Motorcyclist Archives 1987: Best of Motorcycles, Best Tours

Special Section: The Bests

Sometimes off-beat and often arbitrary, the fertile minds of Motorcyclist staffers put together this section to look back on the finer moments, remember the weird & sometimes perverse side of motorcycling. Pages 20-35 is the collected wisdom of the wizards of two-wheeled goodness.

Best Contemporary Collectables
According to 1987 Motorcyclist Staff a collectible bike is one that saw limited production, holds resale value and was still "important and desirable in 1987". In no particular order here is the list they put together:

Kawasaki KZ1000 ELR (Eddie Lawson Replica)
Suzuki GS1000S - Wes Cooley would agree!
Ducati 900 Super Sport - A desmodromic Twin… Yup.
Suzuki XN85 Turbo - A well mannered bike with aesthetic and technical chops.
Yamaha RD400 Daytona Special - Maybe the most memorable in a long line of two stroke RDs.
Honda CX650 Turbo - Flashy paint, flashy performance.
Harley-Davidson XLCR - Met by poor sales numbers The Motor Company canned this model after only two years.

Great Adventures
A collection of stories from the motorcyclist staff from some f the best stories of their checkered riding lives. There seems to be a common thread through most of these tales - living on the edge, excitement and learning. Great advice for all riders of all skill levels.

Best Styling
Styling is subjective and there was some debate amoung staffers over this list. One machine had to be disqualified since two of the MC staffers worked on the project and it wasn't a production bike. That was the RADD Mc2 (Rationally Advanced Design Deveopment)from Yamaha.In order:

No-Show Amazonas 1600 “Why do we call the Amazonas a no-show? Because it is so ugly we knew better than to not show it at all, but we will anyway.

Best Motorcycles
And the envelopes please:

Best Lightweight Cruiser: Kawasaki LTD
Best Middleweight Cruiser: Yamaha 700 Virago
Best Heavyweight Cruiser Yamaha 1100 Virago
Best Musclebike: Kawasaki 1000 Eliminator
Best Lightweight Sport Bike: Kawasaki EX250 Ninja
Best Middleweight Sport Bike: Honda 600 Hurricane
Best 700/750 Sport Bike: Kawasaki 750 Ninja
Best Heavyweight Sport Bike: Honda 1000 Hurricane
Best Sport Tourer: Kawasaki Concours
Best Middleweight Standard: Yamaha Radian
Best Full-dress Tourer: Honda Aspencade
Best Lightweight Dual Purpose: Kawasaki KLR650R
Best Unobtainable: Honda VFR 400 Pro-arm
Best Bike Not Built in Japan: Ducati Paso
Best Pint-sized Roadracer: Yamaha YSR50
Best Mammut: Horex Titan 1800
Best Beginners Bike: Yamaha SRX250
Best Handling: Yamaha FZ600
Best Engine: Honda 1000 Hurricane
Best American Sport Bike: Buell RR1000 Battletwin

Best Tours
Four High Mileage Riders Share Their Favorite Routes

Bill Stermer: Through The Blue Ridge Time and Again Bill’s favorite tour would be the Blue Ridge Parkway from Front Royal, VA which travels a full 574 miles to the Great Smoky Mountains. Reading his description tells us that he is in love with the mountains, the beauty they behold, the smells, and the people that you meet along the way. Here is how he described the mountains:

The Appalachian chain, which the Blue Ridge are a part of, are old mountains, low and rounded, furred with trees like a short-haired tabby. They stretch off into the distance, layer behind purple layer in the humid mist, much of them in the northern section no longer than 2000 to 3000 feet, although in south, 6684 foot Mount Mitchell is the highest point on the Parkway not to mention in North Carolina.

A few things the writer who has travelled these hills five times mentions is that you should keep the gas tank topped off along the way, reserve your camp spots ahead of time and keep your eyes out for bears & deer, and expect rain.

Roger Hull: Touring Time
Some Roads Cross Mysterious Borders

Roger Hull who is a long distance rider and founder of Road Rider Magazine decided in 1971 to follow the path of two travellers that took on a monumental task in 1921. Roy H Kerle and Royal F. Gerberick set out on 1920 Harley-Davidson J20 with a sidecar and cataloged a trip that few had attempted in this day and age. Taking the better part of a year to complete these travellers rode out of Topeka, KS “to explore the West”.

The route took them as far northwest as Seattle, back down along the coast to Los Angeles before returning to Topeka via Tulsa.With today’s highway system and fine country roads this is an easy task as Hull pointed out. These men had to ford rivers, climb hills that the cars of the period either went up in reverse or were pulled by teams of horses, and navigate roads that turned to muddy mess, and in some cases, no roads at all.

Armed with their manuscript and photos Roger tried to copy as many photos as he could. When documenting these shots, he had a sense of invading someone else's memory. This feeling came to Hull on several occasions. That was until he arrived in Topeka and found some people who knew Kerle. Kerle had planned to repeat this trip on it’s 50th anniversary (1971) which was exactly what Roger was doing. This was fortunate as Roy Kerle had died in 1968. Any sense of invasion left Hull upon learning this.

At the time this article was written, it had been 16 years since the 50th anniversary trip had been made. Roger was considering a 75th anniversary run in 1996. We wonder if he did make that trip.