Middleweight Mash-Up

Middleweight MASH-UP

Aprilia Shiver 750 vs. BMW F800R vs. Ducati Monster 796 vs. Triumph Street Triple R vs. Yamaha FZ8

JOHN BURNS

CW COMPARISON

WHAT ARE WE CALLING THEM THIS month, anyway? Standards? Naked bikes? 800s? Middleweights? Whatever. The bikes may change, but we don't. We're always looking for an excuse to bust out of the office for a couple days: Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go, with however many horses we can muster, to bask in the hottish desert sun and escape the partly cloudy SoCal beach climate, where daytime temps can plunge into the 60s.

So, we snagged, in no particular order, a new Yamaha FZ8, BMW F800R and Ducati Monster 796—then threw in an Aprilia Shiver 750 and Triumph Street Triple R (a mere 675cc, but close enough). Say, how is this going to be any fun? None of these things

makes more than 100 horsepower, and there's not enough aerodynamic plastic between them to splint a fractured Hayabusa tailsection.

Not to worry. The beauty of the current state of the motorcycle art, we were soon to learn, is that whether you think you want a "sportbike" or something entirely different, the things all the OEMs have learned in building dedicated crotch rockets lately seems to have leached into the water table of all these "standard" bikes. One hates to date oneself, but the last standard-style bike I remember with 800 as part of its nomenclature would be the Suzuki VX800 of the early '90s. At risk of getting hate mail from both of the guys who own those, all I can recollect is that our innocent enthusiasm was soon

submarined: Ridden conservatively, the VX would get you there eventually. Ridden enthusiastically, it would quickly convert you to conservatism.

That's not the case with any of these five motorcycles. In addition to doing regular commuting and freeway riding, we also attacked our favorite backroads, one in particular. The main attraction that draws us back to our preferred testi nation is the deserted stretch of Roadrunner cartoon pavement that climbs several thousand feet from the front porch of our desert-floor retreat. Outside of a racetrack, this is the nearest and best place you can wring out a group of sporty bikes without sending the Homeland Security threat level to Red. And if the road in itself weren't enough motivation, throw into the usual Don Canet/Mark Cernicky mix our recently reacquired VP of Integrated Sales, Andy Leisner, who spent 1989 contesting the 250cc Grand Prix world championship. Well, that was years ago, of course, and nobody cares who can go faster than whom anymore, do we? How childish.

First thing in the morning in paradise,

I pick the Triumph, because it's my story to write, and I give myself a head start because I need it. I was pretty sure I was breaking the course record on the Street Triple, which everybody was angling to ride because it's the sportiest, when Cernicky and the BMW roared past, followed shortly afterward by Canet and Leisner on the Yamaha and the Monster in tight formation (should be a good video at CW.com...). I did manage to hold off marketing guy Garrett Kai on the Shiver. Swap bikes, change riders, shoot a few photos, repeat. Notably absent between rounds were any of the usual comments like, "I nearly soiled myself when the (insert bike) dragged the engine case," or "a lesser man than I would've been disheartened when the brake lever on the (ditto) came back to the grip," or any of the other myriad excuses and complaints we've come to expect from each other.

For backroad passive aggressiveness, we agree that the Ducati Monster 796 is least in demand, mostly due to wonky elbows-and-heels-up-and-out ergos that make the bike a little ungainly in tight confines, especially bumpy ones. In spite of its cantilevered single shock being wrapped in a progressive spring, it still serves up harsh punches to the prostate, and at slower speeds the clutch can be grabby (narrow engagement band), while the driveline is lashy. Strangely enough for an urban bike, though, the Monster works best when ridden on really fast, smooth pavement by former 250 GP riders. Says Leisner, "It feels like they tuned it at Mugello." True that. Our fast guys liked the Monster's ability to run deep into corners on the brakes and carve tight lines—a feeling abetted by the bike's 402-pound weight (tied with the Triumph for lightest). But the Monster tach winds up somewhere beneath your chin and out of sight in leaned-forward sporting use, which makes it easy to bump into the air-cooled Twin's low-ish redline in pursuit of power the Monster does not possess: 76.4 horses at 8000 rpm is the least of the bunch.

