~ Auto Buzz ~: The Ten Rest of the Best Motorcycles of 2015 Greatness comes in many forms.

Monday, 10 August 2015

The Ten Rest of the Best Motorcycles of 2015 Greatness comes in many forms.

Some combination of excellence, significance, and audacity gets a bike the highest honors of the year in CW. Being really close gets it an Honorable Mention of 2015. But there are other forms of greatness or, ahem, distinction, that land a motorcycle on this list called The Ten Rest. Best Way to Ride as a Family: Any Ural Sidecar Oh, obligatory, predictable, you say, and I agree. My two-year-old son Ian loves these, and there is nothing else like them. Wacky, useful, and smell-the-flowers slow.

Best Way to Become World Champion: KTM RC390 Cup Bike Helmets off to Wayne Rainey, MotoAmerica, and KTM for planting the seeds for American roadracing stars. Oh, to be 14 to 22 years old again!

Best Way to Be Your Own Drone Strike: BMW R1200R Loving the retro-inspired R nineT is easy until you ride the R1200R naked standard. Amazing electronics and surprising sizzle from that flat twin. Retro has its charm, but the future BMW naked is here.

Aprilia Caponord 1200 ABS on-road action

Best Way to Say Arrivederci: Aprilia Caponord 1200 Travel Pack The red-hot glow of the other Italian asphalt adventurer obscures this otherwise fantastically balanced and supremely comfortable travel bike.

Best Way to Make a Cheap Dual-Sport Expensive: Yamaha WR250R I’ve ridden almost everything everywhere. But I bought a used WR, threw a bunch of time and money at it, and now have my own personal perfect motorcycle I call ADV Lite. The more remote we ride, the happier I get.

2015 Triumph Bonneville T100 studio side view

Best Way to Ensure the Sun Never Sets on the British Empire: Triumph Bonneville We know there is a new, sportier classic coming from Triumph this fall. But we are pretty certain this new bike is meant to augment the existing line of 865cc parallel twins. In fact, Triumph would be crazy to give up on the current Bonnie and the worldwide allegiance it has gotten for the British brand. The Union Jack still flies everywhere!

Best Beard-Sticking-Out-of-Your-Helmet Bike: Revival Cycles J63 Ducati Custom It’s a rare custom-built bike that looks as good as it goes. But I was fortunate to take the Revival J63 Ducati around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for a few laps in conjunction with The Quail Motorcycle Gathering. Makes me wish I had the financing to commission one. A bellowing Ducati V-twin in a gorgeous chassis that actually works—beauty in motion.

Best American-made Naked Bike: EBR 1190SX EBR was to be auctioned in late July as a whole entity and put back in business. Hope so because we got an SX in hand right around the bankruptcy, and it is seriously fun, featuring loads of improvements compared to the 2014 RX we tested.

Best Way to Encourage Putting Your Velocette on Craigslist: Yamaha SR400 I admit I am bitter about the decade-plus of mechanical punishment my peculiarly faulty ’54 Velocette MSS 500cc single has levied against me. When I ride the SR400 I almost think I should move the Velo on to someone new. Almost. The SR is that much fun and dead reliable. Makes me wish I could be cured of my British addiction.