Sport Cruisers Comparison - Seven Sport-Cruiser Motorcycles

Street Fighting, Man!

Unless you are one of the lucky few, who live on a crooked road, you'll have to ride less exciting routes to reach twisty tarmac. For most riders, that means starting out in urban traffic.

Any of these bikes easily pulls away from the crush of traffic leaving a downtown traffic light, but they do it with different styles. The big twins -- the FXDX and V92SC, (as well as the R1200) -- have strong power at low rpm and plenty of flywheel effect to counter sloppy clutch technique. The FXDX makes the most power of the twins. The other extreme is the Triumph, with little flywheel effect and the tallest first gear. Fortunately, it has an excellent clutch also, so the extra slipping needed for a hard launch can be conducted smoothly. The Magna requires more revs than the twins to make a strong launch, but if you supply them, it can burn away from a start like none of the other bikes. With all those cylinders, the Valkyrie sounds busy but actually needs just moderate rpm to get away crisply; it has great low-end. As the Guzzi's displacement suggests, it is in the middle of the group in terms of low-end oomph.

Crisp launches demand a controllable clutch, too. While the Harley lever requires a heavy pull and makes small hands stretch to engage it, it will hook up controllably. The BMW clutch is slightly abrupt and the Victory clutch seems to have slightly warped plates, engaging unevenly -- though it was only noticeable when you were easing away, not during hard starts. The other clutches all performed well, engaging progressively and disengaging with light pulls.

Most of our seven bikes shifted nicely. The exception was the Victory which, though slightly better than previous V92s, still makes a loud clank when a new gear is engaged. It also doesn't enjoy being rushed and grinds a bit if you try to make a quick shift. One rider complained about the BMW's shift action. All the bikes had toe shifters except for the Jackal, which sports a heel-toe design. It was a bit awkward and some riders missed an occasional shift because of the lever configuration.

The BMW had a combination of powertrain traits that proved annoying in urban traffic and elsewhere. Because of the 1200C's sensitive and abrupt throttle response, some unusual drivetrain lash, the normal jacking that accompanies a driveshaft, and poorly controlled suspension action, the bike was tough to ride smoothly at a steady speed in lower gears. Hitting a sharp bump displaced the rider's arm enough to move the throttle, taking up the drivetrain lash with a lurch, making the bike jerk or jack up and down on the suspension and moving the rider's arm again -- starting the entire process over. A bumpy street was best tackled in a taller gear, which lessened the effect of throttle changes and seemed to reduce the lash. This is overlaid on a slight tendency to surge at steady throttle settings in the lower gears. At least the ride is less harsh than on earlier 1200C models.

The V92SC was also plagued by some lower-gear lash (that is, play in the drivetrain) at low rpm and a stiff ride that drew complaints on straight roads and in the city. However, the Victory had a nice, progressive throttle response, so it didn't fall into the syndrome that plagued the BMW. Oddly, the Victory's lash disappeared at higher rpm.

Though the Guzzi and Triumph offered taut rides, neither provoked complaints. The other bikes delivered comfortable rides around town and delivered smooth throttle response.

To uphold the cruiser end of the equation, these bikes need some spectator appeal when you are herding them around town. Three bikes pulled the bulk of the attention. The Victory drew comments because of the unique brand, its aggressive stance, and unusual features such as the dirttrack-style 2-into-1 pipe. When some people inspected the bike closer, they didn't like the details, such as the welds on the pipe. Parking-lot pundits liked the distinctive style of the BMW quite a bit, and it probably drew the most admiration. The massive appearance of the Valkyrie also drew attention and awe. People are still surprised by that six-cylinder engine.

Soaking up a noticeably smaller share of attention were the FXDX and Magna. The subdued coloring of the Harley with its blacked out engine left its brand name the primary point of comment. The black color of the Magna also seemed to make the bike disappear, though those who commented generally regarded it as one of the most stylish and best-finished machines from our baker's half-dozen.

The Guzzi drew little attention, and what it attracted most was curiosity about its engine design and unfamiliar name. The Jackal is fairly plain and looks like a budget bike. Except for the billet shift lever, little was done to dress the bike up. The bulk of the few comments we heard about the Thunderbird were nostalgic: "I used to have one of those. I thought they went out of business," was a typical remark. We'd say the BMW, which one enthusiast called, "a handsome piece of modern art," wins the pride-of-ownership competition.

The BMW, however, didn't do well in the aural test. The flat cadence of the Beemer's opposed-twin engine sounds unexciting despite the solid volume of the exhaust note. The Triumph was the most popular of the multis; several riders liked the sound of the triple. The Valkyrie also tingled a few pleasure sensors. The Magna sounded "Okay, but not as cool as other V-4s." Some riders preferred the sound of 90-degree V-twin in the Guzzi to the narrow-angle in the American bikes. Because of its prominent exhaust note, the Victory was judged to have the most in-your-ear sex appeal.

