Honorable Mentions
HONORABLE MENTIONS
FIVE MORE THAT
DESERVE ATTENTION
Kawasaki GPz11OO
Okay, class, here’s the challenge. Make a big, fast, comfortable motorcycle. Give it a bit of weather protection. Give it lots of motor. Make it comfortable for a passenger. Make it handsome. Oh, and one more thing: Keep the price in line. No way, you say? Ah, but Kawasaki found a way, using a retuned ZX11 engine and a chassis reminiscent of the Ninja 900’s. The result is the GPzl100, a very good bike worthy of inclusion here. It’s not the fastest, most exclusive or most expensive motorcycle you can own. What it is, is one of the most rational rides around, a bike that is comfortable and capable without being intimidating or uncompromising. It exists merely to make riding fun. An honorable concept, that.
ATK 250LQ
-cooled 250 enduro bike is no big deal. Unless you’re tiny, UtahATK. If you are, it’s a very big deal indeed, because until this year, the company didn’t build such a thing. Now, ATK has filled that gap in its product line with this machine, a breakthrough bike that is, even though somewhat flawed, a fine effort. The 250LQ is powered by a Rotax-built engine that is unique in its use of both a pressure-activated powervalve and a counterbalancer. It uses the topquality suspension, controls and plastic so typical of ATK, and is at its best in really nasty terrain. Yes, the LQ has a few loose ends (fix that clunky tranny, please, ATK), but it works surprisingly well, and it is priced competitively. And that’s why it gets an honorable mention here.
KTM Duke
Uh-oh, look out. Here’s trouble. Don’t go anywhere near this thing unless your license is in really good shape, and the local traffic cop is your brother-in-law. Oh, you’re a meek, law-abiding sort who prides himself on neighborliness? Doesn’t matter; the KTM Duke will mess with your head. It’s not exactly psychopathic, but wheelies? Yep. Stoppies? Uh-huh. Fullthrottle blasts through the gears? You bet. Crazy lean angles around corners? Definitely. A few minutes with the Duke, and you’ll be doin’ ’em all. Which must be why we like this bike so much. It’s got attitude as well as style, and we applaud KTM for bringing the Duke here. Now, if we can just stay out of trouble with it....
Honda Magna Deluxe
Everything’s comin’ up cruisers, but some of them lack imagination, their designers apparently having chosen to clone the Harley look rather than coming up with something creative and different. That’s where the Magna Deluxe is a cruiser with class. For starters, the styling. It hits all the right cues, for sure; but it wasn’t lifted from anybody else’s concept of what a cruiser ought to look like. And then there’s that motor, a lusty 750cc V-Four derived, with just a few changes, from Honda’s VFR750, maybe the best all-round motorcycle ever to taste tarmac. Finally, there’s the way it works, which is wonderfully well. It’s an honorable effort worthy of this honorable mention.
Ducati 916
You’re looking at what has to be the single most widely desired production bike in the world. Basically unchanged since its introduction in the fall of 1993, the 916 has managed to capture enthusiasts’ hearts and minds with its outrageous mixture of high style and high performance. It’s also managed to capture a roadrace trophy or two along the way, not least of which being the 1994 World Superbike Championship. Ducatis remain rare and somewhat finicky beasts, lacking the can’t-bust-it toughness of some other brands. They make up for that with sheer charisma, and the 916 has a sufficiency of that quality. That’s why enthusiasts do whatever it takes to own one, and why the bike gets this honorable mention.
