Honorable Mentions
HONORABLE MENTIONS
SUZUKI GSX-R7 50
IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE AMAZING NEW GSX-R1000, THIS BIKE would have had a serious shot at recapturing the Best Superbike title it won last year. Not only was the GSXR750 deemed the best Gixxer for the masses in our April issue’s “Family Feud” cover story, it also set third-quickest time in this issue’s “Master Blasters” shootout. It’s a shame that the other OEMs have turned their backs on 750cc sportbikes, because they really are the perfect size.
SUZUKI RM125
IN THE BEST OF THE REST CATEGORY THAT HAS EXISTED in motocross since the Four-Stroke Revolution began, there have been few standouts. The Ten Best-winning 2000 Honda CR250R certainly was one. And the 2001 Suzuki RM 125 is another. It’s been a while since Suzuki has had the best eighth-liter MXer, so kudos to its engineers for upping the ante. And for keeping the two-stroke flame burning strong for another year.
KAWASAKI W650
SACRILEGE! DIDN’T THE W650 GARNER AN Honorable Mention in last year’s Ten Best? Yep, it did, and it gets one again this year thanks to a raft of detail improvements that helped it win June’s “War of the Retros” comparo. The W650’s victory is especially sweet in that one of the bikes it beat was a new version of the very machine it was meant to emulate. Sorry, Triumph lovers, but Kawasaki simply builds a better Bonnie.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON SUPER GLIDE T-SPORT
T may not garner thumbs-up from thL I larley-Davidson fiuithful, but the new-for-'Ol: `F-Sport earned our approval as the sportiest, most versatile Big Twin ye!. Combine an all-day-corn lortahie riding position with standard highway pegs. an adjustable tint edwindshield.~ and remov. able., expa~çj ible nylon~~ sadd1ebagsJp~ and you'~got a Hog onw1nch~ you can do just about anything you d ever want to do on a motorcy~1e Fully dressed, anyway
SUZUKI SV650S
ONE OFT-REPEATED word in this year’s Ten Best balloting was “fun.” Ordinarily, we’d dismiss such utterances as frivolous, and tell the offending party “get serious.” But bikes are so good nowadays that the fun factor acts as a tie-breaker the one bike that ' use of the word more than any other Suzuki SV650S. original, unfaired pleased us greatly, the new, sportier S model makes us downright giddy.
