Touring Bikes: the good the bad and the BMW

The Harley FL line and Honda Gold Wing aren't the only touring motorcycle out there. There are still some odds and ends that make up the category. BMW has found a place for itself selling touring and sport touring motorcycles. The best example of a pure touring bike from BMW is the LT line, which is represented by the K1200LT today.

1987 BMW K100LT













1995 BMW K1100LT













1999 BMW K1200LT














Another company that has a long history of touring motorcycles is Moto Guzzi.

1970 Moto Guzzi California













2007 Moto Guzzi California













Moto Guzzi isn't the only company making retro V-twin touring bikes. Today there are several V-twin type touring bikes that have tried to cash in on Harley's success.

1999 Yamaha Royal Star Venture XVZ1300













2009 Kawasaki Voyager VN1700













2008 Victory Vision











2003 BMW R1200CL
(Not really a Harely wanna be, but it is BMW's attempt at a cruiser)









Ok, so there are many other touring type motorcycles out there. This list was set out to cover pure hard core full on dressers. Bikes that have integrated fairing/saddle bags, and are not just standard bikes with bags and a windshield. Later on I'll do a piece on sport touring bikes that should cover many touring bikes that haven't been covered here. But that still leaves one bike that I know of. It's the Honda PC800.

The Pacific Coast isn't quite sporty enought to be considered a "sport tourer". But at the same time I don't know of any other touring bike under 1000cc's.

Super singles then and now

While today's market is full of big powerful multi-cylinder monsters, there are a handful of light and playful singles hanging on. Most thumpers on the market today are dirtbikes, but there are a handful of traditional street bikes and street oriented dual sports. Perhaps the best selling street single on the market is BMW's F650. The F650 was built along side the Aprilia Pegaso and each shared the same Rotax built 650cc liquid cooled single.


Aprilia Pegaso 1990-1998
BMW F650 1994-present
BMW G650 2008-present
In 2008 BMW started to phase out the F650 with the new G650 series.

Buell Blast 2000-present
In the late nineties Harley was looking for an entry level bike for beginning riders. Trouble was Harley's smallest model was the 883 Sportster, not the best bike for novice riders. The blast was born using a 500cc air cooled single, perfect for training soon-to-be hog riders.

KTM Duke 1995-present
For years KTM has been carrying the torch for modern singles. The Duke line is more than a street going dirtbike, it is a purpose built street machine. Today the Duke features KTM's 690cc LC4.

Now there are several other big twins that are around today. This include the Kawasaki KLR650, Suzuki DR650, Yamaha XT660, Honda XR650, and the KTM LC4 Adventure. These bikes are more dirt oriented and they're covered in my adventure bike feature.

Oh, and there's one more big single Suzuki's Savage 650.

Super singles then and now

Long ago the majority of motorcycles on the road had one cylinder. Singles were power plant for most motorcycles, and if you wanted more power you got a bigger cylinder. The average commuter bike had 350cc's or less, for more speed you went with a 500cc, and if you really wanted a hot rod you'd get a great big twin. Even in America where V-twins were king, singles were the bread and butter, it's easy to forget that just about every American motorcycle company started out with one cylinder bikes. Here's a look at some of the memorable big thumpers throughout history.

Norton International 1932-1958Norton Manx 1946-1963

The Manx was one of Norton's most notorious models. This racy single captured numerous grand prix's and Isle of Man TT's. This bike also introduced the world to Norton's famous "featherbed" frame, a popular chassis for years to come.

Rudge Ulster 1935-

Velocette K 1925-1948
Velocette Venom 1955-1970
One of the last great English thumpers was also one of the fastest. Velocette was known for making some of the finest single cylinder bikes around and the Venom was the pinnicle of their work.

Gilera Saturno

BSA Gold Star 1938-1963
The Gold Star was one of the greatest singles of all time. BSA had always had a reputation for their one cylinder models but the Gold Star was arguably the best. These bike could be customized in any number of ways. They were used as scramblers, road racers, and street hot rods.

Moto Guzzi Falcone 1950-1967? 1971-1976

Yamaha SR500 1978-1999?
Yamaha introduced the SR500 back in 1978. Using the 500cc single from the XT500 dirtbike. The SR became all things to all people and was especially popular in global markets. The SR lasted for over two decades.

Yamaha SRX600 1985-1997
In an effort to create a next generation SR, Yamaha took the XT600 engine and put it into an updated street chassis. The SRX found a following, but it didn't catch on like the SR500.


