The Ten Rest
The Ten Rest
UP FRONT
TIME AGAIN FOR CYCLE WORLD'S ANNUAL Ten Best Bikes awards, which means I get to wade in up to my neck with some personal choices that were inexplicably overlooked in the final ballot ing. In no particular order, they are:
Best Green Monster: Kawasaki ZRX1100
They used to be called UJMs, for Universal Japanese Motorcycle, a somewhat condescending term for the tube-frame, twin-shock inline-Four. Millions were made, starting with the 1969 Honda CB750. In 1999, you'll have a chance to buy what may be the best of the breed, Kawasaki's ZRX1100, a 95-horse UJM made ready for the new millennium with radial tires, six-pot front brakes, cartridge fork and throttle-position-sensor ignition. All yours for under S8000 com plete with neon-lime paint. Well, as long as you're a 49-stater-Kawasaki didn't want to retool the ZRX for a gas-evap system, so it won't be sold here in the Golden State. One more reason to get the hell out of California.
Best Bargain: Suzuki Bandit 1200
Here's all you need to know about the Bandit XII. It cranks out 102 wheelie-poppin' ponies, yet at S7199 it's less expensive than almost any thing over 500cc you'd care to be seen on. That's bang for the buck, big time. Why don't you own one? Why don't I?
Best Bomb: Bimota Vdue
Here, supposedly, was the bike that would have two-stroke fans down on their knees, arms raised, thanking the Almighty for delivering unto them a genuine GP replica. Direct fuel injec tion would be salvation for the smoky old strokers, EPA be damned! Cycle World bundled up Our Man of Piston Ports, Nick Ienatsch, and mailed him off to the Adriatic for the world's first test. Very impressive, he said, but not for everybody and not without some pre-production burrs that needed smoothing over. Didn't happen, as in jection bugaboos, a bad batch of cylin ders and who knows what else scuttled early models. We're told the snags have now been unraveled and Vdues will be making a stateside appearance any day now. Good luck. I still want one-I just want Honda to build it.
Best Mean Motorscooter: Titan Gecko
As in sumo wrestling and strip poker. size matters. Titan stuffs the Gecko with a 96-inch (1573cc for you metric-types) S&S motor that pegs the dyno at a healthy 87 bhp and lays down a withering 95 foot-pounds of torque. This thing melts rear weenies the way the First Philanderer goes through interns. Plus, build-quality is so high (as it should be at S3OK a pop) that staff Italophile Catterson dubbed it the Bimota of cruisers. Given the Vdue debacle, I'd just call it the king of clones.
Best Beach Cruiser: Honda Aero 1100
Yes, in orange-and-white it looks like a Dreamsicle on wheels. Lighten up. Few bikes are as at home chuffing down the Pacific Coast Highway, sun glinting off all that art-deco chrome, palm trees reflected in the bullet head light. Just don't get any closer to Stur gis than Santa Monica Boulevard.
Best Street Single: MZ Mastiff
Not to mention Best Bike With a `Roo-Bar. With its superstructure of over-tank/around-headlights tubing, semi-supermotard styling and a fivevalve Euro-Yammie motor, this thing is straight out of Strange City. It also happens to be one of the most enjoy able testbikes we've flogged this year. Hard to grasp just what the Mastiff is trying to be-it's certainly not taking cues from anything else. These days, that counts for something.
Best Beemer That Isn't: BMW K1200RS
The Spandau Steamroller. Right up front, we love this bike's motor, a rub ber-mounted laydown-Four that jets the RS all the way to 150 mph, un heard of for a Bay-EmVav. Trouble is, BMW seems to have somehow mis placed the user-friendliness that makes its Twins so much fun. The 1200's footpegs are too high, its han dlebars are too low, the windshield doesn't and the height-adjustable seat is harder to figure out than your daughter's dating habits. Oh yeah, it's also about 100 pounds too heavy. A diet please, BMW, and one more pass through the Ergonomics Lab.
Best Worst Revival: Norton 628LM
Somewhere, old man Norton, gone since 1925, is really hacked off. This curious conglomeration uses a Rotax Single and some seriously unin spired bodywork in a deal brokered by a misdirected German tycoon. Brit race legend Barry Sheene took one look at the offending outcome and pronounced, "It looks 20 years old. I wouldn't have one if you gave it to me." Sorry. Baz, but 20 years ago you could still buy a decent used Commando 850. This thing isn't even close.
Best Goose: Moto Guzzi Centauro
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that while the Japanese Big Four seem stuck building lookalike cruis ers and sportbikes, it's companies like KIM, MZ, Buell and Moto Guzzi that are taking stylistic gambles-a classic case of hittin' `em where they ain't. Guzzi's V1O Centauro is the Funkmaster Supreme of these icono clasts, from its sideways-jutting cylin ders to its boat-tail bodywork. It also happens to be one of the most satisfy ing, soul-stirring rides of 1998. Ihere's a lesson here.
Best Old Soldier: Yamaha V-Max
Twelve years after its debut, and with precious little in the way of refinement or promotional support, the V-Max is still astounding entertainment. Romp this brute to redline in the first three gears and tell me I'm wrong. It'd be a shame to let Mr. Max simply fade away. I-Ic deserves better.
David Edwards
