Hell-Raisers
Hell-Raisers
LET'S HEAR IT FOR BIKES WITH BIG ONES
DAVID EDWARDAS
CW COMPARISON
YOU SAY YOU'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE with bloodless retro-cruisers bent on exceeding themselves in an effort to emulate your grandad's old Harley-Davidson? We know where you're comin' from.
On the other hand., frontline repli-racers, those 160-mph jellybeans, leave you cold, all hunched over looking like a simian schtupping a football? We feel your pain.
Better yet, we have a prescription for your affliction. Call `em Naked Bikes, call `em Streetfighters, call `em Neo-Standards. A better fitting description might be sportbikes sans bodywork-or maybe cruisers without compro mise. Whatever. The motorcycles on these pages, from America, England and Italy, all have attitude. All celebrate swaggering man hood, no apologies offered. Bikes with big ones. Bailsy. Stone City, baby. Deal with it.
White Lightning, Monster, VlO Centauro, Speed Triple. Cool names for corkin' bikes.
JEFF ALLEN
BULL S1 White Lightining
First up, Mr. Buell's boomer, the Si White Lightning, updated for 1998 with motor work, new brakes and a slathering of pearl-white paint. We liked the original S 1, liked it a lot-so much so that in 1996 we named it one of the year's Ten Best Bikes. Which is not to say we've been stone in love with every Buell that has come this way. Our 1995 long-term S2 testbike, admittedly a pre-production unit, was one of the sorriest buckets of bolts ever to set tread on tar mac, the Mir space station of motorcycles. No such quality control cock-ups this time, though.
Our White Lightning, one of the first `98s off the compa ny's East Troy, Wisconsin, production line, arrived with a mere 50 break-in miles showing and detailed instructions from Erik Buell himself to: 1) Have fun and 2) "let `er rip!" His confidence was well-placed. The Si ran hard right out of the chute, never leaked a drop of oil, never shed a nut, never cracked a bracket.
"I came away really impressed," said Contributing Editor/Wheelie Boy Nick Ienatsch. "The power is fun-right there anytime you want it."
Coaxing 85 rear-wheel horsepower from a standard Sportster 1200-that's 50 percent more than stock-usually voids the warranty, but the boys at Buell say every White Lightning will roll out the door making between 85 and 90 bhp (each accompanied by 12-month/unlimited-mileage coverage), which is between 5 and 10 bhp up on a standard S 1. Our testbike chipped in with a thumping 75 foot-pounds of torque, too, the highest of the Hell-Raisers.
Go to both ends of the combustion cycle to give thanks for the White Lightning's added oomph. New "Thunder storm" cylinder-head castings allow bigger intake and exhaust valves, mated to better-flowing ports. And hung beneath the engine, a revised muffler moves the White Lightning's torque band around, filling a dip between 3000 and 4000 rpm and enhancing 5000-rpm-plus readings.
"Good thing that goofy airbox and clunky muffler work; they sure look funny," noted Managing Editor Matt Miles, echoing the criticisms of various viewers. Also helping in the Power Dept. is a new oil pump (as on all `98 Sportsters) with 50 percent more scavenge volume, the idea being to eliminate excess oil hanging about the camshafts and lower end causing frictional losses.
We've been sold on Buell's Uniplanar engine-mount sys tem since it came on the scene in 1990. This suspends the Sporty motor in an arrangement of rubber bushings and Heim joints, allowing the usual shuddering at idle but squashing the quakes as revs rise. Uncanny, really. The `98 model's handling also gets a big thumbs-up. Both the fork and the reverse-action shock-from Dutch suspension house WP-have been dialed-in with regards to spring rates and damping calibrations. The rear is still on the harsh side of sporting, but the White Lighting is a pinpoint steerer. To quote Ienatsch: "Tight-handling, exact."
BUELL
S1 White Lightning
Price $10,595 Dry weight 453 lb. Wheelbase . 55.1 in. Seat height 33.0 in. Fuel mileage . . . 45.5 mpg 0-60 mph 3.24 sec. 1/4-mile 11.56 sec. @ 115.92 mph Horsepower . . . . 85.4 bhp @ 6250 rpm Torque 74.6 ft.-lbs. @ 5750 rpm Top speed 135 mph
Apps A Tons-o-Torque A Plenty-o-Power A Kitbike overtones almost (but not quite) gone A First motorcycle named after illicit redneck hooch
`Downs v Unholy trinity: breadbox intake pod, Pep Boys muf fler, one-cheek seat v Squishy rubber footpegs? Lose `em-and take the passenger-peg brackets with ya! v Downshifts clunkier than they need to be Lotsa heat from rear header
Changing over to Nissin binders gets the coveted CW Stamp of Approval, too. Road Test Editor Don Canet came back from performance runs with tales of lurid, long-distance stoppies.
