Name: Ben Morgan
Age: 25
Home: Ketura, Israel
Occupation: Mechanic, studentinline_mediumwraptextright27174473/features/122_1004_1986_yamaha_srx600122_1004_02_o+1986_yamaha_srx600+front_view.jpgTrue

Honda has made some questionable moves in racing over the years. Letting multi-time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi go to Yamaha. Replacing newly crowned AMA Superbike Champion Ben Bostrom with his brother Eric. But one of the most curious ever was cutting loose three-time AMA Superbike champ Fred Merkel.inline_mediumwraptextrightFred Merkel's racing success is indelibly tied to Honda's V4 Superbikes. Here he leads the start of the inaugural Canadian round of the 1989 World Superbike Champion at Mosport on an RC3028434748/features/122_1004_fred_merkel_superbike_champion122_1004_01_large+fred_merkel_leading+.jpgTrue

The old boundaries between sport and touring are getting harder to see. Throw Honda's VFR1200F into the mix and this Über GT game just got harder to win. How it stacks up against BMW's K1300S and Suzuki's GSX1300R Hayabusa depends on how far and how fast you want to play.inline_mediumwraptextrightA Hayabusa is quicker and faster and a K1300S is more comfortable over the long haul, but the VFR arguably offers the best of both worlds.28362769/features/122_1004_honda_vfr1200f_vs_world122_1004_02_o+suzuki_hayabusa+front_shot.jpgTrue

No other consumer product manufacturer has done as well at lifestyle marketing as Harley-Davidson. The Motor Company has done it so well, in fact, that it may have marketed itself into oblivion. Harley's core customer base is aging out of the sport, and its traditional products don't complement the "personal brand" of the next-generation bike buyers who don't-or won't-identify with the slow-rolling, backward-gazing Hog stereotype. The result is slow-sales suicide.

The attraction is apparent: Sportbikes scream speed, even when parked in the showroom with a "Do Not Sit" sign on the seat and balloons tied to the bar-ends. Yamaha's research shows that most first-time sportbike buyers sidle up to the YZF-R6, powerless against the hypnotizing appeal of its racetrack styling. Recognizing the need for a stylish, fully faired beginner's bike, the tuning-fork company designed the FZ6R to more directly resemble its Daytona 200-winning sibling. After cutting the half-faired FZ6 and previous-generation YZF-R6S from the 2010 lineup, Yamaha's middleweight offerings are now half what they used to be. So how do the two remaining 600s stack up?

My grandfather knew good technology when he tried it-and he tried it all. When he finally got tired of horseback hunting, he bought himself a Willys pickup, the first 4WD in McCall, Idaho. Behind the seat rode his trusty Model 70, a "rifleman's rifle" that emerged from Winchester's New Haven works around the time the first Ural rigs shipped to the Soviet army.

Name: Karey McGee
Age: 35
Home: Wesley Chapel, FL
Occupation: Equestrian trainerinline_mediumwraptextright26843666/features/122_1003_2006_kawasaki_zx_14122_1003_01_o+2006_kawasaki_zx-14+right_side_view.jpgTrue

Yamaha’s all-new XT1200Z Super Tenere has as much in common with the world-beating YZF-R1 superbike as it does with any of its Paris-Dakar-bred predecessors. A traction-enhancing crossplane crankshaft, YCC-T ride-by-wire throttle activation and variable (Sport or Tour) drive modes are all lifted from the R1, and the Super Tenere ups the technology ante with three-mode traction control and a Unified Brake System with ABS. The end result is a sophisticated super-enduro set to compete with Ducati’s high-tech Multistrada 1200 S and the new DOHC BMW R1200GS—though the Yamaha will only be available in Europe for now.

It was perhaps Britain's finest hour and the beginning of the end, rolled into one weekend in March 1971. BSA's Rocket III and Triumph's Trident had been introduced along with Honda's CB750 in '69, but were conceived eight years earlier and were already looking like too little, too late. The new Japanese four totally crushed the British triples in American showrooms, and racing followed suit: After taking the pole at Daytona in '70, the Britbikes went up in smoke, handing the win in the 200-miler to Dick Mann on Honda's sole surviving CB750. Next time there would be scores to settle. Both factories were all in.