Trivia: the biggest production single cylinder motorcycle (that I'm aware of) is the Suzuki DR800

The new blood in Super Bikes

Since the early seventies if you wanted a performance motorcycle in the United States you had your choice of four Japanese makes. If you had deep pockets and wanted to be different perhaps you could have some exotic Italian machinery in you garage. After decades of sport bike market being heavily dominated by the big four we are starting to see some new life. An explosion of new bikes has given this segment more diversity than ever. Motorcycle manufacturers have developed a hunger for the sport bike market. Could it be younger demographic, the need to diversify their offerings, or simply because they want to build the most impressive motorcycles imaginable? Whatever the reason I for one welcome this fresh blood into the world of sport bikes.

First we have the Aprilia RSV4. Aprilia is no stranger to the sport bike market. Their RSV1000 is a great bike, but has been around since 1998. 1998 is ancient history in the fast paced world of sports bikes. Thankfully Aprilia has just finished their new V4 powered RSV4. There hasn't been a V4 repli-racer since Honda's RC45 in the late nineties. It's too early to tell how will this bike will do on the track, and in showrooms, but so far it looks like Aprilia will have a bright future with their new RSV4.

When you think of BMW motorcycles you probably don't think about sport bikes. That's probably because they haven't really made any, ever. Until now that is. BMW has their sights set on a true WSB contender with the new S1000RR. And for the street riders will soon have the option for the S1000R, and all new sport bike from the Bravarian company. With an inline four the S1000R offers a tradition design (well not very traditional for BMW). It seems asthough BMW had to make this bike different in some way, and chose to give the bike asemetrical headlights.

KTM has been growing into road going markets nicely. Now the 1190 RC8 has been on the market for a year now, but KTM has upped the ante with the universal "R" model. The new RC8 R makes KTM's super bike even convincing.

New Standards part V

In the mid nineties there was a number of half-faired V-twin sport bikes that filled American showrooms. In the early years of World SuperBike racing Ducati forged a road racing empire with their famous 90 degree V twins. As Ducati's popularity grew the Japanese took notice. Not that any of the Japanese makers were have trouble selling their inline four sportbikes, they were very popular, but they may have wanted to hedge their bets with V-twins of their own.

Suzuki attacked the market with the TL1000S. In 1997 the liquid cooled 90 degree V-twin offered an alternative to their ever popular GSX-R750. The TL gained a following however due to a number of suspension problems the Suzuki found a reputation for being a deadly motorcycle and sales dropped. The TL also came in a repli-racer style with the TL1000R, which lasted one year after the TL1000S. The TL's V-twin lived on in Suzuki's SV1000, however this model never seemed to be very popular.

The same year Suzuki came out with the TL Honda introduced their own V-twin, the VTR1000F otherwise known in the US as the SuperHawk. Like the Ducati and Suzuki the VTR featured a 90 degree twin. A unique feature of the VTR was the split side mounted radiators. The VTR never seemed to catch on in the US. In 2000 Honda was the first and only Japanese competitor to seriously take on Ducati with their own WSB V-tiwn, the VTR1000R, which shared little with the VTR1000F.

While Honda and Suzuki had offered liquid cooled 90 degree V-twins, they never really lived up to Ducati's racey 916. Instead the TL and VTR found themselves competing with Ducati's less sport Super Sport model. The Super Sport model featured an air cooled 900cc twin that traces its roots the mid eighties. This bike was far from offering the Superbike performance of the 916, but price wise and style wise it competed with the TL and VTR nicely.

New standards part III

Over the years a number of exotic naked bikes have appeared. In 2002 Aprilia stripped their RSV 1000 superbike while keeping it's raw edge to create the Tuono. The Tuono became a favorite of motorcycle critics for it's uncompromised performance.

Aprilia Tuono
Aprilia Tuono

When MV Agusta came back into existence in the 1990's with the F4, a naked model followed shortly. In 2004 the Brutale debuted with the F4's 750cc inline four. The Brutale grew to 910cc and then 1078cc's.

MV Agusta Brutale 1078

In 2001 Ducati gave the Monster some serious power with their water cooled superbike engine. The Monster S4 was born. With the next generation Monster Ducati has decided to keep the Monster air cooled, and introduce the Streetfighter. The Streetfighter takes advantage of the 1198's engine.

