Oh, Character

OH, CHARACTER

UP FRONT

EDITOR'S LETTER

HOW I LOVE THEE-OR SOMETIMES DON’T

I've often thought that bikes with character are those that don't do what we want them to. Like run all the time. Bikes that stop running too often and don’t give back to us some kind of delicious movement are simply what we might call a “pile.” Piles don’t usually make it on the list but can for the true weirdos among us.

No, the bikes that make it into the fabled character column are those that give just enough for the cost they exact. Anguish. Solitude. Frustration. Stasis.

Joy! Glory! Freedom! Magnificence!

They really make it if we learn the mechanical secrets specific to the marque, the handshake that allows the riding intervals to get longer, as if (we hope) by our own action and knowledge. “No, they’re great bikes. You just have to...” then list almost every part on the bike that just needs a little of this or that to be perfect.

Every generation of rider has lamented the passing of character. Eve discovered this through Cycle World and the Cycle archives. In the early days of CW, you might have read about a belt-drive bike from the teens whose enthusiast owner dismisses bikes of the times—like early ’60s Harley-Davidsons, BSAs, Triumphs, and Nortons—for their seamless operation and lack of involvement. I mean, automatic ignition timing and twistgrip throttle? Bah! A surface carburetor is the only way to truly experience combustion!

I’m on strange ground here as a guy who rides/drives vintage British bikes and cars from the ’50s and ’60s and tries to use them as real transportation. Honestly, the cars have always been better than the bikes for avoiding those unplanned stoppages, but as my friend Bill Getty says, “The great engineers in England after the war were hired into aircraft, the good engineers went into automobiles, and the rest went into bikes.”

I don’t know if he’s right, but I can’t say he’s wrong. Maybe I need to buy a Supermarine Spitfire or Hawker Hurricane to double-check.

Honestly, when I used to smoke, the occasional forced roadside “rest period” was sort of pleasant, a time to reflect and relax, muse about life, and find some small “chemicohabitual” relief and to ponder the beautiful lines of whatever I was riding. I mean, I was a little stressed about maybe not getting where I was going—or perhaps the flash-burn potential of my gasoline-soaked fingers as I sparked my old Ronson Varaflame lighter at the end of that non-filtered Camel. It was always so satisfying to get that cherry-red glow instead of singed eyebrows or blistered eyelids, and contemplating how I’d dodged facial burns always made magneto or carburetor trouble seem so minor by comparison.

For the purposes of this issue, we decided that “Character” was this: Motorcycles that move more than your body and machines that connect with our love of motion on two wheels. It can be about high performance, but it’s more about moving well and feeling good than outright numbers. In fact, it’s really about the unquantifiable spirit some motorcycles provide through their combination of sound, feeling, styling, and presence.

We still get better performance and technology than ever, but more and more manufacturers are building bikes that really focus on fun and style rather than causing a 0.003 percent better party in the engineering house. Nothing wrong with the latter because last year’s superbikes are why this year’s not-superbikes are so fine. But motorcycling’s growth area is in bikes that simply make us smile. And there are plenty.

We had lots of good times with the bikes in this issue. I’m just so damn happy the Yamaha YZF-Ri doesn’t have ignition points.

MARK HOYER

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

THIS MONTH'S STATS

7 “CHARACTERS” BIKES

60 ESTIMATED TRAVEL HOURS TO SOUTH AFRICA TO TEST THE HONDA AFRICA TWIN

250 DISPLACEMENT IN cc OF THE CSC RX3 CYCLONE ADVENTURE BIKE