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Europe’s Top Bikes
Our cousins in The Old Country love motorcycles as much as we do, but they don’t love the same motorcycles, apparently. The French automotive magazine MotoRevue has released their list of top five motorcycles in Europe, and, as you might imagine, they’re quite different from the Motorcyclist picks of the year I wrote about a few days ago.
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- Aprilia RSV4
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- Ducati 1198
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- Ducati Streetfighter
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- Yamaha Star V-Max
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- Triumph Speed Triple
Three Italians–the Ducati Streetfighter and 1198, and the Aprilia RSV4–head the roster. One Brit bike, the Triuph Speed Triple, makes the list. And the 2009 Yamaha Star V-Max rounds it off.
Apparently, our European cousins are speed freaks. But then, they tend to have speed limits that are a bit less stodgy than those on this side of The Pond.
Motorcyclist’s 2009 Picks of the Year
The mavens at Motorcyclist magazine have announced the winner of the award for 2009 Motorcycle of the Year, as well as their other picks.
Motorcyclist's Motorcycle of the Year: 2009 Yamaha YZF-R1
The bike picking up the top award this year is the Yamaha YZF-R1.
Modern sportbikes are engineered so close to the edge of the performance envelope that we’re conditioned to expect incremental changes: a shaved pound here, an added pony there. It’s almost unimaginable that any sportbike could surprise us with a novel riding experience that realigns our understanding of what a liter-class sportbike is, and what one can do. The 2009 Yamaha YZF-R1 is exactly that sort of bike-which is why it’s our Motorcycle of the Year.
Other notable picks include:
Ben Spies as the Motorcyclist of the year.
The Kawasaki ZX-6R as the best sportbike of the year, closely followed by the Ducati 1198.
The Ducati Streetfighter as the Best Naked Bike, followed by the Harley Davidson XR1200 Sportster.
The Kawasaki Concours14 as the year’s Best Touring Bike, followed by the Harley Davidson Ultra Classic Electra Glide.
Best Adventure Bike honors go to two BMWs, with the F800GS in the top position, and the R1200GS Adventure in second place.
The Best Dreambike is the Aprilia RSV4, with the BMW S1000RR as the follow-on.
Best Bang For The Buck goes to Kawasaki, with the ER-6n as the winner, and KLX250SF as the second-place finisher.
For Best Cruiser, Motorcyclist goes strictly for muscle this year, with the Star (Yamaha) V-MAX ruling the roost, and the Harley Davidson V-Rod Muscle in the supporting position.
Best Dirtbike is the Husaberg FE450; second best is the Honda CRF450R.
Best New Technology is the Honda Combined ABS system, followed by the Ducati Traction Control.
And, finally, the Best New Product honors go to the Gopro Motorsports Hero Wide Camera, with the Bazzaz Performance Z-FI Traction Control taking the runner-up position.
Scooter + Ducati Monster = Scootster?
Italian motorcycle designer Oberdan Bezzi is convinced that Ducati will be revealing a new scooter at the Milan EICMA Motorcycle show in November.
Oberdan thinks the motor will be an 850 and offer a multi-mode transmission like the Aprilia Mana. That’s not a bad assumption; I just had a conversation with a source at Piaggio, who told me Piaggio loves to sell powertrain units to anyone who’ll buy them. “Would they sell one without heads so Ducati could install Desmo heads,” I asked? “Sure” was the answer. Oberdan’s drawing shows the Testastretta motor’s deep sump, so maybe that’s not what he had in mind, but it’d make sense, no? He also envisioned an “S” version, with Öhlins suspension and maybe some lightweight 16-inch wheels as well.
Bezzi also has a concept drawing of this supposed cross between a scooter and a Ducati Monster.
Ducati Scooster
Huh. We’ll see.