Beefs? Despite the obvious strides in build-quality, there remains a faint aroma of kitbike about the Buell-a few too many zip-ties, wiring that's exposed here and there, and whoever carved the cut-outs in the rear fender (itself a rather crappy example of carbon-fiber artisanship) should either be sacked immediately or enrolled in Remedial Hacksawing 101.
Oh yeah, about le seat petite, more at home on a 10speed than a 1200cc road-burner, even with reworked foam for 1998? Erik Buell defends it as "lean and slim," part of the Si `s "quintessential motocross/dirt-track styling." Okay, maybe, and at just 8 inches across at its widest, there's no arguing the pad is well out of the way during cornering calisthenics. In regards to all-around comfort, though, Contributing Editor Steve Anderson was kindest of our testers when he squinted, looked the other way and declared it "tolerable." As for the rest of us, we each cried uncle after a half-hour, victims of the world's only 85-bhp wedgie.
Nominal saddle notwithstanding, the White Lightning is a high-water mark for Buell. This is a real motorcycle from a real motorcycle company. Half-owner Harley-Davidson is getting with the program, too, recently transferring muck ety-muck Veep Jerry Wilke, previously in charge of H-D's American sales and marketing, to East Troy as Buell's new president. Erik Buell gets a new title, chief technical officer, added to his business cards. "It's a great deal," says Buell. "Now, I get to concentrate on products." Current output is about 5000 bikes a year, with plans to ratchet up production to numbers that would surpass Ducati and Triumph's U.S. sales, and have Buell knock-knock-knockin' on BMW's door. Not bad for the Little Kitbike Company That Could.
DUCATI M900 Monster
Okay, you're one Miguel Galluzzi, Italian, late 20s, toiling away dutifully at Honda's European design studios. Ducati calls one day, offers you a job, which you take, and by the way, you mention, I've got this idea for...well, sort of a semi-sportbike. We can take a 900SS main frame and motor, see, mount up the link-type back end from an 888, keeping the SS's upside-down fork and pie-plate brakes, of course. Bodywork? No, no, no, it doesn't need a fancy fair ing, just leave everything hangin' in the breeze. Get it?
Not at first. But management mulled things over and finally gave Galluzzi the green light. The result was 1993's M900 Monster, which proved so popular that production had to be increased five-fold over original forecasts. The Monster made Cycle World's Ten Best Bikes list that year. A "lightweight, nimble streetbike with eye-popping good looks and an astonishing ability to generate wheelies," we said. "Slices up tight corners and heavy traffic like a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon working a society matron."
Not much has changed in the ensuing four years. An effec tive, if not artistic, bikini fairing has sprouted up front, and Ducati has dinked around with the powerband, knocking 5 horsepower off the 90-degree V-Twin's top end in an effort to~ fatten midrange, lessen transmission snatch and improve driveability. The latest Monster is better around town, but it still chug-chug-chugs in protest if you lug it in too high a gear.
A quick glance at the dyno charts might lead you to think the Monster has been left at the gate. It makes the least horsepower here and has the second-lowest torque figures. There's more to the story, though. Check out dry weights-the Ducati is 30 pounds lighter than the Buell and Triumph, and undercuts the Guzzi by a full 90 pounds. That translates into the second-quickest 0-60-mph times, just pipped by the Si. Low weight and tight gearing also give the Monster the best 60-80-mph roll-ons, 3.77 sec onds, compared to the Buell (3.85), Guzzi (4.54) and Triumph (3.91).
What the numbers don't tell you is how easy the Monster is to ride. From its light clutch action to its easy throttle pull to its precise cornering turn-in, this is an obliging, low-effort motorcycle.
