Best Hooligan Bike: Triumph Speed Triple
Hooligan bikes make you want to be bad. Really bad. They'll tempt you into lurid burnouts and gravity-defying wheelies. And although there are plenty of good musclebikes on the streets-starting with the enduring V-Max and playing right through retro-rockets like the Kawasaki ZRX1100-none has captured the essence of the angst like Triumph's Speed Triple. Three largish pistons create an unusual cadence, part lawnmower part dragster, and the Triple's massive midrange torque rush makes it easy to rip away from stoplights like Rickey Gadson's racebike is in the next lane. What stokes our ardor is the Triumph's practical side, brought to you by an upright seating position and compliant suspension. It may not be all things to all riders, but the Speed Triple is plenty enough for us.
Best Rodney Dangerfield Bike: Suzuki TL1000S
Herewith awarded to the bike that sells poorly for reasons we cannot fathom is the Dangerfield trophy, given this year to the Suzuki TL1000S. It nearly unseated the Honda VTR1000F in our "Peep Show" in June '00, and was our unquestioned favorite for the most sporting of midrange sport-twins. Suzuki and its otherwise sanguine dealers admit the TL-S is a showroom anchor. Maybe the bike's early (and undeserved) reputation for tankslappers-a reputation we've never been able to make appear in real life-killed it. Still, this is a motorcycle we consider fondly, mainly on the strengths of its stonking engine and take-no-prisoners sporting focus.
Best Swiss Army Knife Bike: BMW R1150GS
Walk around the big GS and you're confronted with contradictory information. Those skinny tires can't be very good on the highway, yet their street-oriented tread implies that an off-road excursion would be pure agony. The upright riding position seems set for human-sail awards on long rides yet couldn't possibly be right when you're trying to make time on Highway 1. The bizarre techno-German styling seems at odds with sport riding, touring and fire-roading. And yet this brute of a motorcycle works so well at so many things the design borders on brilliant. Comfortable for extended rides, amazingly capable on twisty roads (particularly where high speeds aren't attainable) and rugged enough to handle pockmarked pavement with contemptuous ease, the Gelande Strasse amazes everyone who rides it. There's no way a bike that looks like this could work so well. But it does.
Best Sport-Tourer: Honda VFR800F Interceptor
Even three years after its introduction, we're still absolutely smitten with the VFR800F Interceptor. (It won Best 750 GT in 1998.) We'll agree the Triumph Sprint ST (and, to some extent, the RS) has edged into the Honda's market a bit, as has, to a degree, the BMW R1100S. That the VFR cannot be ordered with factory hard luggage remains puzzling. Still, no motorcycle we can think of does as much-and well-as the 'Ceptor. Commuting, weekend back-roading, longer treks with soft luggage-the VFR does it all, and does it superbly. Exhilarating, stable, nimble, trustworthy...that kind of mission-statement-speak surfaces when discussing the VFR, but the bike upholds its end of the deal. You could hop on one of these and go any place you have the time to see.
Best Entry-Level Bike: Kawasaki Ninja 500R
Sporting bikes make better entry-level models, we think, because they tend to have a lot more headroom (i.e., performance the newbie can gradually explore as he or she gains experience). Cruisers, though usually small and light, are often confining; literally because of "traditional" ergonomics and figuratively because of low performance. So we've come down in favor of the Ninja 500R, a bike that's been around for so long we tend to take it for granted. Yet it's consistently been a good seller for Kawasaki and seems to have a lock on smaller riders (and women) who shy away from cruisers. In many ways, this is the motorcycle the Buell Blast! is most trying to counter, which is an achievement in its own right.
Best Bang-for-the-Buck Bike: Suzuki SV650
Here's a category that's easy to understand yet difficult to design for. Really cheap bikes manage to feel, in some way or another, well...cheap. Somehow, though, not the SV650. At $5749, the SV is among the least expensive bikes on the pavement (that's only $750 more than the Kawasaki Ninja 500R, for cryin' out loud!) yet acquits itself like a much more expensive model. From the velvety cadence of the liquid-cooled V-twin to the excellent brakes and humane ergonomics, the little Suzuki carves smiles all around. Way beyond expectations, the bike has become a hit, in ways the erstwhile Honda Hawk GT never managed.
By Kevin Wing
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