-gen traction control makes it almost impossible to be overserved. The price of $20,835 is not hay, but that’s roughly 67 percent of what you’d pay for the comparable performing but way more physically demanding Panigale R. Top competition for 2014: Ducati Superleggera

BEST OPEN-CLASS STREETBIKE

KAWASAKI ZX-14R

Well, it’ll only do 185 mph. But that’s not really Kawasaki’s fault, and it’s not really a deal-breaker for us. What do you wanna do? Be like Rickey Gadson, and you can reel off 9.5-second quarter-miles all night long. Aspire to the Iron Butt Association, and you can tear off big chunks of North America 5.8 gallons of gas at a time. Figure out how to override the governor, and join the 200-mph club. Or just perform any combination of all the things a well-rounded street motorcycle is supposed to do. There’s plenty of horsepower, but it’s the Ninja’s 113 pound-feet of torque that makes every move feel effortless. ABS, a $400 option, is new for 2014. Top competition for 2014: Suzuki Hay abusa

BEST MIDDLEWEIGHT STREETBIKE

DUCATI 848 STREETFIGHTER

A couple of new players this year, including the Yamaha FZ-09 and even a new MV Agusta Rivale, will try to unseat the Streetfighter, but you can count on this one putting up a serious scrap to make it three in a row. Its smaller 848CC (if you can call 848CC “small”) 11-degree Testastretta is a sweet motor indeed, and its shorter-geared free-revving nature means every trip to the corner store lets you experience the full sonic signature. But it’s the comfort and easy-to-ride nature we love about this bike. It’s got to be one of the most comfortable Ducatis ever, with a great-shaped seat, sit-up ergonomics, and a supple, well-damped chassis. Top competition for 2014: Yamaha FZ-09

BEST STANDARD

HONDA CB1100

One glance at this thing is all that was needed to send a large percentage of the world’s motorcycle population into an orgasmic state of nostalgia. It’s not supposed to be a copy of any particular CB, but an amalgamation of a bunch of 20th-century Honda motifs carefully designed to draw in as many boomers as possible. It’s certainly not the fastest, flashiest, or best-handling Honda you can get for $10,399, but then it’s not supposed to be. Although the intent of the original CB750 was to kick ass, this CB’s mission is more to cosset it, to honor the past while providing a bulletproof, fuel-injected ride down memory lane. Seems like Honda’s little plan worked. Whatever it signifies, the CB’s an awesome motorcycle to just ride anywhere. Top competition for 2014: Ducati Monster 1200

BEST ADVENTURE BIKE

BMW R1200GS

Adventure bikes are big these days, literally and figuratively, but BMW managed to shrink the all-new liquid-cooled GS by quite a few pounds yet still add 125-hp performance and an advanced package of electronic aids that more fully allow the rider to sample a larger portion of it. Five riding modes—Dynamic, Road, Rain, Enduro, and Enduro Pro—vary settings for the ride-by-wire “E-gas” throttle response, ABS, and ASC (BMW’s traction control) intervention, as well as how the semi-active Dynamic ESA varies compression and rebound damping as you ride. capable off-road, the GS remains one of the sweetest long-distance rides on it, and it’s a more-than-capable sportbike, too. If you could only have one motorcycle, this is it. Top competition for 2014: KÍM 1190 Adventure

BEST TOURING BIKE

BMW K1600GTL

This makes it three wins in a row for the Bavarian beast, and until somebody builds a better, smoother, faster 1,64900160-hp dohc six-cylinder that carries two people around snaking asphalt roads with the confidence of a bike weighing about 200 pounds less than the BMW’s actual 768, it’ll continue to occupy this box. Plush heated seats and grips, electric-adjust windshield, an adaptive headlight that peers around corners, electronically adjustable suspension, and ingenious thumb ring activation—if it’s not on the standard K1600GTL, it’s definitely available on one of them. As impressive as the parts manifest is, it’s the sum of the whole that makes us wish everybody could ride one of these at least once, preferably for about a week. What troubles? Top competition for 2014: Harley-Davidson Electra Clide Ultra Limited

BEST CRUISER

MOTO GUZZI CALIFORNIA 1400

Who’d a thunk an Italian bike would win Best Cruiser two years in a row, and who’d a thunk it would be two different Italian bikes? Good enough to displace the genre-bending Ducati Diavel, this Guzzi is a clean-sheet design built to reintroduce the marque to an American audience who’s largely forgotten a brand that’s been in production for nearly too years. With its i,38occ, eight-valve, 90-degree V-twin longitudinally mounted in a long, low frame, the California nicely splits the difference between barking-mad Diavel and loungelizard American cruiser, and perfectly bridges the gap between Italian style and Harley-esque attention to detail. Like all our Ten Bests, it’s also a dream to ride, complete with traction control, ABS, and cruise control. Top competition for 2014: Indian Chief Classic

BEST SPORT-TOURING BIKE

BMW K1600GT

The K1600GT, with no tail trunk, is 36 pounds lighter than the GTL, recalibrated for even sportier handling, and built for the rider whose passenger knows how to hold on tight. If big-sister GTL is intended for American-style touring, the GT’s home turf is more naturally Austrian Alps. Optional ESA suspension adjustability lets you tune for comfort or aggression with a few flicks of the thumbwheel, and from there it’s time to embarrass guys on SioooRRs: 160 hp at 7,750 rpm and 129 pound-feet of torque at just 5,250 from its perfectly balanced I,649CC six-cylinder ideally complement the GT’s willing chassis. There have been some worthy challengers since the GT’s ascent two years ago, but we’re still waiting for something to dethrone this big BMW. Top competition for 2014: Ducati Multistrada 1200

BEST MOTOCROSSER

KAWASAKI KX450F

It was good enough to carry Ryan Villopoto to the supercross championship last year, and the KX is doing its best to repeat in 2014. Power delivery is smooth in the low to midrange to maximize traction when laying on the throttle then the KX makes prodigious power all the way to its rev limiter. Launch Control helps take full advantage of traction off the gate, and three power couplers change engine performance to deal with normal, hard, and soft terrain. In the hard setting, engine power is softened to make the KX easier to control. Meanwhile, a KYB Pneumatic Spring Fork and more than a foot of suspension travel out back are state of the art. Look inward, Grasshopper, if you can’t win on the KX. Top competition for 2014: Yamaha YZ450F

BEST DUAL-SPORT

KTM 500 EXC

We were in awe from the moment we first threw a leg over the EXC, a motorcycle capable of lofting its front wheel in fourth and fifth gear and sprinting to too mph without breaking a sweat. It also chugs up ridiculously steep mountains of loose rock in third or fourth gear and powers through sand washes like they’re paved. In short, there’s enough capability engineered in that a good rider could enter a cross-country race on an EXC straight from the crate and have as good a shot at winning as anybody. And although you probably won’t, it’s nice to know you could hop back on the bike and then ride all over town. Don’t forget to keep both wheels on the ground when you do. Top competition for 2014: Beta 520 RS