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/128636
Comparison STORY AND P HOT OS weren 't always consid e r ed sta n dards , they were s imply called motorcycles. Even the Superbikes of the late '70 s and early '80s, simply lo o k ed like what we now call stan dards. The ' 8 0 s brought th e "sport b ike " look to .the gen e ral public . Early Suzuki Katanas, GSX -R 's , and espec ially Kawasaki N injas , were By BLAK E C O N N ER aked bike s, standards , call them what you will - i n the past , these bikes were often overlooked because they seemed so plain , so vanilla . The issue was further confused because standards 36 O CTO BER 25 , 2000' c u e I e n e vv s equ ipped w ith fu ll fairings that were all the rage . The " st a nd a rd" faded away, thanks to the ev e r- g r o w in g popularity of the " n e w standard " spo rtbikes , which hid the ir hyperformance engines beneath layers of aerodynamic fibergla ss. On the other end of the spectrum , the massive popularity of V-twin cruisers, Harley - Davidsons especially , further obliterated the standard as motorcycle development brought about more polarization. But there has been a resurgence in the p o p u l a r i t y of the genre in recent years. It seems that, over the past ten years, more and more man ufacturers have gone back and built "standards" , disguising them under a more gl itzy term inology - " n a k ed bikes" - so as not to make them sound mundane. It took a while to catch on in the United States, but the "naked b i k e " category , one of the b ig g est market segments in Europe for a while , now seems to be on the m ove in A m erica. Part o f t h e pop ulari ty h as b een du e to th e p ric e poi nt - th e fact th at t hey d on ' t cost as m u ch as mo re sporting , h ig he r-per fo rm a nc e bikes from the same com panies, while still packing a hell o f a w all o p , earni ng th em a sort of status as th e sawedoff s h otgun s of t he mot orcycle wo rl d; lo ud, rude, agg ressive and yet no t as phy sic all y dem and ing as thei r more ath leti c si blings. It has taken the newest generation o f bikes , li k e the Triumph Sp eed Triple and Ducati Monster, to make the category h ip w i t h th e g eneral public. And , if this year's Intermot motorcycle show is any indication , the " nak ed b ike" movement is just beginning to move int o high gear. With all of that said, we decided to do a "na ked bike " comparison not a shootout, a comparison . T he bikes we chose are a diverse bunch and , from a performance standpoint, are all over the map. They boast different engine configurations , d isplacement, and levels of p e rfor mance - so we f elt that it wouldn't be fa ir to compare th em directly , ba sed sol el y on a pe rforma n c e c ri te r ia . Then again , this c ate gory bear s testimo ny that the re is a lot more to a motorcycle than its sheer performance. F u n c t i o n an d appearance are just as important in this group, al though, in this case, our favorite also hap pened to be bl essed w ith the most fu n hor sepo w er a nd t he best handling . The bi k e s we c hose are as foll ows : BM W R 1 100R; Bu ell Lig h ting XI; Du ca t i Monster 90 0 ; Suzuki Ban di t 120 0S ; Tri um ph Speed Tri ple. We e nded u p with a n ice selection from all around the world , w ith b ik es from Ameri ca, Germ an y , It al y , Jap a n , an d the United Ki ngdom all represen t ed. Once again , be c ause th is is more of a comparison t ha n a shootout, we decided to list the bikes in alphabet i cal order instead of rating them best to worst. The riding impressions are bas ed on the overall impressions of the Cycle New s staff, after weeks of commuting , canyon riding, and negotiating the urban sprawl of Los Angeles.