Ducati Monster S4R

Ducati Streetfighter

When talking about Italian bikes it's easy to forget about Benelli. But the Benelli TnT is a legitimate naked bike with serious Italian soul. Today the TnT is offered with a 1130 and 899cc triple.

Benelli TnT

Nowadays Moto Guzzi has been producing a number of great standard bikes. The pinicle of these bikes is their new 8 valve Sport 1200.

Moto Guzzi Sport 1200

Like Moto Guzzi BMW has been suppling us with a number of air/oil cooled standards known as the R model. The sportiest R model is the R1200S with a half fairing and low-mounted bars. In 2005 BMW reinvedted their water cooled line with the all new K1200S. A naked version followed called the K1200R.

BMW R1200S

BMW K1200R

KTM rocked the world when they stepped outside of the roading world and into the world of street bikes with the V-twin streetbike the Super Duke. The Super Duke impressed critics and riders all around the world and got KTM off to a good start in the sportbike wolrd.

KTM Super Duke 990

Finally there's Buell. Buell has been turning out naked bikes since the early 1990's. The newest generation of the Buell formula is the XB chassis. The XB comes is bikini faired XB-R version and the appropratedly named XB-S "Streetfighter". Introduced last year is the Buell Cafe Racer, a non-fair version of Buell's totally new liquid cooled 1125R.

Buell XB12R

Buell XB12S

Buell 1125CR

New standards part II

As more and more naked bikes hit the market in the mid-nighties a new sub-category emerged. A class of smaller cheaper naked bikes were introduced to capture entry-level and novice bikers. Much like the difference between 600cc supersports and their bigger liter bike brothers, these bikes borrowed the appearance of their big bore hooligan bikes with 600-650cc engines.

Suzuki got this segment started in 1999 with the SV650. The SV became a huge hit. For a number of years Suzuki offered the naked GS500 and Bandit 600, but those bikes were more of a traditional design. The SV combined the charisma of a 90 degree V-twin with an affordable price. Suzuki initially offered the SV in two flavors a completely naked model, and the SV650S which offers a half fairing, and more sporting seating position. Today the SV650S is a fully faired motorcycle. For 2008 Suzuki introduced another 650cc V-twin to there line up; the Gladius.

Suzuki Bandit 600

Suzuki SV650Suzuki SV650S

Suzuki Gladius

Honda had it's own 650cc V-twin; the Hawk GT. Debuting in 1988 the Hawk was ahead of it's time and never really caught on in the states. Ten years later, in Europe, Honda introduced the Hornet 600. The Hornet wasn't available in North America (as the Honda 599) until 2004. However the 599 didn't catch on as much as Honda hoped it would, and was dropped from the US line up in 2006.

Honda Hawk GTHonda Hornet 600 (599)Honda Hornet 600

In 2004 Yamaha released their FZ6, a smaller variation of their successful FZ1. The bike is sold in the US with a half fairing similar to the Suzuki SV650S. Elsewhere in the world the FZ6 is available as a "full" naked bike. The FZ6 has become one of the more popular bikes in this segment.

Yamaha FZ6 Fazer

Yamaha FZ6 Fazer

Kawasaki jumped in to the mid-sized game in 2006 with the ER-6. The ER was first introduced with a fairing in the United States, later the naked version sold in Europe became available, known as the ER-6n. Prior to the ER-6 Kawasaki offered the ZR750 in the United States, and in Europe today they offer a downsized version of the Z1000, known as the Z750.

Kawasaki ZR750Kawasaki Z750

Kawasaki ER-6n (Ninja 650R)

Ducati has had a mid-size bike since the introduction of the first Monster; the M600. The Monster went on to become one Ducati's most successful products of all time, and the smallest Monster was one of the best selling models. Over the years the baby Monster grew from 600 to 620, to 695, and finally with the next generation Monster the 696.

Ducati Monster 620

Triumph also had a a "mini-me" version of their bigger hooligan bike. Shortly after Triumph entered the 600cc supersport category the entered the mid-sized hooligan bike market with a naked version. The Speed Four attempted to offer the thrills of the Speed Triple with a smaller four cylinder power plant. In 2008 Triumph revisited this formula using the fresh triple from the 675 sport bike creating a nice little package called the Street Triple.

Triumph Speed FourTriumph Street Triple

Finally there's the South Korean upstart Hyosung. Hyosung has been trying to break into the US market with their 650R and S models. Esentially a copy of Suzuki's 650 V-twin design, the Hyosung tries to offer the performance of their Japanese rivals for less money.