Shiftless. Clutchless. Stepless. Seamless. Clueless? This just in: The idea of a transmission that picks the perfect ratio is hardly a new one. A particularly bright guy by the name of Leonardo da Vinci cooked up the concept of a continuously variable transmission in 1490. With a few notable exceptions-the 1910 Zenith V-2, 1976 Moto Guzzi Convert and 1978 CB750A Hondamatic, to name a few-most modern motorcycles expect us to shift for ourselves. Most, that is, except for the Aprilia Mana 850 and Honda DN-01. And while the purist contingent may argue whether the plastic-wrapped DN-01 is actually a motorcycle at all, one look tells you it's about as far from the Mana as Aprilia's Noale headquarters are from Honda's in Tokyo.

2009 Kawasaki Vulcan 1700 Voyager | Price: $16,799 (As Tested: $17,899)

Tech Spec
Engine type: l-c 50-deg. V-twin	Rear brake: Single Tokico two-piston caliper, 300mm disc	Fuel mileage (high/low/avg.): 42/32/35 mpg
Valve train: SOHC, 8v	Front tire: 130/90-B16 Bridgestone Exedra	Availability: Now
Displacement: 1700cc	Rear tire: 170/70-B16 Bridgestone Exedra	Warranty: 36 mo./unlimited mi.
Bore x stroke: 102.0 x 104.0mm	Rake/trail: 30.0 deg./7.0 in.	Contact: Kawasaki Motor Corp. 9950 Jeronimo Rd. Irvine, CA 92618 949.770.0400 www.kawasaki.com
Compression: 9.5:1	Seat height: 28.7 in.
Fuel system: EFI	Wheelbase: 65.6 in.
Clutch: Wet, multi-plate	Fuel capacity: 5.3 gal.
Transmission: 6-speed	Weight (tank full/empty): 899/867 lbs.
Frame: Steel double-cradle	Measured horsepower: 65.9 bhp @ 5000 rpm
Front suspension: 45mm Showa fork	Measured torque: 84.3 lb.-ft. @ 2750 rpm
Rear suspension: Twin Showa shocks with air-adjustable preload and rebound damping	Corrected 1/4-mile: 14.71 sec. @ 86.32 sec.
Front brake: Dual Tokico two-piston calipers, 300mm discs	Top-gear roll-on 60-80 mph: 10.62 sec.

Suzuki Gladius | Price: $6899

Tech Spec
Engine type: l-c 90-deg. V-twin	Rear suspension: Single Showa shock with adjustable spring preload	Measured horsepower:66.8 bhp @ 8500 rpm
Valve train: DOHC, 8v	Front brake: Dual two-piston Tokico calipers, 290mm discs	Measured torque: 44.0 lb.-ft. @ 6250 rpm
Displacement: 645cc	Rear brake: Single-piston Nissin caliper, 240mm disc	Corrected 1/4-mile: 12.14 sec. @ 105.94 mph
Bore x stroke: 81.0 x 62.6mm	Front tire: 120/70 ZR-17 Dunlop Sportmax Qualifier	Top-gear roll-on:4.82 sec.
Compression: 11.5:1	Rear tire: 160/60 ZR-17 Dunlop Sportmax Qualifier	Fuel mileage (high/low/avg.): 51/39/46 mpg
Fuel system: EFI	Rake/trail: 24.0 deg./4.1 in.	Colors: Pearl Nebular Black, Metallic Triton Blue/Glass Splash White
Clutch: Wet, multi-plate	Seat height: 30.9 in.	Availability: Now
Transmission: 6-speed	Wheelbase: 56.9 in.	Warranty: 12 mo., unlimited mi.
Frame: Tubular-steel trellis	Fuel capacity: 3.8 gal.	Contact: American Suzuki Motor Corp. P.O. Box 1100 Brea, CA 92822 714.572.1490 www.suzukicycles.com
Front suspension: 41mm Showa telescopic fork with adjustable spring preload	Weight (tank full/empty): 447/424 lbs.

