MOTY 2011e saw some of this coming. Anybody with a passing grade in Discernment 101 and basic information-gathering skills could have told you BMW was primed to fire a high-velocity

bombshell at Honda’s Gold Wing. Nobody but Hendrik von Kuenheim and The Amazing Kreskin would have predicted a 1649cc, 160-horse straight-six with headlights that look around corners. Rumors of a revamped Triumph Tiger had been brewing longer than the peren-nial half-full pot of decaf in the Motorcyclist mess hall, but Hinckley’s 800cc triple turned out to be more outgoing than everybody but John Bloor expected it to be. If Ducati power-cruiser sounds like an oxymoron, the Diavel says otherwise.

Despite all that and more, new motorcycles aren’t exactly flying out of showrooms. Everyone but professional on-air/online pessimists figured the global economy should have made a more convincing comeback from the Great Implosion of ’08 by now. It’s three steps

forward and two steps back too much of the time. Nobody was ready for the devastating earthquake/tsunami that hit Japan last March or the deadly tornadoes ripping through America’s heartland in April and May. Still, any card-carrying motorcycle-riding optimist knows one thing for sure: We ride right through this stuff. Sometimes we’re not sure how, but we do.

Give it some time to sink in and the biggest surprise of 2011 shouldn’t have been all that surprising after all. The simplest things pull us through life’s disasters, big and small, public and private, natural and manmade. So here’s one simpler truth we hold to be self-evident: Even when the things outside your helmet seem upside-down, inside-out, improbable, impossible, unpredictable or a little too dark, going for a ride lets you see things in a better light. This year, the best bike to do that on isn’t particularly complicated or expensive or dressed to impress anybody but you. It’s just the best.

The BrighTesT idea

WORDS: Tim Carrithers PHOTO: Jorge Nunez

ElEctronically rEprintEd from SEptEmbEr 2011

TRIUMPH STREET TRIPLE R MOTO GUZZI STELVIO KAWASAKI KX450F

2012FIRST RIDES

MOTOR CYCLE YEARWHAT PRICE PERFORMANCE?MOTORCYCLIST OF THE YEARTHIS TIME HE’LL DO IT HIS WAY!

ELEcTROnIcALLy REPRInTEd FROM SEPTEMbER 2011

MIDDLEWEIGHT SPORTBIKES DUCATI 848 EVO vs. SUZUKI GSX-R750 vs. TRIUMPH DAYTONA 675RUP TO SPEED: MYSTERY HARLEYSGEAR: HOW-TO BOOKS & VIDEOSHAULERS: HONDA RIDGELINETRACK TIME: FIT TO RIDE

PLUS

OF THE

motorcyclistonline.com

2012 ERIK bUELL RAcInG 1190RSIS THIS THE BEST SUPERBIKE EVER?!

EXCLUSIVE TRACK TEST ››

STREET TRIPLE R ››

his is progress? How exactly does the best motorcycle of 2011 get away with weighing 45 pounds

more and making 54 horsepower less than the best bike of 2010: BMW’s S1000RR? For anyone with $16,630 to spend on a staggeringly fast, staggeringly focused sporting tool and the skills to match, it prob-ably doesn’t. But for those of us living a little closer to America’s socioeconomic epicenter, where you can’t afford to impress anyone but yourself anymore, this year’s magic number is $10,999.

That’s $10,999 as in the price of admission for one relatively comfortable, eminently capable, well-mannered Ninja that pulls off most any weekend agenda you can dream up and throws in some pretty sporty transportation for the rest of the week at no extra charge. Call it a compromise. An anachronism. A throwback to the days when one liter-class superbike could haul your dutiful hide to work all week, make the annual Labor Day pilgrimage to the

ancestral recreational refuge in another time zone and file off a set of peg-feelers without lingering physical or fiscal pain. We call it a sportbike, sport-tourer or an overqualified commuter, depending on the to-do list du jour. At that rate, broadband ’80s ideology doesn’t sound so bad after all. Make no mistake, boys and girls: The Ninja’s engineering is pure 21st Century stuff. No stale retro aftertaste here. No warmed-over retro styling, either. The silhouette inspires love or hate in most members of the viewing public, but ease your eyes across this fresh, functional plastic skin a couple of times and you’re looking at an idea whose time has come back.

Developed in tandem with the artfully underdressed Z1000, the Ninja’s 1043cc torque-pump makes the kind of smooth, use-able power that puts a smile on your face a dozen times every day. Thanks to the miracle of spot-on digital fuel-injection, this engine is open for business with seamless acceleration

from 2200 rpm all the way to its 120-bhp, 10,000-rpm

peak. But since most of the herd come together toward the

center of the rev band, even a casual rearward rotation of the right wrist stuffs dawdling traffic into those nicely shaped rear-view mirrors. Big midrange means all kinds of quasi-legal fun below triple digits—good news for those of us who just don’t look good in handcuffs.

A humane riding position, adjustable wind protection and a genuinely comfortable seat add up to a refreshing change from accom-modations designed for Dani Pedrosa or Bilbo Baggins. Spec-chart enthusiasts gnash their whitened-teeth at a 503-lb. curb weight that’s 63 lbs. heavier than a ZX-10R. Okay, fine, but thanks to light, accurate steering and nicely sorted adjustable suspension at either end of the Ninja’s aluminum skeleton, the extra heft is more noticeable on paper than on pavement.

The bottom line, in this case, is the bottom line: When $10,999 delivers more motorcycle to more people than anything in anybody else’s showroom, our Motorcycle of the Year isn’t the fastest or the lightest or the strongest. It’s Kawasaki’s Ninja 1000.

2011 MOTORCYCLE OF THE YEAR

KAWASAKI NINJA 1000MOST OF WHAT YOU WANT, EVERYTHING YOU NEEDWORDS: Tim Carrithers PHOTO: Kawasaki

79549

Posted with permission from the September 2011 issue of Motorcyclist ® www.motorcyclistonline.com. Copyright 2011 Source Interlink Media. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints from Motorcyclist, contact Wright’s Media at 877-652-5295