At a time when much of the motorcycle industry is in a holding pattern, it’s encouraging to hear Triumph Motorcycles North America CEO Mark Kennedy say his company plans to release no less than seven new models by 2012. That was the crux of Kennedy’s keynote address at the recent Triumph U.S. Dealer Conference in Orlando, Florida. Kennedy showed dealers a concept drawing of a new, more off road-oriented Tiger and made references to both an updated Sprint ST sport-tourer and a larger-capacity, Trophy-type touring bike to compete against Kawasaki’s Concours 14, indicating what some of those new models will look like.inline_mediumwraptextright32421360/features/122_1002_first_look_2010_triumphs122_1002_04_z+triumph+TBird_1700.jpgTrue

From across the showroom floor, it looks like a classic case of sibling rivalry. You know the story: Celebrated middle-aged phenomenon returns home after extensive cosmetic surgery and six weeks in rehab to find a younger/stronger/leaner/meaner brother has commandeered his parking place, relegating the once legendary bad boy to B-list exile, Hallmark Hall of Fame holiday specials, progressively embarrassing infomercials and stunt-doubling the Cookie Monster on Sesame Street, followed by the slow, painful descent into early retirement. The sad fact of the matter is, parked next to a 135-horse Testastretta Streetfighter, the Monster doesn't look quite so monstrous anymore. And if all you want to do is look, that's all you really need to know. For those of us who would rather ride, the whole question of how or even if the Monster 1100 holds its own against the more combative Streetfighter depends on where you start the fight.inline_mediumwraptextright26882807/features/122_1003_ducati_monster_1100_vs_streetfighter122_1003_01_o+ducati_monster_1100_vs_streetfighter+front_view.jpgTrue

We get a virtual truckload of E-mail around here, and lately have noticed a new phenomenon. Instead of readers asking us to help them choose between two different makes and models, more and more are trying to decide between two models from the same manufacturer. Sibling rivalry, as it were. Or as we've dubbed it for this issue: "Family Feud."

It's been years since any other Superbike could consistently challenge the dominant Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000s. It's been even longer since another racer rattled the otherwise unflappable Mat Mladin. But Larry Pegram and his Foremost Insurance Ducati 1098R managed both in 2009. Not only did Pegram score three AMA American Superbike wins (two admittedly in Mladin's absence), he also inspired the normally no-excuses Australian to complain about Ducati's "unfair" power advantage.

"I cannot do this," I told myself as I wrestled the big Ducati through the Pomona Half-Mile's rough and rutted turns. Thrown in at the deep end, out in practice for the Open class of Gene Romero's West Coast Flat Track Series, I tried to stay out of the way as the other, more experienced riders dive-bombed under me going into the corners and slingshot past me on the straights. I don't think I breathed once my first two laps.

On one side of his elegant card it says "Giancarlo Morbidelli-Vintage Motorbike Collector." On the reverse is a photo of a '70s-era Grand Prix bike, also bearing the name Morbidelli. Clearly there is more to this man than just being a "collector" of old bikes. Although he has done a pretty good job of doing just that with over 250 bikes on display in his museum in Pesaro on Italy's Adriatic coast. Another 250 await restoration out back.inline_mediumwraptextright27985519/features/122_1002_giancarlo_morbidelli_grand_prix_motorcycle_collector122_1002_02_o+giancarlo_morbidelli_vintage_motorbike_collector+outside_museum.jpgTrue

