34 War of the Repli-Racers
Il’s Kawasaki vs. Yamaha in the Year
of the Qpen-Classer.
42 Honda CBR1000RR
Big Red fires its biggest salvo yet.
43 Honda Rune
All show, no go? Uh, no,
44 Aprilia Mille Factory
Millc, Mugello, Mama mia!
46 Kawasaki Vulcan 2000
Big Vee bragging rights.
47 Yamaha Road Star 1700
Same, only bigger and belter.
48 Yamaha FZ6
TDM meets Rl meets R6.
49 Triumph Daytona 600
Jolly good middleweight.
50 Harley-Davidson ’04
What, no IQlst Anniversary Editions?!
51 Ducati Multisirada
Far from the Futa, home on the gas.
54 Suzuki ’04
I Something for everyone.___________
56 Honda CRF250R
Son of CRF450R.
57 ATK Intimidator
Is the world ready for a 700cc two-stroke?
58 Kawasaki KXF250
Mean Green enters the four-stroke fray.
84 Mining for Old
The mad world of the Sandy Bandit.
-by Mark Hoyer
83 Long-Term Update
Ducati 999, Honda CBR600RR and
K.TM Adventure S.
92 Border Patrol
Harley vs. Indian vs. Victory baggers.
-by Paul Dean
102 Band-O-Gear
Cordura carryall.
104 Nikko ZX-12R G-Pack
Plug-and-play.
106 Nicky Hayden’s 8-Hour
All 2.5 minutes of it...
-by Mark Cemicky
8
UP FRONT
Road Man.
-by David Edwards
12 LEANINGS
Them mean old Biker Blues.
-by Peter Egan
14 TDC
Dodging the dragon.
-by Kevin Cameron
18 Hotshots
24 New Ideas
26 Roundup
100 CW Library
122 Service
128 CW Showcase
138 Slipstream
The road to Jacumba is not very well traveled
these days. Once, though, it was a main route,
first as a footpath for the Dieguenos Indians, then
: part of the stagecoach route
’ between San Diego and
Yuma, then a treacherous
stretch of Highway 80 that
delivered the likes of Clark
Gable and Marlene
Dietrich to town to “take
! the waters” at the spa hotel.
But long ago, Jacumba was
bypassed by Interstate 8,
I and a once-bustling town of
5000 just a mile from the
U.S.-Mexico border now is home to just 625 hearty souls.
That lonely old road was perfect for our purposes-a pre- |
Eisenhower highway for 1950s-style American cruisers.
Actually, you have to go back to before the Great
Depression to find a time when America had three viable
motorcycle-makers. The original Excelsior-Henderson didn’t 1
make it past the ’30s, and Indian was dead by the late ’50s.
With Victory’s birth and Indian’s rebirth, though, Harley-
Davidson is no longer the only homegrown. How would the
newcomers stack up against the time-proven veteran?
To find out. we ordered up three touring-cruisers and hit
the two-lane backroads of California and Arizona, skirting
the Mexican border, bound for the grand old Copper Queen
Hotel in the mining town of Bisbee. The players:
Harley-Davidson
Heritage Softail Classic
h’s hard to imagine legiti-
mately making such a state-
ment, but the Harley is the
“little” bike of this trio. It’s
compact, tidy and low, and it
seems to place the rider clos-
er to the front wheel than the
others. The reach to the grips
is the shortest, the floorboards are the closest to the seat, the
bars are the narrowest, the seat is the lowest.
Of these three, the Heritage is also the most refined.
Everything feels right, like it has been intelligently and
thoughtfully placed. I guess nothing less is expected from a
company that’s had 100 years to get it right. It's quiet,
smooth and comfortable, with excellent wind protection
aided by the placement of the windshield, which is closer to
the rider than those on the other bikes.
Too bad the H-D is “only” an 88-incher. Though the fuel-
injected engine “carburetes” well, it is noticeably down on
overall power compared to the other two; in fact, our testbike
was about 5 bhp short of other Twin Cammers we’ve sampled.
One of Harley’s own 95-inch kits would work wonders here...