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
se at sta rts to d ig a t yo u after a while . The fairing's hugen ess pr ecludes turbulance o r stra nge pressu re pockets fro m pushi ng yo u forward , and its m any vents get the breeze in yo ur face wi thout noise or stones or bugs getting there, too . And so re mains o ne . What d o yo u say about a b ike with a su persmooth six-cylin der and electric reverse ? Wh at do yo u say about a bike wi th th is funny Iitlle sw itch on the stereo th at makes it so und like Ste vie Ray Vaughn is hammering on his Stratocaster while riding sho tgu n, Bass Man amps a ll around you? Wh at do you say about a bike th at eats all of Mr. Jones' photo equi pment (no mean feat in itse lf) and swa llows all his othe r stuff - with 's pa ce to spare? W hat do you say about a bi ke with a truly huge fairin g, ven ts and pockets all around , that a lso h a s an a d jus ta b le w indscreen, holds a CB and intercom syst em - and looks goo d, too? You ca ll it "Gold Wing." Yeah, the lore that surrounds this bike has almo st o bscured the bike itself. There' s a reason for .this: It's good. But since every bod y always tells you how grea t this thing is, w e're going to point o ut a few things we'd like d ifferent. First thin g is the cruise control. We're reall y glad it has it [B u t we're semi res ponsib le " a d u lts" here, and we'd like to be abl e to se lect wh at we fccl is a safe cru ising speed at wh ich to set th e cruise. But w e ca n' t, 1 because th e Win g w on' t le t us. Yes, if you try to go very fas t on the Honda, it . will shimmy and shake like the Kawasaki will, on ly it takes h ighe r s pee ds to make it do so. But a 75-mph cru ise-con • trol speed limit blazing across the blazing desert just isn' t reasonable. Do we need to kill all the lawy ers? Hell yes . . We'd change the fork on the inside, because it is harsh on sharp bumps. For in terstate use, that's it for complaints. Pow er' s good, engine's sm ooth , seat's comfortable, hand lebars are in the righ t spot, andthe s te reo's lo u d and so unds good. Wh at else do yo u want? To pay less? Trust us, it's worth payin g for. around 4000 rp m. That' s why we were shi fting, but we' ll take a flat spot over no gea r any day. A close second was the KllOOLT. It shifted better than the R, and it was ha rder to test th e ground clearance of the four-cy linder bike. Brakes were up to snuff, too, anti lock and all. In this setling, th e lou d intake noise that was an annoya nce o n the h ighway suddenly seemed like m usic, and the fuzzy vibrations from the engine went unnoticed. In fact, wha t it really carne down to was preference - some prefered the R, others th e K. Bo th a re easy to rid e fast a nd have fun on. Wh at else can yo u say? Here we go again, but the surprise of the group w a s th e Harle y-Davids o n . Obvious ly, in te rms of handling, it' s nowhere ncar eithe r of th e BMWs. But what thi s is for is not exa ctly enjoyi ng the ro ad yo u' re o n, but rather what it passes throu gh. And yet, it won't force yo u to go slow . The stee rin g is light, and despite being a Hog, it doesn 't wallow too much. Ground clearan ce is lim ited, and the sun sets in the west. As for real handicaps, it is in -this setting that one really laments the effort it takes to st op this thin g . You ca n put yo ur full hurt on the front-brake lever, CURVES CAN BE STIMULATING••• ...o r fri ghtenin g, d ependin g up on which bike yo u' re o u t to p lay with. Since we started by blasting the Beemers for n ot coddling us on the Big Road, let' s laud' them for kee ping us so entertained and not th e leas t bit frig htened on eve n the most treacherous B roads:"ln salu te to its ex cellence in this regard, let's start with the Rll OORT. Riding solo, the thing feels like a spo rt bike. Plonk a passenger on the back. and 'it still feels like a spo rtbike. Rear-spring preload is behind o ne of th e panels, and all you have to do to accomodate a passenger or luggage load is tum a knob - no tools required. That's nice. Unfortunately, despite this feature, we still put the fairing on the road a few tim es while riding two-up. This was at full