Four laps into my stint on Mat Mladin's AMA Superbike Champ-ionship-winning Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, I finally build up the courage to roll the throttle wide flippin' open. The resultant rush is literally breathtaking-the same stomach-churning sensation I felt when I dove out of an airplane. Heading onto Auto Club Speedway's banked pit straight, the front Dunlop finishes its salute to the sky as I shift into third gear. I keep the throttle pinned through fourth and fifth as the massaged motor propels me forward on a tsunami-like swell of power that overwhelms my brain's ability to keep tabs on time and space. If this is what a "neutered" 2009 AMA Superbike is like, I can't imagine the full-blown machines Suzuki ran previously!inline_mediumwraptextright26768837/features/122_1002_mat_mladin_suzuki_gsx_r1000_superbike122_1002_01_o+yoshimura_suzuki_gsx-r1000+right_side_view.jpgTrue

One day after its moment of triumph on this strip of rubber-streaked Portimao tarmac, the blue-and-white Yamaha is unchanged but the feelings of its rider could hardly be more different. As the factory YZF-R1 sweeps through the last, fast right-hand curve and onto the Portuguese circuit's pit straight, I'm savoring its stunningly strong and smooth acceleration, enjoying the crisp four-cylinder howl from the underseat exhaust and wishing my all-too-brief ride could last just a few more laps.

Big Sid Biberman has been a Vincent man since 1950, when he took his first fateful ride on a Shadow he borrowed from a friend. In the early '70s, after 20 years of die-hard Vincent worship, Big Sid was similarly smitten with the 1972 Ducati 750 GT. This was the first of Ducati's big twins, and Sid found the idea of a more-modern sporting V-twin understandably appealing. Soon Sid's garage housed both a Vincent and a Ducati, and for most of that decade he switched back and forth between the two. Naturally, he often wondered about a bike that combined the best qualities of both. The Vincati answers that once-rhetorical question.

Motorcycles make good medicine. Sidney M. "Big Sid" Biberman learned that lesson as a young boy growing up in Norfolk, Virginia, making restaurant deliveries with his father, a butcher. His father could be a cruel man, and Sid remembers the occasional glimpse of off-duty sailors racing motorcycles along the Norfolk city streets as his only joy during those endless, back-breaking delivery runs. A few years later when Sid-by then an American GI and big-time motorcycle enthusiast-returned from overseas duty and found himself betrayed by the man he thought was his best friend, motorcycles saved him again. Sid's tormentor was the best motorcycle drag racer in the Tidewater region. To punish him, Sid built his Vincent Rapide into the fastest bike on the Eastern seaboard, and then used it to beat the man so soundly that he eventually gave up motorcycles for good. Revenge, it seems, is best served on two wheels.

Name: Fernando Costa
Age: 62
Home: São Paulo, Brazil
Occupation: Retired pharmaceutical executive

Last summer, feeling bold, I asked my wife if she might be interested in a motorcycle tour of the Dolomites. I ask questions like this periodically to test the bounds of what is possible-in the same way one might ask for a lifetime stipend from Bill Gates. It was a Hail Mary of epic proportions.inline_mediumwraptextright26426771/features/122_1001_motorcycle_tour_of_the_dolomites122_1001_03_o+the_marriage_counselor+bike_rear_right_view.jpgTrue

If you want to stay married to the same woman for a really long time, you've got to be willing to navigate a trackless emotional jungle. Part Indiana Jones, part Sigmund Freud, you blunder through the half-light, never finding firm footing and always on the alert for diabolical sensitivity traps laid with love and the best of intentions.inline_mediumwraptextright27667507/features/122_1001_escape_cold_comfort122_1001_03_o+a_cold_comfort+on_the_road.jpgTrue

A couple summers back, I rode the then-new BMW F800ST from the northeastern edge of New Jersey to the midwestern rim of California. The two weeks and 4200 miles included side trips to visit old friends, a pause for the vintage races at Mid-Ohio and a wrong turn in Yellowstone that put me in Montana. All time well spent.inline_mediumwraptextright27665407/features/122_1001_escape_american_idyll122_1001_03_o+the_american_idyll+left_side_view.jpgTrue

Dubai is like no other place on Earth. Imagine Oz, only with camels instead of flying monkeys.

NAME: Harv Arnold
AGE: 65
HOME: Nederland, CO
OCCUPATION: Retired photographer
PHOTO: Michael Chilcoat