2010 Honda Fury | Price: $12,999

Tech Spec
Engine type: l-c 52-deg. V-twin	Rear suspension: Showa shock with adjustable spring preload and rebound damping	Measured horsepower: 55.6 bhp @ 4250 rpm
Valve train: SOHC, 6v	Front brake: Nissin two-piston caliper, 336mm disc	Measured torque: 72.1 lb.-ft. @ 3500 rpm
Displacement: 1312cc	Rear brake: Nissin single-piston caliper, 296mm disc	Corrected 1/4-mile: 13.76 sec. @ 95.29 mph
Bore x stroke: 89.5 x 104.3mm	Front tire: 90/90-21 Dunlop Elite 3	Top-gear roll-on: 5.61 sec.
Compression: 9.2:1	Rear tire: 200/50-R18 Dunlop Elite 3	Fuel mileage (high/low/avg.): 47/36/41 mpg
Fuel system: EFI	Rake/trail: 38.0 deg./3.5 in.	Colors: Black, Ultra Blue Metallic, Metallic Silver, Dark Red Metallic, Matte Silver Metallic
Clutch: Wet, multi-plate	Seat height: 26.7 in.	Availability: Now
Transmission: 5-speed	Wheelbase: 71.2 in.	Warranty: 12 mo., unlimited mi.
Frame: Steel double-cradle	Fuel capacity: 3.4 gal.	Contact: American Honda Motor Co., Inc. P.O. Box 2200 Torrance, CA 90509 866.784.1870 www.powersports.honda.com
Front suspension: Showa 45mm telescopic fork	Weight (tank full/empty): 670/650 lbs.

Honda offers Combined Anti-Lock Brakes (C-ABS) on the 2009 CBR600RR, which we covered in our April issue. But how does it compare to the non-ABS version? Can a skilled rider out-brake the computer? The editors at our sister magazine Sport Rider wondered the same thing, so tested the two CBRs side by side. Here's what they found...

Down here in Mexico, you can smell a good taco stand a mile away. You can also smell a bad one. That's the trouble. Get into a sizeable town like Ensenada and that's about all you smell. If you're lucky: We're here swilling tequila and test-driving tacos because our Kawasaki KLR650 shredded its rear tube on Baja's debris-laden Highway 1. Try finding an extra 17-incher on Sunday in a shanty town. My boyfriend Mauricio already survived a drive up into the hills with a couple locals. He was offered a prostitute and drugs, but somehow, miraculously, came back with a patchable 21-inch tube instead. Too much rubber for a long day on the rim, but good enough to get the KLR and its BMW G650GS contender safely to a hotel somewhere up the road. What was it that Trip Advisor mentioned about the Casa Devertidas?

Surrounded by the leaner, greener, subcompact sensibilities of 2009, a tiny voice cries out from the back of the gearhead cortex: "Bigger is better. Nothing exceeds like excess." That little voice holds these truths to be self-evident. All motorcycles are not created equal, and big, fast ones are generally the way to go. Following the crowd just means waiting in a longer line for brats and Bud, so don't. Basic 45-degree OHV pushrod orthodoxy isn't the only way to big twin nirvana. There are more than a few alternatives to the brand that made Milwaukee famous. Some are bigger. Some are stronger. Some are faster. Some are all of that.

In this corner, weighing in at 700 pounds, sequel to the hardest-hitting two-wheeled hot rod on the street, armed with a 1679cc liquid-cooled V-4 that's the biggest puncher in the game. Back by popular demand, the people's choice: the Star V-Max. In that corner, the challenger, a 578-lb. stick-and-move journeyman puncher packing 1340cc of inline-four Hayabusa muscle, from Hamamatsu, Japan by way of Planet Cybertron: the Suzuki B-King.

Last October on The Tonight Show, Jay Leno asked comedian Katt Williams what he thought about the downturn in the U.S. economy. "We're going into a recession, America," Williams said. "Buy yourself something nice before it happens."

Forget what the brochures say. These aren't supermoto bikes. Not supermoto as in supermotard, as in the French fusion of roadracing and motocross run on go-kart tracks with some dirt and a jump thrown in to keep things interesting. For the most part, they're crafty exercises in niche marketing. Naked twins dressed up to emulate the sort of thing Benny Carlson and Mark Burkhart back into corners for a living.