chat and full lean on wh at wasn't the smoothest of tarmac. So it happened, but no t often. Can't fault the authoratative, cornunicative brakes, however. Good thing, too, because you can fault the gearbox. It's a gearbox that makes you suddenly think about whether your passenger is covered under the company insurance. We say th is only because in search of second gear - more than once - what we got was a false neutral as we went free.wheeling into a hard bend . Be very deliberate with your downshifts, or just leave it in th ird, w h ich is adequate in m o s t circu msta nces be cause of the broad spread of power, tho ugh it is p0ssible to catch the ensi!'e in a flat spot at and sti ll you feel bell er augmenti ng it wi th a good stab on the rubber pad that is the rear-brake pedal, But th at was us trying to keep up with two guys flogging BMWs for all th ey're worth, in the dark of a deserted desert night on a road we d idn't know. What th e Harley 's broad power and comparatively light stee ring say !s relax. Th at the road turns is merely incidental. The Kawasaki's wandering personality doesn't manifest itse lf so aggressivelyon th ese slowe r roads. Still, the Voyager has unparalleled vagueness i n terms of front-wheel feel. We d on't expect much from a touring bike in this regard, but we do expect something. So the tendency isn't to d rive the thing into turns with too much vigor which is good, because the front brake leaves a litt le to be desired. This is not two-finger territory. You can use two there's enough power to be had, mo st of the time. It's just not a good habit to get into, because the moment you give it a full-panic squeeze, the lever is suddenly trapping your two outer fingers against the grip. Then what? Use four fingers, that's what. The big in-line four made good power for accelerating out of turns, even if you don't enter them that fast . Shifti ng wa s better than the Beemer, but wasn't crunch-f ree - be strong. Anyway, you can go fast enough to get in trouble with the law (and then some ) a nd th at' s all you can ask for from a bike like th is, isn't it? Twi ns? Yes, but hardly. Both the Harley and the BMW are powered by fue lInj ected twins equipped with catalytic converters, but there are perhaps no two b ike s fart her apart on the t o uri n g spectrum, I We've b e com e acc us to med to hea ring th in g s li ke th is about the Gold Wing: "A su rp ris ing ly bri sk pace ca n be mainta ined for a bike thi s large ." Well , w e had 'o v er loa d e d th e b ike w ith h eavy camera equipment, put a passe n ge r o n it, and it wasn 't all that con fid en c e -in spiri ng. It was, however, stressed to its limit, even past it, and "a su rp ris ~~ gly brisk pace can be maintamed... Yes, of these big ones, it gives you the least to think about a s you' motor through the SWitchbacks. It doesn't ind uce you to speed as the BMWs do, but it does give you the brakes and the road information through the chassis you can use to comfortably drag its big footpegs and even the fairing. It shi fted without complaint and basically kept us comfortable, no matter what we were up to. DROP THE KEYS, BOY , BEFORE I . KICK YOUR... ...Ask anyone of us as we turned our wheel s southward to w ard Vegas and considered the prospect of eight sunbaked hours on a straight road through the desert: "So, which bike do you want to take?" The answer was obvious to any of us (y o u to o?), ev en th e solo guys riding without th eir wives / girlfriends and the attendant extra stu ff: Gold Wing. Hand over the keys, boy... After that, preferen ces varied. I'm the only guy on staff who could have been (and wa s) actually happy to have ended up on the Rll OORT. Despite th e shifting stuff, it has this iron-fisted competence and of-a-p ieceness that the other bikes lack - ev en it s K-b ike st ablemate (the one bike for which there were no volunteers). Howeve r, if we were actually having to pay for the bike before we got on that m orning, the Voyager would suddenly ha ve looked mighty attractive. For the Gold Wing, we'd pay (Hey, buddy, you want to buy some plasma?); afte r that... Kawasaki all the way. Yeah, we were surp rised, too . . 27