Highway to Byway

Heading for that favorite stretch of curvy road, pick up the interstate for the run out of town.

Accelerating up the on-ramp, the Valkyrie asserts itself when the throttles are rolled open to the stops. It blasts ahead of the rest of the pack with the Magna close behind. One of the pleasant discoveries of this test was that this Valkyrie displayed the muscle of early versions of the bike. Our last two samples felt and tested slower than our first edition -- and slower than this one. This bike feels approximately ten horsepower stronger than our last tested Valkyrie, and it is the horsepower champ here. As the quarter-mile times show, the Thunderbird is third quickest in all-out acceleration, with the Jackal, an 1100 twin, surprisingly, edging ahead of the FXDX and Victory. The BMW brings up the rear. These sorts of full-bore acceleration trials will make you miss a tachometer on the two 1100s. We wished for one particularly on the Jackal after the speedometer stopped working (which made it impossible to get a reliable top-gear roll-on figure or calculate fuel mileage unless it was paced by another bike all the way between fill-ups).

In part because of its gearing, the Triumph edges ahead in top-gear acceleration, making it the highway-acceleration champ for people who hate to downshift.

If you want to hold the throttle open for a while, vibration will become an issue on the Moto Guzzi. Though vibration doesn't intrude at steady legal speeds on streets and highways, when you increase load by opening the throttle, the magnitude of vibration increases sharply. The Victory, BMW and Harley will alos shake slightly at high speeds, though they are fine at a steady highway pace. The three multis stayed smooth at most speeds and rpm. Vibration blurred the V92SC's mirrors on the highway, which combines with their position and shape to render them ineffective. The positions of the Thunderbird Sport and Euro also minimize your view.

Running down the highway without a windshield, the Valkyrie -- which puts you quite upright behind a relatively tall handlebar -- exposes you to the most wind blast. The sporty posture of the T-Bird reduces the wind pressure most effectively. The little, clear-plastic flyscreen over the Euro's headlight affects a small but noticeable reduction in wind pressure. Even with the lowish handlebar, the riding position of the Victory was less than ideal for resisting wind pressure. The positions of the other three offered a good compromise for extended rides at speed.

Saddles were another matter. The crowded, crowned, narrow Harley seat got hard almost immediately. The narrow saddles on the SC and T-Bird make you squirm an hour or so down the road, followed by the Jackal pillion. We continued to appreciate the front-to-back roominess of the Jackal and 'Bird's seats, however. We were pleased also at how much better the Euro saddle suited us than the standard 1200C's perch, and it retains that cool (unless you're the one who has to sit on it for a long time) passenger pad that flips up to serve as a rider backrest. The Magna saddle suited most of us well, and the big Valkyrie seat was the best of the bunch -- although some smaller riders commented it was slightly wide for them.

Out on the open road, all but the Valkyrie could consistently deliver better than 40 mpg, which will get you across those long deserted sections in most remote areas.

Every Which Way but Straight

To provide an even playing field we ran all seven bikes around the same 12-mile mountain-road loop multiple times, swapping bikes each lap. Our loop starts out with a gently curving, moderately traveled road which becomes a tighter uphill trek with light traffic. That leads to a downhill, one-way (no opposing traffic) run on a small, virtually empty road with little room to gracefully recover from an error. The pace becomes progressively more demanding, allowing you to feel out the bike gradually before pushing for maximum sporting performance. In the process you get a taste of most sport riding challenges.

We began with some long, smooth corners to feel traction and cornering clearance. The Jackal was the king of clearance. You had to be pushing the bike pretty hard to drag anything, and some riders never did. That speaks well for its Metzeler tires. The Triumph also let the horizon tilt a lot before anything but its tube-type Avon radial tires touched the pavement. In the middle, the FXDX, Magna and Valkyrie all offer respectable lean angle potential and give warning before anything solid drags. When pressed, especially in bumpy bends, the Harley and Magna felt a little less firmly stuck than the Jackal, T-Bird or Valkyrie -- all of which have better tires.

The BMW has decent clearance and quality Michelin tires, but its limp suspension reduced riders' confidence. Grippy Dunlop SportMax tires make the Victory feel well stuck in corners, although it was limited by the least cornering ground clearance in this group. It was the only one that routinely dragged anything solid. Riding ahead of it on a winding road can be disconcerting at first because the volume and variety of scraping noises may make you wonder if the bike's crashing. The Victory was also the only one to occasionally wallow, albeit very gently, in fast corners.

