#FantasyCharacters

If there’s one thing the motorcycling community is full of it’s opinions. Ask 10 people what they think is the best tire and you’ll get 10 different answers. Same goes for oil, exhaust pipes, and heck, motorcycles themselves. Despite this, I think we can all agree: starting your own motorcycle company is not a great idea. Thankfully, Markus Kramer never got that memo. Well, he did, he just didn’t care – and, to me, the world is better off for it.

Sure, we all say that we’re going for a ride to disconnect from it all and to free ourselves from our electronic/digital chains. While I’m sure this is true for some, the truth of the matter points otherwise. More and more riders, myself included, are using technology to help them with their riding – even if it’s something as simple as using your phone’s GPS to help you navigate somewhere. Electronics, as we all know, use batteries, and batteries eventually run out unless they have access to power to recharge. This isn’t an issue if your motorcycle already comes with a power outlet, but for those who don’t? Hmm, if only we had a power source to tap into…

Markus Kramer said it so nonchalantly when I asked him. “Three months ago,” he said. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so I asked in a different way. “You mean to tell me this motorcycle didn’t exist four months ago?” Again, the response was simple. “Yep.” Markus isn’t a man of many words, but that’s when I knew this ride aboard the GP2 Prototype from Kramer Motorcycles was going to be different. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Back when KTM’s 790 Duke was first announced, I knocked on Joe Karvonen’s social media door, asking the sole importer for Kramer Motorcycles USA whether the 790 Twin engine would make its way into a Kramer.

Funny thing about electric motorcycles: if you’re already an early adopter of the technology, the name Zero Motorcycles is all too familiar. If you still think electrics are as evil to the motorcycling landscape as Jar Jar Binks was to Star Wars… well, you might as well stop reading here. No matter where you stand, the staying power of Zero Motorcycles is hard to ignore. For over 13 years, Zero has been leading the way in electric motorcycle technology, and its staying power has seen it outlast all its competitors. For 2019, Zero is further staking its claim as the leader in electric motorcycle technology, perhaps bracing itself for the arrival of the Harley-Davidson Livewire in 2020.

Riding the Ducati Panigale V4 S is quite a trip, as the experience is nothing short of relentless. There’s power everywhere, and if ever there was a machine to remind us that we, the riders, are the limiting factors in performance, this is it. By now there has been quite a lot written about the Ducati Panigale V4 S on the digital pages of Motorcycle.com. From our First Look of the bike a year ago, to Kevin Duke’s subsequent First Ride Review, we’ve then gone on to put it on the dyno against its natural rival, the Aprilia RSV4 RF, followed by a full-on showdown between the two Italians on both the street and the track. Hell, despite some of its shortcomings, we even gave the Panigale V4 S our 2018 Motorcycle of the Year award!

There’s a motorcycling renaissance happening right now in a location you’d never expect. It’s far from any coast, and temperatures can be downright brutal in the winter. Nevertheless, for three seasons out of the year it’s not unusual to hear the sounds of roaring American V-Twins interspersed with the wail of Japanese Fours, British parallel-Twins, and everything else in between. Motorcycles new and old roam this land, and when the winter months make their presence felt, the locals make lemonade out of lemons – out come the dirtbikes, on go the studded tires, and off to the frozen lakes they go, shredding the ice in the land of never-ending traction.

Photos by: Evans Brasfield Video by: Sean Matic and Nik Wogen

For the past decade we’ve all been witness to the steady decline of the 600 supersport category. It’s amazing to think about, especially considering that, before the economic recession, the four Japanese players in this very same class were pumping out brand new contenders every other year! Since then, however, 600s have become more than stagnant – the class has been teetering on life support. Suzuki and Honda have soldiered on with the same GSX-R600 and CBR600RR for years – the latter even halting sales in Europe due to increasing emissions standards and declining sales. Meanwhile, Yamaha introduced an “update” to its venerable YZF-R6 which amounted to new bodywork, electronics, and a series of relatively minor improvements. Compound that with rising costs rivaling prices for liter-class machines and many questioned the reason to buy a 600.

Today, we arrive at the end of Motorcycle.com’s award season. Up to this point, we’ve named motorcycles in nine separate categories, the very best bikes that each class has to offer. The Motorcycle of the Year draws upon these winners and then looks deeper for the selection of the motorcycle that not only beat its direct competitors, but also embodies that special something that points to the road ahead for motorcycling as a whole. The 2018 Motorcycle.com Motorcycle of the Year does just that. The 2018 Ducati Panigale V4 S is a special motorcycle – one that simultaneously defines the current two-wheeled state-of-the-art while also expanding what we can expect from motorcycles in the future regarding the role technology will play.

Unveiled today at the AIMExpo in Las Vegas, Nevada, Kawasaki has taken the wraps off the new 2019 Ninja ZX-6R. While the 600 supersport category may be far from the glory days of the past, we’re thankful companies like Kawasaki have kept it in their lineups – even if the updates are less than ground-up redesigns.

We’ve waxed poetic about the Kawasaki Ninja 400 more times than I care to count here at MO. Just check the Best Lightweight/Entry Level category posted a few days earlier to see what we like about the bike. Aside from being a polished, handsome, and fun motorcycle for both new riders and experienced veterans alike, what we didn’t mention in the Lightweight/Entry Level piece was just how affordable the little Ninja is. Ranging in price from $4,999 to $5,499, depending on color choice and ABS, the 400 is easily accessible for students on a budget – we’ve even had readers report dealer markdowns in their area on the Ninja 400.

On the racetrack, the fight between the Aprilia RSV4 RF and Ducati Panigale V4 S was so close, it resulted in one of, if not the, closest shootout in Motorcycle.com history, with the two protagonists separated by 0.2% – two-tenths of a percentage point! – on our scorecards. On paper, anyway, the Ducati emerged victorious for a track tool, but it was only our racetrack ringer, Shane Turpin, who ultimately picked the Panigale V4 S – and its $4k heftier price tag – as his weapon of choice. Meanwhile, both Tom and I would elect to save the extra dough and be perfectly happy with the Aprilia – despite what the scorecard says.

Our love affair with Triumph’s three-cylinder engines is no secret. The Speed Triple has long been a favorite of ours, as has the smaller-displacing 675cc Street Triple. Last year saw the first major revamp of the Street Triple since 2013, with the biggest change being the dyslexia-inducing increase in engine size to 765cc. It’s always a worry when a manufacturer changes a model we love, but our worries were swept away the moment we rode the new 765 S-T – it takes everything we adore about the outgoing model and amplifies it some more. It’s so good, in fact, that Brent damn near cried man tears when he finally had to part with it.

The major bane of every electric motorcycle’s existence, at least so far, is weight. As battery technology stands these days, there’s no getting around the fact that batteries are heavy. No matter how many trick components you surround the battery with, a plump curb weight is a killer when it comes to performance. Case in point, the Energica Eva Esse Esse 9. A trellis frame, Marzocchi fork, Bitubo shock, OZ wheels, Brembo brakes, and the finest in Italian electric motorcycle technology can’t hide the fact that the bike weighs 621 pounds.

Without a doubt, the biggest news in the sportbike scene for 2018 is Ducati’s Panigale V4 and the emergence of a mass-produced four cylinder engine – the Stradale V4. While Ducati has finally left its beloved V-Twin engine behind (at least in terms of superbikes), there was no way the folks in Borgo Panigale would conform to tradition when it came to its new four-banger. For starters, as the name implies, the new engine is arranged as a 90º V4 – essentially multiplying  its V-Twin tradition by two.