Cycle World Sweet 16 Shootout

WE HEAR IT ALL THE TIME HERE AT THE Big Book, readers calling in to ask that eternal question, "What's the best motorcycle?" There's no easy answer. It's like selecting your favorite Playboy centerfold; you really couldn't go wrong with any of them.

We usually reply that there just isn't any one best bike, that it depends on where you live, how you plan to use it, your budget, etc. But one thing we all agree on: There's no replacement for displacement. Open-classers just have that extra bit of oomph that we find difficult to do with out. Got a business appointment tomorrow in the next state? Forget about a shuttle flight, just get up early, pin it when the cops aren't looking, and you'll be there before noon. Got plans to roost the backroads this weekend? Great. If your middleweight-riding buddies get too far ahead in the tight stuff, just grab a handful on the straightaways and close the gap. Got a penchant for over- stuffing your soft luggage with tourist trinkets? An Open-classer won't notice the additional weight.

But which Open-classer is best? Now, that's a specific question in need of a specific answer-not just to satisfy readers' phone queries, but because CW's annual "Ten Best Bikes" issue is fast approaching. Nothing to do, then, but round up the usual suspects. We'd have to determine the best bike in time-honored fashion-with a mega-comparison test.

Riffling through the 1997 CW Buyer's Guide turned up 16 candidates-virtually every sportbike over 9OOcc equipped with a fairing. (Yes, we realize Honda's VFR is a 750; it's included here because it's a great all-around motorcycle. And Ducati' 5 916 was excluded because its track-bred ergonomics are simply too uncompromising for general street use.) That makes this the largest shootout this magazine-and quite possibly any motorcycle magazine-has ever conducted.

In order to keep it from becoming a complete cluster... .er, brouhaha, we decided to break the 16 bikes down into four groups of four, pick a winner in each, and then advance those four to the finals, sort of like they do in the local Saturday-night speedway races over at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

Examining the entry list, as it were, turned up the fact that these 16 bikes (and their immediate predecessors) have won no less than 24 Ten Best Awards between them-with the potential for as many as four more in this year's balloting. If that's not an indication of their collective excellence, we can't imagine what is.

So, there you have it. Sit down, settle back and enjoy the read. If nothing else, you'll have saved yourself the cost of a long-distance phone call to Newport Beach.

B ACK IN MOTORCYCLING'S FOGGY PRE-HISTORY, back when "aught" preceded a year's single digit, the V-Twin engine was born. Then, as now, motorcyclists were greedy. If one cylinder was good, then two cylinders-and twice the displacement-were better. And a V-Twin was a simple doubling of the existing components that fit nicely into the bicycle frames of the era.

For decades thereafter, V-Twins ruled. Smoother than Singles, narrow and light, they powered America's motorcycles-whether they were tourers, racers or roadsters. It wasn't until the onslaught of British vertical-Twins and then Japanese Fours that the V-Twin withered. It's hard to believe now, but by the early '70s, the configuration was seen as antique, headed for history's scrap heap.

But. ..a primeval attraction remained in a V-Twin's rhythm, in the lazy way it delivered power, in its apparent simplicity and undisguisable form. It was enough to save Harley- Davidson. And it was enough to convince a few thousand enthusiasts that Italian V-Twins were the sporting answer, even if they didn't accelerate like a Kawasaki Z-1. Instead, '70s Ducatis and Moto Guzzis offered handling and tractability and that diastolic engine pulse, and quickly became the romantic's sportbike. You didn't buy a V-Twin for its numbers; you bought it out of love.

That changed, in part, with the coming of Ducati's desmo Quattro, and the Honda VTR1OOOF and Suzuki TL1OOOS that have now followed. These bikes produce numbers that require no excuses or explanation. Yet V-Twin romanticism is alive in the Buell S3 and the Ducati 9OOSS, bikes with subtler and perhaps even deeper appeal than can be found on a spec sheet.

