#review

One of the most hotly contested categories in motorcycling today, the liter-class streetfighter field has a contender from nearly every manufacturer out there. But if you’ve read the numerous streetfighter reviews posted on Motorcycle.com and other outlets, you’ll know that three models – super streetfighters, if you will – stand above the rest: the BMW S1000R, Aprilia Tuono V4 1100, and KTM Super Duke R.

I’ll admit, I didn’t know Moto Morini was still in business. However, after a quick Google search, the company has a website that appears to be up-to-date, with five models. Unfortunately, none of them are coming to the U.S. Hence why I forgot about the marque. In 2008, though, contributor Yossef Schvetz hopped aboard the Moto Morini Corsari, in a review for the then-revived company. With a 1200cc V-Twin stuffed into a naked bike chassis, it appears that maybe MM should reconsider its decision not to bring bikes to America. This category seems to be all the rage these days (and the topic of a MO six bike shootout to come in a few days…). Read on to find out more about the Corsaro and Moto Morini. -TS

I lovingly refer to my RSD Zuma as my Lynyrd Skynyrd jacket because this retro cafe racer piece of kit rocks. It’s “Timber” color is ’70s très chic, and the wing-footed RSD logo is a shoe-in for Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits album cover. In addition to being hipster fashionable the Zuma fits well, is protective, and is good for three out of four seasons.

Tomorrow being July 4th, which if you don’t know, is Independence Day here in America, where the MO staff is based. In celebration of this holiday today’s Church feature is all-American. And it doesn’t get much more all-American than a story about a Harley-Davidson and a trip to Sturgis. Today, we have a review of the 2009 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Standard that George “Longride” Obradovich piloted 2500 miles to Sturgis. Obradovich, owner of a 2001 Electra Glide, notes the many changes between his old bike and this new one, and gives his (probably biased) opinion about how it all works. In short, he gives it a thumbs up. Read on to find out.

Could it be that the Yamaha XJ6 and XJ6 Diversion were just slightly ahead of their time? Naked middleweights are making what appears to be a comeback in the form of Yamaha’s FZ-07 and Suzuki’s new SV650, but in this week’s Church feature, we take a look at a bike that could be considered the predecessor to the FZ-07 – the Yamaha XJ6 (and its half-faired sibling, the XJ6 Diversion). Two bikes that never made it to America, assuming you don’t count the XJ6’s slightly different cousin, the FZ6R. Here, our European Correspondent, Tor Sagen, takes the XJ6 for a spin and tells us all about it. As usual, for more pics, be sure to visit the photo gallery.

This week’s Church feature brings you a review of the 2004 Yamaha RoadStar. More than that, however, this week’s Church feature brings you an example of Eric Bass truly soaking up a motorcycle press intro, complete with photos of the hotel room, EB making a duck face for the camera, posing in a bathrobe, talking to Brad Banister in said bathrobe, and lastly, sunbathing on top of the RoadStar. Oh, and there’s a motorcycle review in there somewhere, too. For more pics of E-Bass, be sure to check out the photo gallery. Enjoy!

I’ve already covered the 2017 Suzuki SV650 quite a bit since I rode the new bike in mid May. Of course there was my First Ride Review, where I basically confessed my love for the bike, and in my Top 10 Features of the 2017 Suzuki SV650 I explained specifically which aspects of the bike I like the most.

What do you think of when you hear “Chinese motorcycle?” Cheap, ugly, and under-performing? Those observations would be largely correct, as the majority of Chinese motorcycles to come to these shores (that’s the United States, for our international readers) were exactly that. Let’s face it: the words “Made In China” aren’t held in high regard.

Kawasaki’s KLX110 has long been a great little dirtbike for the munchkins, and with the addition of the KLX110L, even the bigger kids (aka, parents) can join in on the fun. Both models are still in Kawasaki’s lineup, only $200 more than they were in 2010, when MO’s Alfonse Palaima got to ride them at Fox’s backyard dirt track. How did a grown child like Fonsie take to the little Kawi? Read on to find out. And for more pics, be sure to click the photo gallery.

Ostensibly, this is a review of the 2004 Kawasaki KX250F. But read a little more into the story and you start to see this is just the old-school MO crew having fun on a new dirtbike, getting themselves wholly out of their comfort zone and being genuine MOrons the entire time. This was MO‘s humble beginnings, folks – Ride bikes, make mistakes and bad decisions, then write about it in a fun and irreverent manner. I mean, check out that lead image above. I didn’t add those effects. That’s just the goofy MOron crew at work. Anyway, enjoy the “review” and see the rest of the pics in the photo gallery.

Off-road worthy motorcycles from MO’s past seem to be pretty popular Church items lately, so we’ll continue the theme again this week with a dirtbike from BMW. No, not the R1200GS, but a real dirtbike, the 2009 BMW G450X. In a time when BMW was trying to reinvent itself to attract new riders, the G450X presented something radically different than the comfy touring bikes many younger riders pictured their parents – or even grandparents – riding. Ultimately, the G450X had a short shelf life, but the guts to continually reinvent itself and enter new motorcycling categories has resulted in products like the RnineT and the S1000 lineup. For that we partially have the G450X to thank. Here’s contributor Jeff Buchanan with his take on BMW’s dirtbike.  

Who crams a V-Twin into a dirtbike frame, anyway?! Aprilia, that’s who, and in 2005 it just happened to cram a highly oversquare 77-degree V-Twin into not one, but two(!) different models: the SXV supermoto, and the RXV enduro model. As if that wasn’t audacious enough, Aprilia even made each bike in two engine sizes: 450 and 550. Personally, I remember lusting after the SXV when it launched, dreams of sliding back tires happily floating through my mind. As the years wore on that lust slowly faded as I learned that the bike needed constant attention and upkeep wasn’t cheap. Still, I’d love to flog one around for a day… and then give it back to someone else. Here, let’s jump back in time and let then Senior Editor and current MO contributor Gabe Ets-Hokin, and MO’s beloved former staff photog, Alfonse Palaima, tell you how both bikes perform. Of course, there are tons more pics. Visit the photo gallery to see them.  

If you ask me, there’s no faster way to get your license revoked than to get a supermoto. Why? Because riding one instantly makes you turn into the hooligan you never thought you could be. Take Yossef Schvetz, for instance. The good-mannered moto-journalist he is (was?), even he couldn’t resist acting like a fool once he threw a leg over a SuMo. Of course, when that motard happens to be a 2004 Husqvarna SM450R, it’s easy to see how Yossef would let his inner teenager loose. So let’s turn back the clock to late 2003 to get Schvetz’ take on the SuMo scene of the day and where the Husqvarna stacks up. And for more pics of the SM450R, be sure to visit the photo gallery.

When it comes to liter-class sportbikes, technology has become the name of the game. There’s an alphabet soup of acronyms out there to describe the many number of ways you, the rider, can lap a racetrack as fast as you can with far fewer consequences for a mistake than ever before. Yamaha, Ducati, Kawasaki, BMW, Aprilia are just a few of the manufacturers offering top-level sportbikes with sophisticated levels of electronics.

As part of my job, I wear tons of motorcycle boots both on bikes and walking around at events or on daylong photo shoots. These Rev’It Regent H2O are the first boots in my 20 years of testing gear that have made the transition to becoming part of my everyday streetwear – boots that I choose to put on even when I’m not planning on riding.