R-model Ducatis have traditionally been the flagships in Ducati's range. And they've carried the price tags to match. The previous-generation, $30,000 999R was one of our favorite motorcycles, with tractability, suspension and steering precision that let it rival much more powerful four-cylinder literbikes. The $40,000 1098R doesn't just rival them; it leaves them for dead.

Kawasaki Concours 14 | PRICE: $13,799
Hard Parts

On the map it looks like one more intriguing twisty bit running through the Santa Lucia Range between California's arid midsection and the Pacific Ocean. The actual 16 miles of pavement you traverse to get from one to the other are a different story. For 99 percent of the motoring public, the 16-mile narrow-gauge confusion of potholes, kinks, coils and blind switchbacks is an exercise in abject terror. Gold Wing? Forget it. Ducati 1098? Notify your next of kin. But on Kawasaki's latest KLR650, it's paradise.

Surprise. Continuing our way down the lap-time log, the Suzuki GSX-R1000 was fourth-quickest, with Go-Go clocking a best lap of 2:03. From the saddle, the Gixxer feels most like the CBR, or a GSX-R600. With a slimmed-down fuel tank, a short bar-to-seat distance that gets you over the front end and low, narrow bars, the GSX-R feels more like a traditional 600 than a literbike, especially beside the big-boned R1. It feels like a middleweight, at least until you twist the throttle. With 158 bhp making it back to the rear wheel, the Suzuki was the most powerful of the five bikes here. "Pulls like an animal," Go-Go said, "especially in the upper revs." Great brakes too, he noted, "way more than the chassis is ready to deal with. Unfortunately, due to too-soft suspension that makes it difficult to take full advantage of the copious acceleration and stopping power.

Pity the humble electric starter. Every time it comes to lighting the biggest Big Twin in Harley-Davidson history, it has to persuade a pair of pistons through air-cooled bores bigger than what you'll find in a 487-cubic-inch Dodge Viper V-10. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. Without the tireless efforts of the stout little 1.4 kW electric motor, its faithful solenoid sidekick and an automatic compression release, Milwaukee's strongest production V-twin in 104 years might just sit there, lost in an expanse of chrome, billet and metallic lacquer.

mon·ster (`mn(t)-st&r) noun
Etymology: Middle English monstre, from Middle French, from Latin monstrum omen, monster, from monEre to warn. 1 a : an animal of abnormal form or structure b : one who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character. 2 : a threatening force. 3 a : an animal of strange or terrifying shape b : one unusually large for its kind. 4 : something monstrous; especially : a person of unnatural or extreme ugliness, deformity, wickedness, or cruelty. 5 : one that is highly successful

Whatever else you do, do not walk into your local Yamaha dealer and ask to see "one of them-there Eff-Jay-Arr 13 automatics." Why? Because it's liable to wind up a Yamaha sales associate like an old Fisher-Price toy.

Merriam-Webster's definition fits Ducati's Monster as well as any and better than most. But you won't find a Monster more worthy of that name than the 118-horsepower, Ohlins-suspended, blood-red '07 S4Rs, which is a very good thing. Give Ducati credit for defining the modern production naked bike in '93 with the original M900. But up until now, the Monster, even the heretofore-definitive 109-horse S4R, wasn't all that monstrous compared with, say, BMW's 141-horse K1200R or Triumph's 120-horse Speed Triple. Fun? Loads. But it felt, well, old, with ergonomics and handling that were an acquired taste at best.

According to Miguel Galluzzi, the Argentinean designer who dreamed up this whole Monster thing in the first place, "all you need is a saddle, tank, engine, two wheels and handlebars." That's an apt description of any Monster, and doubly so when it comes to the new S2R 1000. OK, so the monstrous S4Rs is more impressive the more you're impressed by raw power and sexy parts. But this new middle-spec Monster is truer to Galluzzi's original stripped-down ideal-and at $9995, being $5000 cheaper hardly hurts. The ergonomic challenges of a wide 'bar and high pegs are just as painful here, and unless you buy shoes in the kid's department, there's not much room for your boots. But otherwise, there's precious little to complain about.