"Does everything smoothly and well," said Ienatsch. "Small, light and really fun to ride," agreed Miles. Depending on rider height, the Duc also has one of the best seating positions in motorcycling, a nice forward lean
DUCATI
M900 Monster
Price $9745 Dry weight 423 lb. Wheelbase . 55.8 in. Seat height 30.5 in. Fuel mileage . . 38.4 mpg 0-60 mph 3.28 sec. 1/4-mile 11.98 sec. @ 108.53 mph Horsepower . . . . 70.5 bhp @ 7250 rpm Torque 55.9 fL-lbs. @5250 rpm Topspeed 125 mph
Ups
Wheelies at will Still sexy after all these years Ease of operation
Downs
Chintzy instruments "Rain gutter" rear fender Constant windshield flutter Graunchy rear brake The M750 costs $7495, $2250 less than the M900. Hmmm...
behind a low-rise tubular handlebar. Sub-6-footers take to the M900 like a shooting hand wrapping around the grip of a 9mm Beretta-poised, balanced, ready for action. Giraffe legged galloots don't quite match up with the tank's knee slots, and should probably apply elsewhere.
-~ Our heavier testers came back wanting some adjustability in the Showa fork, which bottoms easily and isn't particular ly fond of sharp, high-speed hits. Almost everybody com mented on the mushy-feeling front brakes. And why a near-$lO,000 motorcycle has no tachometer remains a mys tery. We'd also like to get our hands on the bright spark who decided the green "Lights On" indicator (which on the American model is always glowing) should be placed direct ly under the equally green, equally sized "Neutral" light. See green, thumb the starter button and you're liable to be rewarded with the bike lurching forward, which instantly folds up the stupid, spring-loaded sidestand the Euros seem to think is so clever. Aarrghh! Somebody get a rope...
So, after five years the Ducati Monster is starting to show its age. Now that parent company Cagiva has been bailed out by good ol' American investment dollars, there are rumors of a new, liquid-cooled SS motor coming out in a couple of years, one that presumably could be slotted right into an updated M900. Seems a shame to wait that long, though, when a shopping trip to the local Ducati emporium can turn up an easy 80 horsepower by way of 944cc pistons, a carb kit and any number of sweet-sounding exhausts. Diddling with the fork internals would be wise. Drop-kick that bogus rear fender, sprinkle a few carbon-fiber bits about, and suddenly you're looking at less than 400 pounds, ready for love. Can you say whup-ass? There's life in Galluzzi's hot-rod yet.
'MOTO GUZZI V10 Centauro
Now here's a tasty bit of tortellini, the first really new Moto Guzzi in seven years. The Centauro (be Italian, wave your hands, purse your lips, say "Chen-tarro") looks like a con cept bike let loose from the styling studio. Check out that sculpted plastic fuel tank and the boat-tail bodywork. How about those dragbars on 3-inch risers? The two-tone wraparound front fender? Stylish, very stylish. Does all this make the Centauro a Spruced Goose? A Moto Gucci? In any event, everywhere we stopped, the Guzzi gathered gawkersmost entranced, a few repulsed.
"Electric styling," Miles summed up. "Like it or not, the Guzzi gets attention." And, yes, that's a hoary old sideways Vee motor you see jutting out from under the Centauro's fashionable fuel cell, an engine type first seen on some frightful three-wheeler! half-track contrivance used by the Italian military to collect garbage, or something. That was 1960. Five years later, Guzzi's transverse-Twin made its way to the 700cc V7 Ambassador, sort of a pre-Erik Estrada copsickle-looking affair revered by old gents of the touring persuasion for its spacious seat, shaft drive and fat, full-coverage fenders. It wouldn't be until 1971 that the motor found a more lively home, providing forward motion for the V750 Sport, a sparse, low-barred roadster that deserves a bye run straight into the Sportbike Hall of Fame. Cycle magazine called it "one of the most unlikely superbikes imaginable," before going on to name it "an introduction to a new kind of ultra performance motorcycling."
Moto (luzzi would be happy if the latter half of that description sticks to the Centauro. Company propaganda touts the yb as "Part Cruiser. Part Sportbike. All Muscle," which comes pretty damn close, actually. A V-Max for the penne pasta set.
Powered by the most up-to-date rendition of the venerable Guzzi Vee-992cc, cam-in-head setup, eight valves, fuel injection, electronic ignition, etc.-the Centauro laid down some impressive dyno numbers. As in 88 bhp to the rear wheel, the highest output of our Naked Quartet. Out on the street, the Goose pulled like a locomotive-albeit one redlined at 8000 rpm-all the way to 137 mph, the highest top speed of the four. Test rider Mark Cernicky, former skate board flutter, now part-time 600 Supersport racer/part-time CW Road Warrior, originally unimpressed by the MG, soon cottoned up to the concept and christened the bike SuperGoozmondo. "Delightfully odd-looking and strangely cool. This thing really grows on ya!" he enthused, before stomping the Guzzi into gear and streaking off into the dis tance, a lovely growl from the twin LaFranconi pipes trail ing behind.