Start with the bike newest to these pages, the Buell S3 Thunderbolt. New for '97, it shares little but name and family resemblance with its S2 predecessor. Think of the S3 as an S1 Lightning transformed into a hard core sport-tourer, a machine capable of carrying one or two people for several hundred miles comfortably and quickly. Its Sportster-based engine has roots deep in V-Twin history, but it has been enhanced by Buell into a reasonably modern performer. If it were rigidly mounted, it would shake your fillings out, but Buell's rubber mounts isolate the rider from the engine so well that the S3 buzzes noticeably less than a 90-degree V-Twin in the upper reaches of its rev range. It's only if you let the idle speed creep from 900 rpm up to 1200-1400 rpm that the engine's inherent vibration makes itself annoyingly apparent, causing the mirrors to flop like a fish on the dock.

The S3's riding position emphasizes comfort over raciness. The footpegs are low and moderately rearset, while the bars place you in a slight forward lean. It's more like a roomy Yamaha FJ12OO position than the low, tight tuck of most current sportbikes. With a seat just 29.5 inches from the ground, shorter riders can easily balance the S3 at a stop.

The most distinguishing feature of the S3, however, is its handling. With the same quick steering geometry as the 51, and without the mass of a headlight mounted to its fork, it turns quickly and easily. It tracks through corners with reassuring solidity, the firm WP suspension keeping the light wheels and radial tires well anchored to the pavement. It's an easy machine to ride quickly while staying relaxed, and on real roads, if not on racetracks, it generally will keep up with the racier, more powerful V-Twins. The same can be said for Ducati's 90055-SP. This machine traces its roots back to 1979, and the first Ducati Pantah 500. Ducati's previous V-Twins used bevel gears and towershafts to drive their cams-a heavy, complex and expensive solution. So the Pantah engine introduced relatively new technology to motorcycling: the rubber-belt cam drive. Since then, the air- cooled, two-valve-per-cylinder Pantah engine has been bored, stroked and strengthened, and has powered any number of Ducatis to Twins- class racing victories. Because it grew up from a 500, the 9OOSS's 904cc engine is particularly light and compact. This allows a similarly light motorcycle, with a narrow tank and seat that make it feel more like a 600. And while the 9OOSS makes the least power and torque of this group, its lack of mass and its relatively short gearing allow it to post respectable quarter-mile times, and to accelerate in top-gear roll-ons almost as quickly as Honda's new VTR1OOO.

On backroads, the Ducati's steel-trellis chassis shows why there have been so many Ducati racing victories. It feels light yet planted, allowing you to run it deep into corners, and the suspension telegraphs every movement of the tires, with few surprises (we prefer the 916's link design over the 55's cantilever setup, though). The close-ratio six-speed gearbox provides a cog for every occasion, even though the torque curve is so flat that you don't really need that many. Yes, the Ducati's engine may be clattery, and its styling rooted in the mid-'80s, but it still works very well.

If the Ducati is as familiar looking as an old shoe, the Suzuki TL1OOOS is as new as tomorrow 5 sunrise. The technical features ~ of the Suzuki and its racetrack performance have been well documented in these pages, but its street performance has not. There, the high-tech Suzuki is the most exciting of all production V- Twins, and only a few development weeks short of perfection. With 111 peak horsepower and feathery flywheels, the 996cc V-Twin zings to the upper reaches of its rev range, accelerating as hard up top as all but the biggest inline-Fours. Along with that, it pulls well and smoothly from low rpm, giving it a dual personality: fierce and fast up top, smooth and mellow down low.

Though not fully faired, the TL is very much a racer-replica, with a tight riding position close to that of a GSX-R750. This works well on winding backroads, but gets tiresome quickly if it takes freeway miles to get to those roads. In fast sweepers, the TL thrills, with a composed, balanced chassis that instills a great deal of confidence. But in the tight stuff, you start to discover some of those developmental shortcomings-such as the throttle response. Despite a sophisticated fuel-injection system, the transition from throttle-off to just-a4ittle-power is abrupt. You turn the grip slightly and nothing much happens; a fraction more, and suddenly you have more than you want. This makes the TL hard to ride smoothly, particularly on a downhill section. And the wide tires cause it to stand up while trailing the front brake into a corner. On a tight road where peak power matters little, these niggling things make the TL more work to ride quickly than the other machines. It's on those same tightly twisting by ways where the Honda VTR1OOO shines brightest. The VTR is a sporting streetbike, pure and simple; Honda even claims its initial development target for the bike was the 9OOSS. The riding position is backed off from the racetrack, though the bars are still fairly low; in fact, the bar, seat and peg positions are similar to that of the latest CBR9OORR, but the narrower gas tank makes the VTR's position friendlier.