As for the other Italian, we know who's been eating the Monster's pasta: At 473 pounds without gas, the Aprilia Shiver 750 is the heaviest bike here by 28 lb., with the tallest seat and shortest kickstand to ensure you get the full effect every time you climb on. Replete with ride-by-wire, CAN-bus electrics, three-mode power delivery, etc., the Shiver is the most advanced design on paper. Ironic, then, that on the road, it sort of feels the least cohesive. Throwing all that high weight (including its big, underseat stainless twinoutlet muffler) side-to-side helps make the Shiver the heaviest-steering of the group. But in its favor, once committed to a corner, it holds fast, trail-braking or not. You want the Aprilia to succeed; it's really comfortable once rolling, and nobody can deny it's a swell-looking exotic Italian motorcycle. But even though it is packing an eight-valve liquid-cooled Twin to the Ducati's four-valve aircooled design, and with a stroke nearly 1 Omm shorter, the Aprilia makes a mere one pony more than the Ducati, 1500 rpm higher. And it never makes nearly as much torque. On the mountain, you keep waiting for a surge of power that never comes. On top of all that, the Shiver's fuel mapping isn't really up to par in any of its three modes, its flyby-wire throttle sometimes surging and sometimes hesitating just a tiny bit. It's disappointing and semi-heartbreaking. Still, the short-stroke Shiver, in spite of its name, practically never vibrates, in contrast to the low-rpm thrombulation (© Cernicky) of the tail-geared Ducati.

BMW F800R

Àlps

A Lady Gaga thigh-meat-texture seat

foam and great overall comfort

A Right heated grip

A Left heated grip

Downs

▼ Buzzy handlebar at cruise

▼ Exhaust note more flatulent than stirring

▼ Goofy instruments, hard-to-read speedo

Aprilia Shiver 750

Ups

A Most eyeball-arresting?

A Spacious

A Next-best noise after the Triumph

owns

▼ Unrefined fuel delivery

▼ Shlightly shloppy shifting

▼ Somewhat porcine

Next in the Mountain Road Pecking Order: the BMW F800R. There's a lot to like in this parallel-Twin package, including the fattest torque curve, which climbs above the 50 foot-pound level just past 5000 rpm and stays there almost 'til the 81-hp peak 4000 rpm later. Canet and Leisner both complained that the BMW feels like it falls into corners a little too much initially, a sensation that lessens with speed. And once it's really moving, the bike's natural, widebar ergonomics, narrow feel and light weight (435 lb.) let it make really good time, and slightly too-high footpegs give

it plenty of cornering clearance. You have to get the BMW going faster than most people will ever push it before the suspenders run out of damping, and you can stop really hard on dry pavement without activating its excellent ABS.

Your runner-up ascending the mountain: Everybody was highly impressed with the Yamaha FZ8's linear, predictable handling, ease of use and friendly, powerful, excellently mapped engine. It's a good thing the powerband is so controllable, says Canet, because the FZ's suspension is easily the softest and most lightly damped of the group. Foreaft chassis motion is very pronounced if you're not smooth with the throttle and brakes. While not as agile as the others (a good thing, considering the light suspension damping), it is neutral in corners and allows trail-braking with very little tendency to stand up. Sadly, the only suspension adjustment is shock-spring preload, but dialing in more preload just further overwhelms the rebound damping, resulting in even more pogo action over bumps and under heavy cornering loads. The Yamaha's 4.5-gallon fuel tank and its four-cylinder engine make it a fat little pony between the knees, and it's chunky between the ankles, too—which means it drags its footpegs under fast riders.

It will also ground its exhaust under extreme floggage. And it has a very nice, smooth-running engine but, well, frankly, shouldn't an 800cc Four make more horsepower than a 675cc Triple? Maybe it's a little too nice.

Which brings us to our Unanimous Backroad Bombing Winner: the Triumph Street Triple R. Tied with the Monster for lightest weight at 402 lb. without fuel and cranking out exactly 0.19 hp more than the FZ8 up top, the Triumph sweetens the pot with the best suspension and chassis of the bunch, an excellent ergonomic layout and one of the sweetest-shifting gearboxes we can recall, allied to one of the most soulful motorcycle engines of all time. Not only is it torquey and 12,000-plus-rpm rewy, the Triple howls like an '80s Formula One engine from way low in the powerband and whistles on decel like bombs dropping in a WWII documentary, truly a symphony of great engine, gear and intake noises that sounds too loud to be legal (but not quite loud enough to be obnoxious).

Ducati Monster 796

"Ups

A Bark like a Ducati

A Standard ABS

A Easy enough to swap handlebars

for ergo change

Downs

▼ Brakes a bit mushy

▼ Cruel around-town mistress

▼ Abnormally aggressive ABS

abridges stoppies

cycleworld.com/middleground

Triumph Street Triple R

A Tied for lightest weight A Most horsepower A Lady Antebellum our ass, this engine deserves the Grammy V Can't keep both wheels on the ground V Hence, we lost a fork seal V We all have to share just one

Niggles? The engine is a tad abrupt when you crack the throttle back open midcorner; and those radial-mount brakes (which, along with upgraded suspension, distinguish the "R" from the regular Street Triple) are a little too powerful for our experts' taste. In other words, it was hard for The Fast to find serious fault with this motorcycle. (Furthermore, though the experts agree the FZ8 is the easiest for a beginner to ride, as the closest thing to a beginner in this group despite my 30 years of experience, I think the Street Triple is easier to ride than the Yamamallow.)