It takes most people five or six hours to ride from Los Angeles to Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey. We, as most of you have already figured, are not most people. Deadline stress and the first motorcycle Grand Prix on U.S. tarmac since 1994 dictated something more therapeutic than 325 miles of freeway. Besides, with some 80,000-plus fans converging on California's postcard-perfect Monterey Peninsula from every direction, our regular routes would be choked with motorcycling humanity along with the California Highway Patrol. Just as we learned the Primedia corporate jet was in for an oil change, the phone rang.

Four Seasons accommodations on a Motel 6 budget is no oxymoron. It's a clean, used Honda GL1800. More fun to ride than ever before, an all-new 1832cc flat-six meant it wasn't for the Metamucil set anymore. A revelation (even for a company accustomed to producing such things), the aluminum-framed Wing made building luxury tourers so expensive that no other manufacturer--with the theoretical exception of BMW--wanted to play.

Despite mashing the scales with 898 pounds of wet weight, masterful centralization of said mass, a stiff chassis and 110 pound-feet of torque--80 percent of which comes online at 2250 rpm --create an implausible amalgam of Coupe de Ville and Corvette. From getting more wind protection out of a smaller fairing to a single-sided aluminum swingarm that makes rear tire changes somewhat less painful, the third-generation GL made anything less including its predecessors obsolete overnight. Still, the first motorcycle with a dozen fewer parts than an '01 Honda Civic wasn't perfect.

The first thing you'll notice is a low seat that fits short riders better than tall ones. Hide-bound Wingers weren't happy about the switch from no-maintenance hydraulic adjusters to shims and buckets, and they didn't like cam chains replacing cam belts, either. There were teething troubles. Early 1800s would overheat in low gear on hot days, partially because of the side-mounted radiators that made them slim. Revised ECU modules from Honda remedied that. Imprecise temperature gauges on some '01 models--also replaced under warranty--didn't help either. And though few bikes were actually affected, Honda checked the lower cross-member welds on every Wing that might not be quite right.

There were some bad kill switches in '01, and bank-angle sensors that might have come loose in '02 and '03. But any conscientious owner should have exterminated all the bugs. Doubts? A quick check of the VIN number in question at any cooperative Honda dealership will put aspiring new owners at ease.

Caveats? Heavyweight comfort takes its toll in tires and gasoline. The six can get indigestion on regular unleaded, which it can digest at the rate of 30 miles to the gallon if you're in haste. And don't expect a rear tire to live longer than 5000 miles. Still, a nice, pre-owned '01 for $8000 less than a new '05 is smart money well spent.

CHEERS
Transcontinental opulence that's startlingly sporty
JEERS
898 pounds of fun is 102 pounds short of a half-ton
WATCH FOR
Scrupulous maintenance, proof of adherence to applicable recalls and service bulletins, sloppy steering head bearings, damaged driveshaft boot on early models
VERDICT
The sultan of sumptuous two-wheel travel, plus enough muscle and moves to tell the world you haven't gone soft in the gums
VALUE
'01 - $11,030 $11,730 w/ABS
'04 - $13,375 $14,040 w/ABS

Not so much a race-replica as a TT-F1 racer you could hang a license plate on, Honda's RC30 had come and gone before most of us realized what we'd missed. As the 1980s gave way to the '90s, V-four engines replaced the inline layout as Honda's corporate performance signature. Developed to show the world what Honda could do if cost was no object, the RC30 was originally offered in Europe in '88. By the time Honda brought it to America in '90, the bike had won two World Superbike titles under expatriate American Fred Merkel.

Moments later I have to slow for traffic, and my chance to feel the Triumph bashing up against its rev limiter in top gear--as it was about to do--is gone, and gone for good. Daytona's streets are clogged with bikes and police, and I don't need to be reminded that the last time I rode a turbo-bike here it cost me $250 after being speed-trapped at just over 100 mph. And the world's first Rocket III turbo has the horsepower to be a whole lot more expensive than the Bonneville I was riding then.

Say you're the head of design for a motorcycle company with what seems like a pretty simple assignment: Build a midsized, go-anywhere, do-anything streetbike for the American market. Make it respectably quick, reasonably comfortable and rationally priced. It has to work on the street, on the test track and in your prospective customers' neural pleasure centers. It's not enough to be right in some sterile, objective sense. It has to feel right.

"So what's it like?
"It's fast!"