2008 Street Bikes Motorcycle Guide

Think large engine, no fairing, insane wheelie capabilities and you are thinking about the ultimate street bike. This is a close to real bikes as you get – wind in your hair, bugs in your teeth motorcycling. You have to love the idea. 2008 is a great year for street bikes, much like 1996 was a great year for champagne but with engines and they won’t get you drunk – at least not in the traditional sense.

New models from Ducati, an updated, “hard as nails,” Triumph Speed triple, and Yamaha’s FZ-1 is improved. But, disappointingly, no new V-Max. The legendary Kawasaki Z-1000 gets a few minor upgrades and Buell make a concerted effort with their StreetFighter range. This is a street motorcycle buyers guide, So to find out what’s hot for 2008, read on.

click on any of the images for a full size version.

I have to start this with the Kwacker Z-1 – This bike is the definitive street bike. 2008 sees a new paint job and that’s about it. Let’s face it, the current model is going to be hard to improve upon – just about bullet proof and with a straight through pipe, possibly the meanest sounding four cylinder bike on the planet. You can do things with this bike you shouldn’t be able to do. Well-balanced, well-mannered and just plain fast. Lean, mean and with a horrible looking exhaust system. First thing to do after buying one is to trash those pipes and buy some decent ones. ‘Nuff said.

OK, who would have thought a triple could make it in this class? Not me. Hats off to Triumph. Each year the speed triple gets meaner and sexier looking. Single sided swing arm, and for 2008 it gets a whole bunch of styling refinements - redesigned radiator, new sub-frame, new LED rear light, black anodized front forks, Brembo radial calipers on the front, new tapered anodized aluminum handlebars. Hard as nails is just about right – it’s a 1053cc in-line triple. Finally an English bike to be proud of. Like the Kawasaki – black, orange or white (no green of course.)

Ducati have two new monsters for 2008. The incredibly expensive, insanely desirable, ridiculously fast (can you tell I want one?) Monster S4R S Tricolore. And the lightly less expensive, almost as desirable, not quite-as-fast completely redesigned, not quite-ready-to-release yet Monster 696. Either way, nothing says I love you like a Ducati for Christmas. The Tricolore is a limited edition of the Testastretta S4R S Monster, kicks out 130 hp, and almost guaranteed never to wear your front tire out – seeing as you will be spending most of the time with the front wheel off the ground, I think this is how Ducati is promising less maintenance costs this year. Ducati have come a long way since the days of self-destroying electrical wiring looms and guaranteed oil stains on the driveway. This year's Monsters are awesome.

Maybe not the baddest bike on the block, but the Yamaha FZ-1 has some serious bite. The engine from the YZF-R1 dropped into a semi-naked street frame? Yes please. Much like the Z-1000, Yamaha have been forced to employ a ridiculously oversized exhaust system which will have to go. A little more practical than the Kawasaki, purely because of the part fairing, it’s still a pretty hot bike. The engine has been detuned slightly, but that’s easy fixed with a new pipe and jets. At the end of the day, it’s still a 20 valve, 998cc fuel-injected 439lb rocket. Much more of a day to day tourer than most of the bikes in this class, I consider this a great all rounder with some bark to go with it’s bite.

One look at this tells you Buell mean business this year. Just look at the size of the brake discs. A 1203cc, fuel injected, triple cooled V-Twin like no other in this clas. This thing could even out-wheelie a Ducati Monster. V-Twin means serious grunt and the XB12S generates 84 foot pounds of torque at 6000 rpm and 103 HP at 6800 rpm and translates that to the road through a massive 180/55 Pirelli Diablo and with a 52 inch wheelbase, nimble is the word you are looking for. Colors are black/orange, black/red and just plain black. The amazing thing about it, is it is only just over ten grand – insanely cheap. Just be sure and buy a black one.

Honda make great bikes, no question. They make incredible road racers, fantastic motocrossers, wonderful tourers and cruisers and for all I know, kick ass ATVs, but in this class? Street fighters? Nope.

If anything, Hondas are too good. The 919 is too well-refined, too well-mannered and too, well….. It’s just too much like a Honda. You don’t want a completely predictable, perfectly well behaved bike in this class – you want character and this one is sadly lacking in that department. What they should have done was take the CBR1000RR, stripped all the plastic off, tuned the engine and geared it for straight out acceleration, stuck it in a short wheel base frame and dared you to be able to ride it. Now that would be a street fighter. In fact, that’s just given me an idea.

More motorcycle buyer's guide s in the links.