Life, alas, does not consist of roosting perfect, swervy pavement all day. It consists of stuffing your junk in the trunk ners than the Monster—though its leansurge fueling issues can be a tad annoying in steady-state freeway droning. The weight and height that hold the Aprilia back as a sportbike are less of an issue in urban use and in fact might be an asset for bigger riders—especially ones looking to score style points and carry a passenger. Part of that heft takes the form of an expansive cockpit, with a little more legroom, plus a posh passenger seat and grab handles. In spite of the Aprilia's drawbacks, two of us were distracted enough by the Shiver's charisma to rate it second overall as the bike we'd choose to ride home on.

and getting back onto the grid and into the grind. And for the long road out and back through the cars, bumps in the road, stoplights, construction delays and slings and arrows of everyday life in the city, the Ducati Monster again, gets picked last, and largely for the same reasons as before: Wonky ergos, a stiffish ride and a thinnish seat mean it's not the most luxurious way to get around town. But if you're a tough guy, that meaty, torqueintensive engine makes up for a lot of discomfort. And it sounds awesome. The Aprilia Shiver's got a nicer seat, better ergos and all-around more civilized manAs for the rest of us, we acknowledge the Beemer buzz but aren't so put off by it. Herr Leisner says he would grab the BMW key first for his long commute, thanks to its cushy seat, great ergos and supple-yet-controlled ride—and heated grips. (Congress should mandate heated grips on every motorcycle manufactured anywhere in the universe.) The Premium Package that includes the digit toasters brings with it ABS (also good) and the On-Board Computer (probably a musthave if you're the iPhone type), but it jacks the price up $1445, making the BMW the premium spread. Along with the Aprilia, the F800R provides the best passenger accommodations.

Which of the remaining three bikes you'd most like to live with becomes largely a subjective matter. For instance, the BMW's buzzy handlebar drives Canet crazy, and he ranked it last for that reason alone, though he (and all of us) loved the heated grips when the temperature dropped to 42 one 5000-foot evening. "My hands were warm, but I couldn't appreciate it because they were also numb," DC complained.

For boring freeway flogs, the Yamaha is your machine—with the most pillowy suspension and seat, big fuel capacity and imperceptible vibration levels. And while it's a very functional motorcycle A-to-B, when you park it next to the others, the places where Yamaha economized become obvious. For example, the other bikes get cool Renthal-style tapered alloy handlebars and sporty brake and clutch (where applicable) master cylinders, but the FZ8 gets a bent hunk o' steel pipe wearing an old-school master cylinder/ brake lever. Its stainless headpipes empty into a collector that appears hewn from lead by a drunken plumber. On the other hand, at least it has a subfender over its rear tire: All the other bikes' rear tires are free to fling crud all over their unprotected undercarriages. And okay, yes, at $8490, the Yam is over a G less expensive than the next cheapest bike here.

We understand, price is important. So if you're trying to go practical and leaning toward the FZ8, do yourself a favor and do not park it next to the Triumph Speed Triple R in Phantom Black with gold lettering and wheels, gold Nissin radial-mount brake calipers and radial master cylinder (with standard braided lines, front and rear), full stainless exhaust system, beautifully polished footpeg brackets, signature twin headlights and fully adjustable Kayaba suspension. Don't look at the performance numbers in our spec chart and find out the Street Triple outperforms the other bikes here in every category. Whatever you do, don't fire up both engines, blip the throttle and compare the Street Triple howl to the Yamaha's muted rasp. And do not, under any circumstances, finagle a test ride and find out that the Street Triple is also about, oh, 82 percent as comfortable around town as the Yamaha despite its thinner seat (thanks in part to those upscale suspenders), or that it's just as practical since it holds, at 4.6 gallons, 0.1 gallon more fuel—all while making you feel about 18 percent younger and at least 72 percent more hip and fabulous than any other bike here. That's right, it's the Triumph by unanimous decision. Chalk up another great hit to the Hinckleyites. E

Yamaha FZ8

ups

A Great suspension for Kansas,

Nebraska and most of Texas

A Sensible thing to do

A 26,600-mile valve-adjust intervals

owns

▼ CLUNKS into gear from neutral

▼ Least-expensive and looks it

▼ Too soft for highly sport-minded riders

SPECIFICATIONS

GENERAL

List price

APRILIA

SHIVER 750

$9499

BMW

F800R

$9950

DUCATI

MONSTER 796

$9995

TRIUMPH

STREET TRIPLE R

$9599

YAMAHA

FZ8

$8490