#BillyBartels

Sheesh, two motorcycle manufacturers shutting their doors in less than a month. First it was Victory, and now it’s Buel… errr, EBR. Coincidentally, Buell got his time in the spotlight in last week’s Church feature, and while we don’t normally post consecutive Church features from the same manufacturer, with the unfortunate news of Erik Buell winding down yet again we feel it’s the right thing to do. So to celebrate Buell, this week’s we’re going all the way back to 1998 and the test between the Buell S3T Thunderbolt and Ducati ST2 Sport Turismo. As a special treat, joining the old MO staff of Mark Hammond and Billy Bartels is none other than Chuck Graves – yeah, that Chuck Graves. What do they think of this Italian/American mashup? Read on to find out. And for more pictures of the duet, be sure to visit the photo gallery.

While Suzuki’s GSX-R750 may be the Godfather of the sportbike category, perhaps the most under appreciated 750 superbike of the time is the Kawasaki ZX-7R. The machine that changed little since 1993 while still managing to win superbike races and titles both here and abroad, many praise it as being one of the best handling sportbikes in existence. In 1997, our own Shawn Higbee (yes, the same Shawn Higbee who was the lead Buell test rider) got his hands on a then-new ZX-7R, for this first ride report. Considering Shawn’s vast experience on two wheels, his ability to evaluate a motorcycle and communicate what it’s doing is top notch. See for yourself in his review below in this week’s Church of MO.

The CBR900RR was perhaps the most mental sportbike Honda had ever produced.  First introduced in 1992, it boasted 893cc of inline-Four power in a package that weighed about the same as Honda’s CBR600F2 from the same era. The next-lightest open-class sportbike, Yamaha’s FZR1000, plunked about 75 extra pounds on the pavement.

It’s big, it’s heavy, and it’s undeniably BMW. In this week’s Church of MO, we’re going back to 1998 to see how Billy Bartels got along with BMW’s autobahn burner, the K1200RS. Today the K bikes are known as sport-touring machines known more for their touring abilities, but capable of handling a twisty road or two if needed. Before the K12 however, the K bikes had a reputation for being big porkers with incredible reliability being its main redeeming quality. Truth be told, K bikes are still rather portly, but BMW has found a way to turn that into a positive. Read on and you’ll see that Bartels agrees.