Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127855
RIDE (like riding in a blast furnace once we h it Nevada) from St . George and into Vegas, where we dropped off photographer Kinney Jones (one of the riders on the trip, hence no five-bike action photos ) a nd ed it o rs Kit Palmer and tameron Coatney for the final roun d of the AMA Supercross series. We racked up 1300 miles in four days. [i fa ~ 26 ZEN AND THE ART OF REMAININ G CONSCIOUS Nothing worse for ergonomics than a bored mind. Welco m e to Interstate 40. We took 1-40 at the beginning of the ride o n our w ay o u t of tow n . It w as bad . An d as bad as 1-40 was, as it u su ally turns out, the miles at the en d of the trip see m so mehow longer: And when you combine that wi th the even-greater heat we encountered on our run down Interstate 15 th ro ugh th e Nevada and Ca lifornia d e se r ts on th e fin a l d ay, 1-40 seemed like a tr ip thro ugh Hawaii. All th e in gred ie nt s were th ere: ch okin g heat, arrow-straigh t roads, lifeless desert scen ery ยท a perfect reci pe for turning one's tho ug ht s inw ard . Or sha ll we say tailward. In a salute to this, J s start" at et' th e bottdrn of the list for use on such terrain: BMW Rll OORT. "It's not a fair comparison. That's not a full-rig tourer," you might be thinking. H e y , all the am enities are the re : stereo, bags an d optional top case, va rious electrical outlets for plugging in e very so r t of giz mo, adj us table seat, optional heated grips, and an end lessly fascina ting electrically adjustable win d s creen that also h app ens to be quite effective . lt even has the pri ce: $14,990 for the base mod el. The only thing you don 't ge t is an ul tra-porky dry weigh t. What yo u do ge t for this m oney is one of the most high-tech (and bes t-looking) rigs going. ABS comes standard, as does the Bosch engine-management system with catalytic converte r. You als o get Telelever fron t su spension. W~ we re goi ng to call the A-arm front-suspension system "freaky," but it wo rks much too well for this . Let 's ca ll it "cool." and even" a very goo d idea ." But back to where we were, and tha t w as crossin g tJ:ae d e se rt on a very straight road on a sea t that was locking u s into one po s ition, a posi tion that tended to pu sh us towar d the fuel tan k and make us a bit uncom fortable. Savin g us w as the s te reo (though barel y a udible - definitely needs atten tion), and i the fact tha t because the en g ne is wh at it is - an air / oil-cooled Boxer twin with cylinders way out in th e breeze - there were no w andering w aves of war mth fro m the engi ne bo o st in g o u r body tem ps in the alrea d y-hot hea l. For plowing do wn the interstate, the bi g fuel-injected twi n was p ret ty good, and either had annoy ing vibes or ple asant power pu lses comi ng th ro u gh th e hand lebar s at 80 mph, depending upon your point of vie w. The bi ke will go m u ch faste r very co m fo r ta bly a n d wou ld be th e best one to ge t if we d idn' t ha ve an y speed limi ts. The twin-cy linder Beemer's broth er, the Kll OOLT, w as also good at goi ng fa s t . But engi ne he at o n th is li quidcooled four-cy linder bike was a prob lem , and long- term, s traight-road comfort w a sn ' t much better, either. Th e Kll 00LT has a cram ped seating posi tion for 6-footers, one that introduced those rid ers' knees to the tra iling edge of th e fa i r in g . On th e plu s' s ide, th e K is e q ui p ped w i th (o r ca n b e equi pped w ith ) what th e R h a s with regard to amenities and safety features such as ABS (standard ), excep t, of cou rse for the Telelever front end, and also comes with (Top and above) KawasakI's Voya ger was the bargain of the group and offered all the amenities. (Right) The mountain roads above Jerome are rife with curves. an adjus table w indscreen that pro ved jus t as effective as the R' s, / The aging in-line four in this comparitively lightweight chassis yielded th~ best acc ele rati on and roll-on perf orm an ce o f the bunch, b ut for the long haul, its famou s buzz and excessive high-rpm intake noise were hard on us. O ne thing th a t was so re ly m issed o n both BMWs was cr u ise co n t ro l. The vir tues of thi s fea ture are tough to appreciate until you start grinding mul tiple hours on a road witho