Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Ride it like that, though, and you've missed the point. This is a bike where it pays to cruise the torque curve and shift up at just around five grand, letting yourself take advantage of that smooth, friendly power delivery which gives you more than enough ponies to grab your interest, without feel ing that you're struggling to control a stampede in doing so. That's the whole appeal of the Bulldog: it provides enough performance to make it fun to ride, but not so much you think you must be Colin Edwards or Troy Bayliss to control it. Actually, the Bulldog is sort of an easy-rider Raptor, and here's why. The quite upright riding position is nevertheless relaxed and comfortable, with that low seat covered with antiskid material, and relatively plush by streetrod standards, with very good passenger accommodation. The fuel tank - whose distinctive styling recalls another of Yamaha's niche-market successes, the SRX500 street single - is shaped to allow your knees to tuck tight in and make you feel at one with the bike, sitting in it rather than on it and without any excessive heat from the air-cooled engine. The footpegs are low enough to be comfortable, though it's quite easy to drag the hero tabs fitted to them, providing an early warning that the limits of the 17-inch Dunlop D205 Sportmax rubber fitted as standard are about to be reached. The next thing to touch down will be the length of the front cylinder's header pipe - in which case, you crash. The rider's pegs are actually mounted quite far back, though the low pillion pegs will also find favor. The one-piece handlebars are rubbermounted via high risers bolted atop the upper triple clamp, but they're pulled well back and the resulting stance will allow 90 mph cruising without you having to hold on too tight though any more than that is a distinct effort, and the 120 mph top speed with one hand on the fork leg, and the tach needle planted in the red zone just 300 revs short of its soft-action 7000 rpm rev limiter - is unlikely to be tested by many customers. Being much more rigid and therefore effective than its flimsy counterpart fitted to the S4 Monster, the small f1yscreen mounted atop the Bulldog's single round headlamp actually does its job of deflecting air off your helmet and upper body quite well, with a compact but extremely well-designed instrument panel behind it with an array of warning lights in the top left, a digital clock and trip/mileometer underneath, and a big analog speedometer with a half-quadrant tach in the bottom of its face. The only criticism is the context of the customer this bike is aimed at is the absence of a fuel gauge: people (Left) Weighing 500-plus pounds and producing only 65 horsepower, the Bulldog won't excite sportblke enthusiasts - but It could be the perfect motorcycle for born-again riders or newcomers to the sport. (Above) The Bulldog gets what Is basically a 20-year-old engine - once found in the Virago and more recenUy the DragStar. who come to the Bulldog after driving cars aren't likely to be comfortable with only a warning light. The XVS engine has been adapted to the Bulldog in DragStar guise, and that means a feature not usually found on any remotely sporting motorcycles other than those made in Berlin: shaft final drive. In fact, this is completely unnoticeable when you ride the Bulldog, partly because Yamaha has obviously spent many years refining it, and partly because this is not a bike on which you want to start exploring the outer limits of its handling ability - especially with the adequate but unexceptional grip of the Dunlop D205 tires, which are tailored more for long life than a high level of grip. Anyway, shaft drive when combined with a transverse crank works just fine in everyday street use, and the advantage for our Volvo owner is that of course he doesn't have to worry about chain maintenance. The Bulldog's shifting is a little clunky, though, especially in the bottom three gears, though the spread of power and torque is so wide you don't have to change gear that often, just go with the flow and enjoy the ride - the 3000-5500 rpm sweet spot is where you want to aim to keep the engine turning, and that's easy to do. The softly sprung 43mm conventional forks are adjustable only for preload, but have 130mm of travel and eat up road rash pretty well, though they do dive a lot when you use what are easily the Bulldog's most high-tech components at all hard, namely the twin 298mm Sumitomo front brakes with differentiallysized four-pot calipers. The brakes are sourced direct from the R1 and the best part of the Bulldog's chassis package, with the engine underslung from a Belgarda-designed tubular steel sp?lceframe, acting as a fully as this is a bike tailored to be friendly for passenger use. Living with the Bulldog tucked up in its kennel beside your house should be an undemanding yet enjoyable experience, for this is a userfriendly product that probably benefits in equal measure from Italian form, incorporating style and allure, and Japanese function, meaning attention to detail. So there's an excellent turning circle on the Bulldog, making this an easy bike to ride in town; the steering feels planted and solid at all times, even without a steering damper fitted - but then there isn't enough power on tap to make front end shimmies a hazard on such a long, heavy bike; the mirrors are ideally placed so you can actually see something besides your shoulders behind you; the plethora of aluminum rather than plastic parts, including the switch control housings and various brackets and fasteners, all give a sense of substance to the bike; the turn signals are neatly tucked away at either end; and the adjustable brake lever is a welcome touch on what is after all a budget-conscious bike. And in fact, the Bulldog name is a good one - even if apparently, just like the Monster, this was the slang name the BT1100 prototype was given by the R&D team, and it just sort of stuck. Not only because of the meaty-looking arched styling with the engine packing a visual punch - but because beneath all the bluster this is just a big '01 softy of a bike. Maybe it can't run as fast as it looks as if it could or should, but it delivers good honest performance within the context of its target market, at the right price. Mission accomplished? Well, that's for the marketplace to decide - but, just possibly, you have to say Belgarda got it right. CN stressed chassis component and pushed as far forward as practicable in the wheelbase, in order to load up the front wheel for extra grip. The thinking behind the R1 stoppers was probably that, with the bike's hefty dry weight combined with the likely, ah, excessive avoirdupois of a Bulldog's typically more mature rider, it was better to be safe than sorry, so let's throw some heavy-spec highend brakes at it, just to be sure. These nevertheless have lots of feel, so even if you use them hard they shouldn't lock up, just stop the thing - and make the front end dip as they do so. But with a long 1530mm wheelbase, the Bulldog needs all the help it can get from some tighter steering geometry dynamics, so trailbraking into a corner hard on the stoppers actually helps it turn more easily, thanks to the nosedive. Otherwise, you wouldn't exactly call this a nimble-steering bike, and it does call for a firm hand and good leverage from the wide bars to make it change direction. On the other hand, that rangy stride coupled with the hefty weight and 25-degree head angle all combine to make the Bulldog super-stable over bumps, even round fast turns with ripples in the middle. In fact, ride quality is very good, in spite of the limited 113mm travel from the single-shock rear end with rising-rate linkage, which incorporates a cast alloy swingarm whose left leg also doubles as a housing for the shaft drive. It feels suppler than the book says, and is a pretty comfortable ride over most kinds of surface. But in keeping with the easyaccess spirit of the model, I'd have liked to see an external knob adjustment for spring preload, such as on the Aprilia Futura and Caponord, rather than the conventional ring system used on the Bulldog, especially cue' • n __ :IS • OCTOBER 31,2001 37

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