It's the VTR's engine that steals the show, though, with an unmatched midrange punch. Ride the VTR back-to-back with a CBR9OO, and the inline-Four feels weak anywhere but at the top of the rev range. The VTR pulls from 2000 to 9000 rpm with full liter-bike authority, and its twin 48mm carburetors provide the type of linear throttle response that leaves you wondering why we even need bother with fuel injection.

While the Honda is the most fully developed Sport-Twin here, it's also so polished and seamless that at times it can seem a little too generic depending on your particular tastes, you might find yourself loving one of the others more. Still, on the street, on stock tires, the VTR's suspension and handling are near-perfect, and the agile chassis makes it feel like a machine of the gods. It's a magical ride.
WHEW! Now THAT THE CW STAFF'S heads have stopped spinning from the rigors of conducting four four- bike comparison tests, let's get down to business and determine an overall winner. As if Individually, every one of the 16 bikes in this comparison test is excellent, and could make its owner very, very happy. But, having beaten all the other bikes in the preliminaries, our four finalists are the best of the best. You've got to do some serious hair splitting to select the single best one.

So let's do it by process of elimination. Though Suzuki's Bandit 1200 narrowly edged Honda's VFR75O for top honors in the Gentlemen's Express category-it did so largely by virtue of its bargain price, and that's not enough to garner it the overall victory. The Bandit is a great all-around streetbike, easily the best commuter/city bike in this comparison and one of the best two-up sport-tourers, but it gives too much away in the performance stakes compared to the low-flying missiles assembled here.

Next to go is Yamaha's YZF1OOO. Though the big Four topped the Roadburners class, it is, after all, still a big Four, with the weight to match. The YZF may be lighter than its peers, but it's significantly heavier-and not that much faster-than Honda's CBR9OORR, to name a convenient example. Furthermore, while the YZF isn't what we'd call uncomfortable, the reach to its bars is too far for long-distance work.

Size had nothing to do with our striking the next bike off the list. Despite its smallish displacement, Honda's CBR9OORR boasts the best power-to-weight ratio of the 16 bikes in this comparison. It has a responsive chassis, supple suspension and a riding position that's racy without being uncomfortable.

Where the CBR loses is powerband. While it has good snap for wheelies, and a breathtaking top-end rush, its midrange power production just can't compare with the bigger Fours or, more importantly, the new breed of Twins.

And that's what makes Honda's VTR1OOO the over all winner here. We like the VTR for the same reason we like the Roadburners: abundant midrange power. We like the VTR for the same reason we like the Sporting 900s: Open-class engine performance in a 600-sized package. And we like the VTR for the same reasons we like the Gentlemen's Express bikes: a comfortable riding position combined with a high. quality look and feel.

Perhaps most importantly, we like the fact that Honda designed the VTR for sporting street riding rather than racing. The feedback and compliance afforded by its "tuned chassis" are marvelous and, w~ believe, offer a glimpse of the direction sportbike development will head in the future.

Lastly, the VTR is, quite literally, the bike we hen at CW have been asking for. In fact, in our July, 1992 issue, we commissioned an artist's conception of Honda V-Twin sportbike we called the "Super Hawk,' and asked readers if they would like to see it produced The response? A resounding "Yes!" and we forwarded the bagsful of mail we received directly to Honda. So we'd like to think that Cycle World and its readers ha a hand in bringing the VTR to market.

Careful what you ask for, they say, sometimes you get it. In this case, Amen!