Spring is when nature awakes… as do bikers. Even a passing glance at motorbikes and their owners allows dividing them into several groups. There are small, bright sport bikes with lots of fairings and a distinctive driver's position ("embryo pose"), the owners in tight leather overalls and impenetrable helmets. Lots of chrome, the low rumble of the exhaust pipe, the driver sitting "feet first" in the saddle: meet choppers and their riders, usually "charismatic" bikers à la Schwarzenegger as the Terminator or Micky Rourke as "Harley".
Remote peals of music, lots of light effects, huge fairings and extremely imposing size - here come "de luxe tourers" and their owners, the crowd with the least amount of equipment, often thoughtlessly forgetting about helmets.
Let's have a closer look at each group and see what the 2008 motorcycling season has to offer.
Sport bikes
Sport bikes are the fastest and the swiftest group. Three Japanese makers are traditional leaders here: Honda with CBR 1000 RR Fireblade ("fire" in the slang), Yamaha with YZF R1 (aka "R the First"), and Suzuki GSXR 1000 (aka "One-litre Jixer"). And of course the legendary Italian brand Ducati with their 1098 model.
Among the three the most odious and pretentious is Ducati 1098; it’s the most expensive, too. It can rightfully be compared with the brightest member of sport cars family, Ferrari, and not just because they are both Italian. Ducati is just as swift, aggressive, unruly and individualistic. Only an experienced pilot would be able to handle this stallion.
In 2008 Honda presented the new CBR 1000 RR. Without going into detail we'll just note that it's a radically new motorbike that has nothing in common with the predecessors apart from its name. The new "fire" looks a bit differently: it's shorter, the muffler returned to its customary place (from under the seat to the side). Generally, the changes were for the good: the bike looks much more elegant and "mean".
Yamaha and Suzuki left their sport bike flagships more or less as they were; no appreciable changes.
Though Japanese bikes are considered friendlier than the Italian stallion, one would be hard pressed to call this trio "tame ponies". Certainly, these thoroughbred "one-litre" trotters have their own sufficiently serious personalities, so unprepared riders won't find handling them an easy job.
Choppers
Next comes the most conservative and traditionalist group, choppers. And here of course the palm indisputably goes to the legend of the motorcycle industry, the American Harley Davidson. Risking to upset the Harley fans I'd just like to mention that motorbikes made in Milwaukee 50 years ago are not radically different from the ones made there now. Harley Davidson is first and foremost an air cooling V-engine.
However, even Harley wasn't completely immune to the innovations. In 2002 the V-ROD family was presented to the motorcycling community, quite different from the traditional Harley Davidsons, first of all in the engine department. It's still a two-cylinder V-engine but with a liquid cooling system, designed by the way by German engineers from Porsche. Accordingly, when you choose yourself a Harley, start by deciding what kind of bike you want, traditional or innovative. Traditional models are well-known and became veritable classics of the genre; first of all it's Sportster, Dyna and of course Softail families. Actually, Harley Davidson adepts don't have any special respect for the V-Rod family insisting it's not a "true Harley".
Of course Japanese makers didn't forget about this group either, offering a good choice of motorbikes. The brightest models in the last couple of years were XV 1700 Warrior by Yamaha, VTX 1800 by Honda and Boulevard by Suzuki.
By the way, despite their apparent clumsiness the last-generation choppers are modern motorcycles, so one should treat them with the same deference as sport bikes.
Along with traditional choppers there's an increasingly popular subcategory of the so-called "relax cruisers". The brightest representatives here are Honda Valkyrie Run and Hummer by Victory, a new brand in Russia.
Both these motorbikes are quite large, both are designed primarily to make the driver comfortable (Honda Valkyrie Run has just a single seat). Nice stature, proud bearing - that's what comes to mind when you look at these beautiful things.
De luxe tourers
And to conclude, the de luxe tourers group - royal ocean-going yachts. These are incredibly comfortable motorcycles with an enormous number of options ranging from CD-player and heated this, that and whatever to ABS and road-holding system.
Usually you can see and hear them from a mile away because the owners rarely make do with standard versions and put a lot of effort into pimping them. The standard audio system gets additional amplifiers and subwoofers, the "body" gets adorned with any number of lights and LEDs the Christmas tree style, etc.
These machines may seem slow and clumsy but to assume so would be extremely wrong!
The undisputed leader in this group is Honda Gold Ving: on top of all the above-mentioned things it has an outstanding - by motorcycle standards - filling: a six-cylinder boxer engine. Another model to be mentioned is of course the newcomer Victory Vision, a very nice-looking and imposing motorbike. Time and Russian roads will test its roadworthiness, so far it remains a dark horse in that respect. Following the American fashion it's equipped with a two-cylinder V-engine, but not with ABS, not even optionally.
Famous brands like Harley Davidson or BMW also take care of their fans in this group.
Harley offers well-known models from Electra Glide and Road King families. The Bavarian LT didn't get any modifications in 2008 but though the BMW cruiser completes our review, it's far from being an outsider. In terms of comfort provided to the owner it's one of the leaders, even in the basic version.
The motorbike classes reviewed here make just a small part of the motorbike world, albeit the most colourful one. The motorcycle season is just beginning. Expect more articles on the subject.
Pavel Kanatchikov
Photoreport
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