The problem is that conventional is boring. The mad Italian might only work occasionally and give you fits, but when it's working, it's very exciting. The Japanese bike will just work, all the time. That sort of reliability is nice but it doesn't do much for excitement.
Italian bikes also have the p-word: passion. The p-word is the sort of defense you use to justify extreme riding positions, wallet-searing costs of ownership and ridiculous maintenance procedures. The Japanese? Not so much. It's easy to look at the lineup of a Japanese manufacturer and see a range of bikes that look like they were stamped out of the same cookie sheet. Even the sport bikes look this way.
So, in summary, it seems Italian bikes are exciting and Japanese bikes are boring.
Not so fast, though.
While it may appear like the Japanese simply churn out cookie-cutter bikes for the masses, that isn't entirely accurate. Underneath the reliability, engineering and refinement is a great deal of passion. The Japanese can do exciting, and they can do it very well.
The two fastest production bikes in the world are Japanese. They have dominated the racing stage for nearly 40 years. They have brought racing technology to the street in a way never before seen. Exotic equipment like liquid-cooling, aluminum frames, overhead cams, disc brakes, four-cylinder engines, electronic fuel injection, turbocharging, anti-dive forks, mono-shock rear suspension, etc., etc. have been brought to the masses because of the Japanese.
What I'd like to do is present the top 10 Japanese bikes that move me in some way. By no means are these the top 10 best bikes to come from Japan. They are instead the 10 that I like best and would look best in my garage. They are in order, by the way.
1. Suzuki GS1000 Katana
I've written about the original Katana before and it has to be my all-time favorite Japanese bike. It's brutal, fast and uncompromising. I think its polarizing looks are fantastic and this bike paved the way for the modern sport bike as we know it.
2. Suzuki RG500 Gamma
The Gamma was a two-stroke street replica of the bike that won seven consecutive constructor's titles. The frame was aluminum, the front wheel was an 80s-chic 16 incher and the whole package was as big as a postage stamp. It weighed as much, too. Powering the monster was a 93 bhp square four, which was essentially two parallel twins chained together. I like it because it was pretty advanced for its day and it has its carbs on the side of the engine and a kick start,
3. Kawasaki KZ1000R
I like the big Kawi fours, even if their braking and handling were terrifying. They were fast and that was the whole point. The KZ1000R stands out for me because it was the Eddie Lawson replica model. The regular KZ was modified with a Kerker four-into-one, sculpted seat, rear-set pegs, low bars and a nice bikini fairing. The engine was blacked out and the rest was splashed with Kawasaki green like Eddie's AMA superbike. A feature that stands out was factory remote reservoir rear shocks. Contemporary tests said they were rubbish but they were cool none the less.
4. Honda RC51
Honda built this to compete in World Superbike, where v-twins were allowed to be displaced up to 1,000cc. Honda had previously relied on their 750cc v-four. They won championships in the first two years of the series and then watched as Ducati marched to eight championships in 11 years with v-twins. It was only natural for them to go with what was winning. It worked as Honda won two more championships.
The 999cc twin had the usual fare: DOHC, four valves and two fuel injectors per cylinder. The frame was aluminum and there were trick components everywhere. What really does it for me is the break from tradition. Honda's big bad bikes were usually based around a four, either inline or vee. The v-twin sportbike was effectively Italy's territory. Honda proved they could make a v-twin that could not only compete with the dominating Ducatis but could also beat them.
5. Honda V-Fours
As the 80s were dawning, superbikes were running into a problem. As the engines kept getting bigger, they kept getting wider and heavier. Some moved their alternators behind the engine to save width but it wasn't enough. Honda solved these issues by switching from an inline four to a v-four. The result was a slimmer bike and with clever packaging, length wasn't affected. The new v-four was also liquid-cooled. The early VFs and VFRs marched onto the race track and did battle for a number of years as Honda's weapon of choice. When they started to be surpassed by lighter, faster bikes, Honda changed gears and rebranded the VFR as a sport-touring bike. The current VFR1200 carries on the tradition of innovation by offering a paddle-shift transmission, a first for a motorcycle.