"It's the most ridable Guzzi I've ever been on," Ienatsch
MOTO GUZZI
V10 Centauro
Price $12,990 Dryweight 513 lb. Wheelbase . 58.4 in. Seat height 30.5 in. Fuel mileage . . . 33.2 mpg 0-60 mph 3.52 sec. 1/4-mile 11.97 sec. @113.16mph Horsepower . . . . 88.5 bhp @ 8000 rpm Torque 63.6 ft.-lbs. @ 5500 rpm Top speed 137 mph
Ups
Only one on your blockmaybe in your state Tank-top "codpiece" an ideal place to carry take out Chinese Brembo brakes, WP fork Beautiful steering Seven times the seat area of the Buell
Downs
Bring a backpack-tank and tail don't take kindly to soft luggage Evil, spawn-of-Satan sidestand Idiot lights visible only during total eclipse Long-(wait for it)-throw gearchange concurred. "It feels strong, really well put together."
"It makes a better sportbike than you might imagine," opined Mr. Miles. "Frontline brakes, suspension and tires-no upgrades needed. Closely spaced transmission ratios are an unexpected blessing, even if first gear is a bit tall around town. Shame about accessing the shock, though: Seat and battery must be removed to reach spring-preload and rebound-damping adjusters."
Other bummers? Fuel range, for one thing. Ridden in the prescribed manner, the Moto Guzzi will activate its (barely detectable) fuel-warning light in less than 100 miles. When this happens, immediately go off in solemn search of addi tional fossil fuel-there is no Reserve and the big Guzzi's injector nozzles will run dry in less than 20 miles. And while we're on the subject of EFI, the Centauro's system goes a little spastic from time to time, especially when the motor's cold or if the twistgrip is abruptly cranked open and shut-almost as if there aren't enough points plotted on the engine-management map. At least throttle effort is com mendably light, a far cry from the ludicrous tug-o-war pre vious carb-kitted Guzzis were known for.
Back in Italy, new investors have pumped something like $10 million into the almost-indigent company over the past 18 months, vendors have been paid, new designs dusted off. The Lago di Como pipeline is open once again. Guzzi America brought in 100 Centauros this year, with plans to double that number in `98. At almost $13,000, it's the most expensive bike here, and stepping up to a Centauro takes some commitment. Worth every cent (or is that "chent?") we'd say, given the Guzzi's ability to rack up friends and bump-start smiles. And yeah, we can already hear the grip ing and grumbling from all you LeMans/Sport 1100/ Daytona dilettantes. Well, we don't give a rat's patootie-as far as we're concerned, the V10 Centauro is Guzzi's best effort ever. Buon appetito...
TRIUMPH T509 Speed Triple
Somewhere, dear old Edward Turner, gone now these 24 years, is spinning in his grave, bouncing off the rev lim iter probably. The prim-and-proper little man who gave us the classi cally proportioned Triumph Speed Twin of 1938 and later oversaw the birth of the Bonneville 650, might not under stand the new Triumph 1509 Speed Triple. We're not sure we do. In simple terms, the T509 is a 1595 Daytona shorn of its fairing and clip-ons, then outfitted with a downrated motor (885cc vs. 955; 81 rear-wheel horsepower vs. 104). The result is a visual wake-up call not exactly to every one's liking.
"Has the look and feel of a crashed T595 made road worthy with a few junkyard bits," was our managing edi tor's take on the whole thing. Nods all around. Blame the bug-eye headlights, hung ahead of the steer ing head on a stationary stalk, for some of the ocular dis cord (a single-beam alternate was in the works, Triumph says, but so far only two owners have inquired about it, so the option was shelved). And, without a fairing to hide behind, the liquid-cooled Triple's less-than-aesthetic radia tor and water hoses are in plain view. Ditto the oil cooler, turned on end and mounted with crude flat-steel brackets to the motor's right-front. Adding insult to injury are the front turnsignals, unceremoniously tacked onto the radiator surround. It really does have the look of a home-brew.