ut turns. So whi le the Beem ers had their da ys o n th e trip , the intersta te -on ly o nes weren't them. There are bi kes that are made fo r roads just like these, ho wever. Welcom e to the pow er trio of lon g-distance interstate cruising and a little piece of heaven fo r you r tri p th r o u g h h ell : H a r le yDa vidson Ultra .Classic, H on d a Gold Wing and Kawasaki Voyager. Of these, the Har ley was by far th e m ost p leasa nt surp rise. This w a s the first oppo rtu nity we'd had to spend any time r idin g o ne o f the fu e l-in je cte d 1340cc Eve tw ins, an d it really worked very well overa ll. i n add it ion to im proved throttl e res ponse and what felt like more power, th e fuel -injected engine p roduced less intake noise than the carbureted models, th us allowing the rider to better hear the famous H-D engine note. Even the folks on st aff wi th a somewhat anti-Harley mindset couldn't help enjoying the bike. It was oddly soo thi ng to ride, its chuffchuff eng ine note supplying th e perfect back he at to' your favorite Ame rican rock 'n' roll from the lou d stereo . And wh ile Harleys aren't famous for the ir s hif ti ng prowess, in this clu n k-an dbang-prone group the Ultra Class ic did just fine. Brisk accelerat ion isn't the forte of the nearly 800-po und m ach ine, bu t you wou ld n't bu y o ne for d ra g racin g anyway, wou ld you ? The only tim e we really noticed an y dearth of po we r was whi le w e we re head ed o ve r the 7000foot-plus Kaibab plateau, try ing to accelerate to 85 m p h wi th full sa d dle ba gs, uphil l. Goi ng do wn the othe r side, it moved alon g fam ously. Some of ou r larger riders found their first impressions of the Harley's sea ting position dec ep tive. It felt a bit cramped at first, thou gh knees and s uch d id n' t collid e with any bike parts. Ultim ately, the bike ended up feelin g quite goo d to everyone ove r the long haul with its big, m ultipiece fairing punching a nice, com for table hole in the air for yo u. There are som e odd ities th a t we' d like to see addressed, th ou gh : Th e b r a ke and clutch le ver s feel like Yuri the psych ic spoon- bender got his mind on the m for a good long time, and the brakes, parti cu larl y the fro n t, a re very h igh -effort. Also, the Sta-Puf! marshmallow swi tchgear could do wi th a change. And some-bod y please do so m eth ing about that ratt ling trap d oor ove r the gas filler . Point this thing down the road for six or eight hours, do n ' t do anything too abru p tly, and crank up th e volume on the handl ebar-m ounted stereo con trols, an d you' ll be a happy man. This leaves our Japanese entries. Kawasaki seems to be the ordy manufacturer fro m the Far East whose fullrig tourer wasn't pummeled into exfinction by the Gold Wing onslaught. Based solely o n th is, th e Voya ger X11 deserves nti s peci a l me- on . But when w e firs t picked the bike up, we wondered why it hadn't been. This im pression cha nged over time. O n e th in g w e li ke d a b o ut th e Kawasaki wa s the price. It's the chea po of the bu nch by a wid e m argin, and yet comes eq uipped wit h most of what the others offer. It's go t a fine stereo, cruise co ntrol (which does n' t have a sp ee d lim it, as th e Honda does ), an d storage for e ve r y t h ing . Th e 11 9ticc four is strong. and doesn' t vibe too mu ch. Just don 't try to pass anybody in top gear: Like the other non-German bikes here, top gear is very much an overdrive. We d id have so me open-road complain ts , th ough . Forem ost was the bi ke' s pen cha nt for following pavem ent irregu larities at cruise speeds. And not ju st any irregularity, but 'ally irregularity. It was amazing. You wouldn't think it, but you ge t u sed to it a fter a while and you know th at so me w here, wa y at the end of the spind ly forks, the front wheel is go ing to want to continue in its general path and that the rear wheel will folJ.pw . After some time in the saddle, though. it m a kes yo u tired, all th is d o d ge and shake. The othe r item th at wi ll have you search ing for the next convenie nt place to pull off to rest is the saddle. It' s a big sea t and the riding position is natural enou gh (ha ndlebars can be adj us ted to s uit), bu t at its rea r, th e pad suddenl y runs o ut of padd ing - it is there that the