Our road demands more of the bikes as it gets tighter with quick back-and-forth transitions between slow corners and fast runs into off-camber, decreasing-radius corners. Quick transitions require responsive steering and a well-controlled suspension that settles immediately to let you commit to and hold a line. Four bikes stand above the others when the game is flick-and-stick. With the least weight and steering geometry biased for light steering, the Triumph turns in very quickly. In fact, one rider (who spends most of his time on sport bikes) thought that the bike steers too quickly. The rest of the riders simply found they could always put the Triumph exactly where they wanted it when entering a turn, arcing around the corner predictably and precisely with little input to hold it there. Good suspension control keeps the 'Bird steady once leaned over, too. And because both front and rear suspenders offer a myriad of adjustments ("It's got more adjustments than the suspension on the Sprint!" exclaimed one of our Sport Rider editorial counterparts), you can set it to match your weight and style.

Honda's 750 steers almost as responsively as the Triumph 900, and its precision and confidence in corners is limited mostly by its unexceptional tires, which are perhaps the worst of this group. It also stays steady once leaned over. Although the Moto Guzzi's suspension, which feels slightly taut on the street, comes into its own during aggressive cornering, its steering response is a bit slower than the Honda's. You have to lever the bar slightly harder when confronted with a quick S-turn. The Guzzi also gives you the most available bank angle (even with the throttles closed and the bikes lowered by shaft effect) so you can lean deeper than the others if a turn tightens up unexpectedly.

The Harley steers just a bit slower than the Guzzi, and its front tire and suspension provide a slightly less confident feel going into corners than the other three bikes listed above. Like the Triumph, the FXDX permits you to vary spring and damping settings at both ends to select the characteristics that suit you.

The sheer tonnage of the Valkyrie catches up with it when it engages a rapid-fire set of corners. Though the steering is impressively responsive and the big bike can be tossed from side to side with remarkable agility, the fact remains that you are dealing with over 700 pounds of motorcycle. This isn't the bike that you'd want to exceed the limits on, despite the solid grip provided by its tubeless radials. Its suspension matches the smooth ride with great control under cornering forces, and the only real effect of the shaft drive on handling performance is that cornering with the throttle closed reduces cornering clearance perceptively.

Significant mass also burdens the Victory in corners, but its ultra-slow, high-effort steering is a more significant limitation. When faced with a tight back-and-forth combination, the Victory was more likely to have to slow down simply because it couldn't whip from side to side as readily as the others. Its limited cornering clearance also slowed it down in the tight stuff. In its favor were those excellent Dunlop D205 radial tires and suspension that were much happier dealing with cornering pressures than with concrete-slab interstate highways. Once leaned over in a corner, the 92SC felt like it was on rails. The bike feels solid in corners, but it is also big and slow to respond.

By itself at the tail end of the group on wiggly roads is the BMW. The R1200 steers quickly enough to negotiate those transitions from side to side, but the poorly controlled suspension and changes in chassis attitude created by the shaft drive's jacking mean that it never seems to settle down. Holding a line was trickier on the Beemer than on any of the other bikes.

The BMW also suffers from its uneven power-control situation. Maintaining a brisk pace on a road spiced with switchbacks demands smooth, predictable power control. You want to be able to make quick, smooth downshifts, and you need to be able to change power settings smoothly without lash that allows throttle changes to snatch up play with a lurch. The R1200CE did not do any of those things. The R1200's abrupt throttle response is amplified by the slop created by gear lash. This aggravates the chassis pitching caused by the poorly controlled suspension and shaft jacking to make the Euro the least stabilized of our seven.

A flat spot in the Thunderbird Sport's carburetion created some hesitation in the transition from trailing throttle to acceleration, which could create a slight midcorner bobble if you were accelerating there.

Low to moderate engine speeds produce some lash in the Victory as well, though it mysteriously disappears at high rpm. You'll want to ride the Victory at high rpm anyway because the midrange power is a bit wimpy. We found that we had to shift much more frequently than we expected on twisty roads, almost as much as the Magna and Triumph, which make their power by revving higher than the other five bikes. However, the V92 has very heavy flywheels which require careful matching of engine speed during downshifts to avoid skidding the rear wheel. Fortunately, its very progressive clutch makes doing so easy.

Downshifting the H-D also requires some careful rev matching, which will prove cumbersome to riders with small or weak clutch hands, though the clutch is progressive enough. For small-handed riders, adjustable-span levers would be a major improvement of the Harley. Flywheel was also a consideration when downshifting the Jackal, though less so than on the Harley. The BMW also required a smaller amount of care in this regard though its clutch was more abrupt. The multis were all more forgiving of clumsy downshifts because of their lesser flywheel masses, but riders who can't modulate clutch engagement may still encounter problems.

Besides downshifting, plunging into a corner requires controllable brakes, and this group is pretty strong in that regard. The Valkyrie, with its considerable weight and the strongest acceleration, was the most apt to get you into a corner faster than you liked. Fortunately, its tires and brakes can rein things in smoothly without adding to the drama. Some riders felt that they had to squeeze the front brake harder than they liked, however. Like the rest of the group, the Valkyrie's rear brake is quite controllable, so it isn't likely to lock up the rear wheel and upset the bike in an adrenaline-soaked moment arriving at a corner.