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UP FRONT

The Ten Rest

MARK HOYER

IT'S HELL TRYING TO PICK THE TEN BEST bikes. Okay, "hell" might be an overstatement. Riding all these great bikes in our search for the best of the best hardly qualifies as hazardous duty, except, perhaps, when it includes Cernicky. Still, there is a far greater number of fabulous machines than there are categories for Ten Best, and it seems to get harder every year to choose just 10. So, what follows are 10 more machines of distinction, dubious or otherwise.

Best Bike You Have To Make Your Own Enqine Noises On: Zero S and DS

No, electrics like these are not replace ments for gasoline bikes. Yes, they're expensive ($13,995 with the big, wethink-mandatory ZF9 battery pack). No, the real range doesn't come close to the claimed 114 miles-it's more like 45 in normal use. And yet, these bikes were some of the most compelling machines of 2012. So silent, so easy to ride, after a week or two in the saddle, you begin to wonder what all the noise is about on conventional machines. Zeros represent the first real step toward a truly useful electric motorcycle. Plug-ins won't rule the roads, but they will find their niche.

Best Straight-Up Sporty Value: Kawasaki Ninja 650 To a large degree, most motorcyclists are not in the twowheel game for rational reasons. But if you need some rationalization for getting a bike, the Ninja makes a great argument. It’s a fabulous all-rounder that is comfortable, swift, easy to ride and looks good. But the real kicker is its $7500 pricetag—peanuts for this much fun and versatility.

Best Bike For Breaking Down Barriers Between Riders: Honda CBR25OR

We gave the quarter-liter CBR an Honorable Mention, mostly because we don't have a Ten Best category to fit it in. We also added an ABS model to our long-term fleet. Essentially, we love this bike. And so does everybody else we come across. Parked between two Harley-Davidson CVO baggers at a local hangout, the CBR drew both owners of said American iron to corner me and ask questions about it. They'd started riding on Hondas, and one said he was thinking of getting his daughter a CBR25OR because she was turning 16 soon. I am absolutely sure he'd be buy ing it for himself.

Best American Tourer That Also Doubles As A Cargo Truck: Victory Cross Country

This bike has a lot of good qualities, not least of which is a super-solid, goodhandling chassis and a fine-running V-Twin with lots of stomp. It's also got good wind protection and a comfortable seat that made it easy to rack up 10,000 trouble-free miles in our long-term test (see p. 68). But what really sets this big Vic apart is its luggage capacity, par ticularly the top trunk, which carries a payload rivaling that of a Freightliner. It's huge, like echoingly huge, to the point you could almost fit a Ruckus in there. Hey, cool, bagger bumper bike!

Best Bike for Throwing an Eastern Bloc Party: Ural M70 Anniversary Edition The Russian-made Ural-with-sidecar is per haps the most singularly irresistible ma chine on the market both for established motorcycle enthusiasts and for those who know nothing about the sport at all. Crowds form everywhere it goes. Our test Ural had an awful transmission and handled like a sidecar (wince) and was absolutely one of the most charming rides on the planet. Perhaps this machine is responsible for tearing down the wall be tween East and West?

Best Superbike Of The Future: 2014 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Suzuki has been on life-support since the global economic meltdown hit, but recent signs of life include a spied 2014 MotoGP racer that appears to be powered by a crossplane-crankshaft inline-Four. We can't help but think this will be the basis for a new-think GSX-R1000 a couple of years from now. Mandatory specs: minimum of 180 rear-wheel horsepow er; lighter than a Ducati Panigale; full rider-aid package with TC, ABS and electronically adjustable suspension. Do it all for the low prices we expect from Japanese manufacturers. Please!

Best Two Bikes In One: Harley-Davidson Switchback Easily stripped bags and a detachable windscreen are not new concepts, but the purity of execution and ease of transition afforded by the Switchback are what sets it apart. Mere minutes separate you from a crisp, lean cruiser and an open-road-ready "light" bagger. The 103-inch motor adds to the pleasure of the ride. It ain't cheap at $16,000 in basic black, but it's a lot easier to swallow if you think of it as two bikes in one.

Best Sporthike That Walks Loudly And Carries A Big Stick: Suzuki Hayabusa Oh, do we dig the Kawasaki ZX-14R and its nearly 200-horse motor. Love its improved chassis, too. But what's great about the `Busa is that it's like a giant GSX-R, offering its own insane take on mega-sportbiking. Sure, it "needs" 30 more hp to be competitive and its styl ing has always been "distinctive," but none of that matters when you're out in the saddle firing off of great big sweep ers, feeling the groove.

Best Four-Cylinder Sport-Tourer: Kawasaki Concours 14 A second Ten Rest appearance for the Conc, but I'm absolutely obligated to include this bike in any list about Bestness. The BMW K1600GT's pure technical achievement and incredible six-cylinder power and smoothness gave it the nod in the bigs, but you can't deny the value that the C-14 represents. Think of it as a more comfortable Hayabusa. Hey, why isn't Suzuki making one of those?!

Best Reborn Britbike That Isn't Quite Reborn: Norton Commando 961 There's been quite a bit of hoopla since the acquisition of Norton by British fire works-mogul Stuart Garner four years ago, and we even had our English con tributor, Gary Inman, storm the factory for a test ride, which he very much en joyed. But deliveries in America have been mighty delayed and are reportedly quite slow in the UK, so we talked to Norton USA. Commandos are said to be "on the final laps of U.S. approval and delivery." Get with it, gents. The faithful are, well, losing faith.