6. Honda CBX
Before Honda got smart with the v-four, they went mad with the CBX. This bike was a monster featuring a 1,047cc inline six with 24 valves, six carbs and 105 bhp. It was an atomic bomb in a world of TNT. The bike was physically massive; the engine stuck out past the gas tank and was positioned front and center for optimal viewing. Well, with an engine that big, front and center was the only option. The CBX lasted only a few years and was eventually turned into a tourer before being dropped. As it was, the CBX was a perfect exclamation point for a decade of superbike excess.
7. Kawasaki GPz750 Turbo
The 80s were crazed for anything turbo: sunglasses, razors, cars, etc. Turbos were so popular the even GM built turbo cars. Naturally, the turbo craze made its way to motorcycles, too. Kawasaki released a few turbo Z1-Rs in the late 70s but they were pretty fierce and served really to highlight the Z1-R's numerous flaws. They struck back with the GPz750, which had an actual chassis designed for a powerful bike and brakes that worked. The GPz also shined against its competitors in classic Kawi style by being the fastest and most-powerful of the turbo bikes. It used a strengthened 750 engine with fuel injection that put out 113 bhp. Its competitors used carbs for their turbos and made less power as a result. The turbo era was short for motorcycles and this bike has sort of faded off in the annals of history. It's a shame, really.
8. Yamaha RZ350 (a.k.a. RD350 LC)
Smog laws had all but chased the two-strokes out of the American market by the late 70s. One holdout, though, was Yamaha, who brought a wicked little smoker back for two short years. The RZ350 was a miniscule bike that would terrorize the back roads and embarrass much bigger bikes through the magic of power-to-weight ratio. It wasn't as fast as a 900 Ninja but it carried none of the bulk, resulting in a scorching good time. The one to get is the Kenny Roberts edition in yellow and black with King Kenny's signature on the fairing.
9. Suzuki GT750
As the superbike arms race was heating up, each manufacturer was looking to create the next rocket. Instead of a giant inline four, Suzuki went with what it knew: two-strokes. They brought to the world a 739cc smoker with liquid-cooling and tons of chrome. Talk about being left field. What the Water Buffalo became was a legend, a middle finger to the four-stroke establishment. Suzuki pioneered by doing things their own way. Unfortunately, emissions laws and ever-quickening competition led to the Water Buffalo being replaced by the four-stroke GS fours. As such, this fire-breathing smoker's short life came to a quick end.
10. Yamaha V-Max
A lot of bikes are designed to be useful in many ways. Some can see work as commuters, weekend tourers and back road burners. Some can even be used for track days. The V-Max had none of this versatility in mind. It was built for one thing and one thing only: to go fast in a straight line. Cornering, braking and versatility were ignored.
This is a muscle bike in the purest sense. Basically, it's a big engine with a bike wrapped around it. Jay Gleason singed the drag strip on the way to a time in the low tens, faster than any other bike you could buy. The big 1,197cc v-four may have come from the Venture touring sofa but the similarities ended there. Power and compression was upped and the engine used a V-Boost system, which was a set of butterfly valves in the intake to ingest more air. The V-Max remained in production relatively unchanged from 1986 until 2008. The new VMAX debuted in 2009 with a 1,679cc v-four and 174 bhp. V-Boost returns only this time it's electrically controlled. The VMAX is still mad, bad and fast.
I'm also going to add two more bikes to my top 10 list, simply because I can:
11. Goose's Kwaka from Mad Max
Mad Maxi is a movie full of cool cars and bikes but Goose's MFP Kwaka stands out to me. I like KZ1000s to begin with but the treatment given to this bike is excellent. The fairing and the paint scheme look great and the character of Goose tops it all off. I like to crank the volume when he goes tearing off down the road and lets the big four scream.
12. 1977 Suzuki GS550B
In all, this was a fairly normal bike. It, along with the GS750 were Suzuki's first four-strokes. Both were four-cylinders with DOHC and eight valves. The 550 had a six-speed trans, though. Why this bike is important to me was not that it was Suzuki's first four-stroke but that it was my first bike. I bought off the original owner for an extremely low price. It was in great shape and I genuinely miss it. My old Suzuki was a fantastic bike with its own quirks and personality. It had a Kerker four-into-one that made it sound like a GP bike at 9,000 rpm. I'll probably own another some day.
No comments:
Post a Comment