Almost every bike has a one defining element, something that differentiates it in a crowded market place. Occasionally that’s luscious looks, cosseting comfort, prodigious power, outstanding handling (okay, I ran out of alliteration there); with the BMW R1200R you only have to dig as deep as that first good pull of the throttle. There it…
Category: Motorcycle Tests
Which motorcycles and products we’ve tested, and exactly what we think of them.
2007 Benelli TNT 1130 Cafe Racer – A Spartan Warrior’s Soul
The woman in the silver Nissan Xterra, swathed in west coast urban adventurer garb, looks on gape-jawed as the bike slides up parallel. The bike moves forward slightly and the Xterra edges alongside again blocking traffic. Consideration for a bike in Vancouver? No, this is something else. The driver’s window whirs down and the woman,…
2007 Suzuki Bandit 1250S – Refinement Runs Deep
Grunt. Shove. Push. Usable Power. Keep your horsepower high-output statistics, because what the new Suzuki Bandit 1250S has in spades is torque. A maximum 79 lb.ft of it achieved at a mere 3700rpm… read that again please then repeat after me, “Maximum torque at 3700RPM.” That means you have you choice of gears off the…
2007 Suzuki M109R LE – Looks and Confidence Too
In Oliver, BC., at a local sportbike rally it’s incongruous that the motorcycle drawing the most attention is not amongst the flocks of GSX-Rs, fleets of CBRs and flights of R1s, it is a cruiser. Okay, it’s not that big of a shock – the 2007 Suzuki M109R LE, resplendent in a blue metal fleck…
Ducati GT1000 – A Little Bit of History Repeating
Back in 1971 Shirley Bassey was singing “Diamonds are Forever” and Ducati had just released the GT750, a product of Fabio Taglioni’s (Dr. T’s) prediction that motorcycle displacements were on the rise. The engineer took Ducati’s existing SOHC, two-valve, single-cylinder design, bodged it to another and voila, the first Ducati 90-degree L-Twin. The GT750 inspired…
2007 Aprilia Tuono 1000 R: Ride Impression
Flashback; imagine yourself back in grade school, riding your first mountain bike with the big wide handlebars and the comfy seat. Remember the ease with which it handled and how much fun you had flying down the hills. Recollect the big grin on your face, the wind in your teeth, the adrenaline you felt and…
2008 Kawasaki Concours 14 – 20 Years in the Making
Deer Creek Rd. on the northern edge of California’s Malibu Canyons is narrowing to a lane-and-a-bit of pockmarked pavement with dirt-dusted corners. It’s a motard road, which likely isn’t what Kawasaki had in mind for what they’ve dubbed a “top-of-the-line sportbike with touring capabilities” or “supersport touring” bike. We round a corner and brown is…
2008 Ducati Hypermotard S Ride Impression – Hyperactive
The “236” leading to Big Basin outside San Francisco narrows from two lanes to what can generously be described as one and a half. The surface is a “squirm” of tar snakes, wetted to slickness by the morning marine layer. Corners fold on themselves, radii decreasing and elevations changing. Detritus litters the roads. I should…
2007 Ducati Sport 1000 S – The Paradox Machine
Riding into the city the dome of the windscreen reflects the Lion’s Gate Bridge’s lights in a moment of cinematic grace reminiscent of David Bowman’s face shield in Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey. The clocks are marked with fine point font, thin elegant needles, and the chrome bezels reflect a glittering world. The cowling amplifies the…
2007 Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – The ’07 King of Zing
In third gear I roll on the throttle of Suzuki’s 2007 GSX-R 1000. Within seconds my riding companions are reduced to pinpoint headlights in the rearviews by fearsome acceleration. This is not so much an engine as four inline “hell-mouths” on whose demonic intakes you sacrifice gouts of virginal 94-octane gasoline conjuring a howling outflow…
2007 BMW F800ST – The Smart One
Thrrrazzziiinnnn! The engine spins up, the tach sweeping past 7000-red. What a subtle thing motorcycle design must be? Snic-klink – another clutch-less upshift then back on the throttle. It’s the same chassis, the same engine, just a bit softer suspension, flat bars, some fairing and a taller windscreen… Preload the shift lever, hit red line,…
Meet the Xs Part 2: BMW G650X Country – Softroader Brilliance
Watching the Dakar Rally I know the special gene that urges a man to self-flagellate across a desert for a month is missing in me. I respect these, and other, skilled dirt riders in a way reserved for potentially dangerous asylum escapees, because they inevitably suggest “locking the rear tire”, “giving it more throttle” or…
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