Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

'M Ho~da cDRH lOORR I ! I I .. ---+1 • M .. i I' --I---!--~! -j- .. LIST PRICE DISPLACEMENT ENGINE TYPE $ 10,999 998cc Liquid-cooled, in-line four-cylinde r BORE x STROKE 75 x 56.5mm COMPRESSION RATIO 11.9: I CARBURETION Oual stage FI IGNITION Oigital w/ 3-0 map T RAN SM ISSION Six-speed STARTING SYSTEM Electric FUEL CAPACITY .4.8 gal. WHEELBASE 55.6 in. RAKE/TRAI L 23.75°/ 102mm SEAT HEIGHT 32.5 in. FRONT TIRE 120/70- 17 REAR TIRE 190/50- 17 FRON T·W HEEL TRAV EL .4.7 in. REAR·WHEEL TRAV EL 5.3 in. FRONT BRAKE Oual disc REAR BRAKE Oisc FINAL DRIVE Cha in CLAIMED DRY WEIGHT 396 Ibs. "The CBR1000RR isn't the fastest bike here, and it doesn't have the most horsepower, but there is no uestlon that it gets he power to rear tire more efficiently than the rest." £:ha§§i§. 5u§pen§ion. Brake§ Aprilia RSV Mille Stability is the firstthing that comes to mindwhen we talk about the Mille - so muchso that it comes at the expenseof quicktum-in. The poor Aprilia was simply outhandled at the Streets of Willow and then was outmotored on the big trac k, where its chassiswould have had a fighting chance. The problem isthat the Mille's wheelbaseis so much longer than the other bikes' in the test, and it also has fairily conservative steering geometry inthis crowd. What the Aprilia also has, however, is excelle nt suspension. Maybe our standardversionof the bike that didn't havethe top-of-the-lineOhlins hardwareof the "Factory" version, but the standard 5howastuffworks very well. On the street the Aprilia isa great biketo ride, offering a stable chassis an compliant suspension. The Mille's tradid tional mountedbrakes maynot beon par with Aprilia's own "Factory" with its radial-mount Brembos - whichwe can honestily sayare the best brakeson anycurrent production bike- but the setup on our Mille is nothingto scoffat. Ifstability iswhat you like, the Mille is your bike.It's a great alternative to the more expensive Ducati and has excellent components that are up for a track day anytime. You would think that the 999's longwheelbase and heavy initial turn-in would be a hindrance on the street and on a tight racetrack likethe Streets, but neither bothered the Ducati a bit. As we menttoned in the motor sidebar, we had to switch to our back-upstandard999 from the 9995 model. The biggest drawback of the switch was that we lostthe S model's absolutely amazingOhlinssuspens The standardverion. sion's Showaunits. like the Mille's, are still excellent, but it mighthavebeen another key elennent holdingthe standardback on Willow's bigtrack. The one thingthat we love about Dueatis, though, is how muchtrust they instill in the rider midcomer. Okay so it maytake a touch , more effort than the quickest-steering bike here, but the 999 stilltums surprisingly quickly. Furthermore, once the bike ison the side of the tire, it's one of the most predictable and stable bikesyou can imagine. The brakeson the 999 are the best in this entire test. bar none The interesting thingabout . the 999's Brembos is that they aren't the latest, greatest, radial-mountedunits that the company makes, and yet the combination of the rotors, master cylinder, calipers and padsis near perfection. Honda CBR I OOORR A lot of our testers were very impressed bythe CBR's new chassis. To be honest, we really didn't know what to expectbecause its little brother, the CBR6ooRR, was a bit of an underachiever. The 6oo's Achilles heel, it could be argued, isthe Unit Pro-Unk suspens ion's weight. However, the conceptually identical versio on n the CBR IOOORR iswhat gives that bikethe upper hand in performance. The CBR IOOORR isn'tthe fastest bikehere, and it doesn't havethe most horsepower, but there isno questionthac it gets the power to rear tire more effICiently than the rest. What makesthe chassiswork so wellisthe manner in whichthe rear swingarmallows the power to be applied Whether it was on the street . ride, at the Streets of Willow, or on the bigtrack. the throttle can be opened earlier than anyof the other bikes. The swingarm keeps the tire from spinning as much and simply drives the bikeforward , justas advertised. 1 ! - L--_ ! i '! I I i - ---'-.- - i - i I ... ._-----l-_.L__ oaQor~+-+ -131:~-np~r~ I" --I :::.L-+--+-', I I , -r--+---:---:--f-:---l------L-L! , ' ! ; I i IT----L.-- 1 " , ! I i I ! I I ...,: -- i --1 f ! I Theother thin that the CBR g has going for it isa stablechassis; it mayrequire a bit moreeffortto tum than, say the , Kawasaki, but the confidence it gives you is worth it. On the street and at the StreetsofWillowthe bike wasat the top of every tester's rlSl. lts combination of good power and the aforementioned rear-end effICiency helped the CBR bumthe fastestlap of the dayat the 5treets.The bikewasalmost as good at the big track except for a nefVOUS weavethat the chassis wouldget into as it wasflicked into the ultrafast tum eight.Thewindwas pretty strong heading intothat comer,but the CBR seemed to be affected by it more. TheCBRprobably would havegone fasterstill if thisbad habitcouldhave been runed out • and trust US, we tried. We were happy withthe damping rates and suspension, which despite being soft, wasn't too soft. Totop it off the brakesare very , good as well. Kawasaki ZX-I OR Riding the D<-IO likejumping into the mosh pit Ris at a Slayer concert. Yo just neverknow from u which direction an elbow isgoi gto smash you in n the head. There are a coupleof different reasons to pay attention to what you are doing when riding the lOR, likethe factthat it doesn't havea steering damper and thus shakesits head like it was at the concert above. On the street there really isn't that muchto worry about, although the lOR maygive you a quickwake up call on occasion, but on the track it can makeburning a hot lapa bit difficult. We justcan't figure out how Kawasaki thought it was okayto make a IS2-horsepower, 435-pound (wet), 5S-inchwheelbase motorcycle without putting a steering damper on it. It's too bad, becausethe bikemight have won this shootout with one in place. Itumed my fastestlap at Willow's f

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