TRIUMPH
T509 Speed Triple
Price $9995 Dry weight 451 lb. Wheelbase . 56.9 in. Seat height 32.0 in. Fuel mileage . . . 31.3 mpg 0-60 mph 3.61 sec. 1/4-mile 11.70 sec. @114.35mph Horsepower . . . . 81.4 bhp @8500 rpm Torque 53.5 11.-lbs. @ 7250 rpm Top speed 134 mph
Ups
Doesn't have the Daytona's fuel injection afflictions
Raspy, rorty motor
Impressive Nissin front brakes-Stoppies-R-Us
Swanky alloy frame
Downs
Doesn't have the Daytona's poke
Weak rear brake
Overly stiff throttle return Massive muffler hides cool single-side swingarm, inboard rotor and tn-spoke rear wheel Headlight treatment in danger of becoming a love interest for R2D2
Compounding the weirdness on our test Triple was the kinky little nosecone, a $150 option, filling space between the instruments and those chromed-orb headlamps. (Surprisingly, though, that little scrap of plastic does a good job of splitting the wind-we'd definitely recom mend popping for the buck-and-a-half.)
Had it the ability to defend itself~ the T509 might say, "Stuff it all, let's go ridin'!" Amen to that. Sitting on its sidestand, the bike looks big `n' black, and gives the impression it might be a handful in the twisties. Nothing like it. From the saddle (a little hard, and with uncomfortable edges), all a Speed Triple rider sees is the road streaking up to meet him. As the pace increases, first the Moto Guzzi, then the Ducati fall behind, though a good Buell rider won't have any trouble keeping up.
Cernicky: "I like this bike a lot-fast, smooth, the most sportbike-ish in this group." Miles: "Stable, solid, feels stuck to the pavement, lots of ground clearance, and the wide, meaty Bridgestones really hang in there."
Assistant Art Director Brad Zerbel, unshackled from his computer screen for a day in the hills: "Big-time leverage from that wide handlebar going into corners; you only need to make light inputs. Feels sort of like a big ol' dirtbike."
Okay, we're sold on the Five-O-Nine's backroad knowhow, and everyone loved the feel of its three cylinders churning to redline, but why no T595 Speed Triple? After all, this is the most modern design here, with shrink wrapped engine cases, double-overhead bumpsticks and a four-valve-per, Lotus-developed cylinder head. Yet it's down on juice to an American pushrod-Twin that traces its roots back to the 1 950s and an Italian tractor motor not much younger.
Couple of reasons, says Triumph. First, the comp-shop blokes need an under-900cc mill if the company wants to go Superbike racing (and they do). Second, the powers that-be get all ass-puckery at the thought of some throttle drunk dillweed blowing hisself clean off the back of a 104-horse unfaired monsterbike (small sacrifice, we say).
Still, Buell's White Lightning has put the fear of Allah into Triumph. Late-run Speed Triples will get a fuelinjection re-mapping good for 87-89 rear-wheel ponies (early T509 owners should check with their dealers about the easy upgrade), and there may be more on tap. "We see ourselves as leaders of the (production) streetfighter movement," says Jim McKenna, Triumph America's sales manager. "We know where there's more power in that motor; we should be able to put another 6 to 8 horsepower on the ground easy. We don't intend to play second fiddle to anyone."
A 95-horsepower T509? Yes, please! Welcome to Speed Wars, streetfighter-style.
HELL-RAISERS The Wrap-Up
All of these machines are a little rough and tumble. All are a little rude and crude. None of the four is perfect. All are the better for it. For some, the Guzzi will be a little too funky and a lot too expensive-or vice versa. But run this thing to redline just once, listen to the castanet call of the valvetrain, the muted mortar boom of the exhaust, and it gets under your skin. For a select few, the Centauro could be lifetime entertainment. Ducati's Monster was a pathfinder, a sales success despite not looking like Carl Fogarty's practice bike. Okay, it's unchanged since `93, but the M900 still looks great going down the road, still reminds us that horsepower isn't necessarily everything, that weight is the real enemy.
Triumph's McKenna calls the T509 a neo cafe-racer for Gen-X'ers who like to go out and boil the tires right off their bikes." A lofty cause. hut there's more to the Speed Triple than hooligan larks. This is a rock-solid, eminently likable motorcycle. If the Trumpet is guilty of anything. it's of try ing too hard on the styling front, not hard enough on the dyno-the former is defendable as a crime of passion. and it looks like a remedy for the latter is already on its way. Which brings us to the Buell. Cutting to the chase, the SI White Lightning has the looks, the power and the handling to take it to the top of this all-nude review. And here's a thought: Erik Buell's best bikes are still ahead of him.
