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The Ten Rest

David Edwards

HOW CAN IT BE THAT 12 MONTHS HAVE passed since we last picked the year’s Ten Best Bikes, Cycle World's annual look at the best and brightest of motorcycling? Time sure flies when you’re having fun on other people’s motorcycles.

As always, there are bikes that don’t quite fit the tight confines of our usual classes, bikes that deserve a mention—and occasionally maybe even a razzing. You can read about 1996’s Ten Best starting on page 32; below you’ll find the Ten Rest:

Best Bike Upon Which To Make A Bloody Nuisance Of Yourself: KTM Duke

Lucky for us, there’s no such thing as Detention Hall for adults. If there was, it’d be full of Duke owners scribbling, “I will not pull wheelies, I will not perform stoppies, I will not rearwheel drift through corners,” over and over again on the blackboard. Great fun, the Duke, just don’t get caught.

Best Repli-Racer That Isn’t A GSX-R750: Kawasaki ZX-7R

It should have been the Magnificent Seven, instead it’s playing second fiddle to Suzuki’s lightweight GSXR750, a bike so good both Yamaha and Kawasaki have pulled out of 750cc supersport racing rather than risk continued drubbing at the hands of the Yoshimura Suzuki team. At least the ZX has proved a better allout race platform, with wins in U.S. and World Superbike, where the asyet-unsorted GSX-R can barely get a whiff of the victory podium.

Best Redundantly Named Bike: Harley-Davidson Sportster Sport

Let’s see: cartridge fork, piggybackreservoir shocks, damping adjustments front and rear, race-compound rubber, dual front discs with floating rotors. We’d call the Sport the bestbest Sportster ever-ever, and you can quote-quote us on that.

Best Bike In Need Of A Delete Option: Honda STI 100 ABSII

One of Cycle World's all-time favorite bikes? The ST 1100 sport-tourer. One of CW's all-time ¿/«favorite features? Linked braking, at least on an enthusiast-oriented bike that already has a great ABS system. Prior to the addition of linked brakes, the ST was a four-time Ten Best Bikes winner. Not this year. Need we say more?

Best Ugly Bike: BMW R1100GS

The Jimmy Durante of dual-purpose bikes, so ugly it’s cute. It also just happens to be one of the most competent motorcycles ever to roam planet Earth. Which makes it beyond beautiful in our book.

Best Comeback Bike: Honda PC800 Pacific Coast

Originally marketed to yuppies as the ultimate loft accessory, the poor PC proved as popular as a pimple on prom night. It went bye-bye for a couple of years, then was reintroduced without much fanfare. Guess what? People have rediscovered the bike for what it is: a uniquely styled, comfortable all-rounder with luggage capacity that puts everything this side of a Gold Wing to shame. File this under “Revenge of the Super Scooter.”

Best Bike That Needs 15 More Horsepower: Yamaha Royal Star

We like the Royal Star a lot. “Whether you have someplace or noplace in particular to go, this is one of the most entertaining ways of getting there,” we concluded in our February road test. Thing is, we’d be absolutely helmet-over-heels in love with the big RS if its liquid-cooled, 16-valve VFour wasn’t choked down to 65 rearwheel horsepower. Yamaha says the bike makes “enough” power. Well, we’ve ridden the Royal Star on Highway 89 going into Flagstaff, Arizona (elev. 7000 feet), uphill into a headwind, and we know better.

Best-Named Bike Never Mind That Three People Will Buy It: Gas Gas Jordi Tarres Replica 370

The feet-up folks are onto something here. Besides, ya gotta like anything built by a Spanish company called Gas Gas and named after a three-time World Trials Champion. This thing is so trick it hurts: aluminum frame that doubles as a fuel tank; liquid-cooled cylinder and crankcase; radial Michelins soft and sticky as suction cups; dry weight, 172 pounds. Almost seems a shame to bash it through rocks and roots.

Best Bike That Wasn’t Sold Here In 1996: Suzuki Bandit 1200

Unless Suzuki has taken all leave of its corporate senses, the bigger, better Bandit will be here in ’97, though. And remember, you read about it first in Cycle World.

Best 900-Class Sportbike That Everyone Forgot (Including Us): Suzuki RF900

In a world spinning with CBR900s, ZX-9Rs, Desmo this and Telelever that, it’s all too easy to overlook a simple, stylish, do-everything motorcycle that offers good value for money. That’s Suzuki’s RF900. We didn’t get around to testing an RF this year. We won’t make that same mistake in ’97.

Best Working Worst Looking Cruiser: Triumph Adventurer

Love the engine, brakes and suspension; hate the styling. Rumor on the streets is that the tarted-up Adventurer was Triumph boss John Bloor's idea, his personal perception of what American cruiser buyers want. If true, it’s the wealthy industrialist’s first mis-step in his resurrection of Britain’s most-famous motorcycle nameplate. With all due respect, Mr. Bloor, a bobbed rear fender and silly-looking apehangers do not a cruiser make. We’d suggest dustbinning those components and fitting something more conventional. Yeah, maybe call it the Thunderbird. □