If bikes were blades, Triumph’s Street Triple would be a scalpel. Small, precise, razor sharp and super quick at carving up curvy roads. Triumph defined and developed the “street fighter” category some 20 years ago, with the introduction of the vaunted Speed Triple 1050.
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“Let’s go rescue Max!” I exclaimed to Rob.
Rob Brooks is Road Dirt’s owner, editor, chief cook and bottle washer and I was in Rob’s living room, having flown from Washington State to his house outside of Atlanta, Georgia to ride Honda’s CB1000R Black Edition and Triumph’s lovely Speed Triple 1200RR. As I fed Rob’s dog Dez copious amounts of cookies under the table, Rob was using social media to track the progress of Max Flinders, MotoAmerica Superbike racer and all around good guy, whose tow rig puked transmission parts, stranding him in Alabama. Rob’s reaction to my suggestion was predictable.
It seems that while riding on the fabulous roads that lead to and from the Dragon, some of the riders in the group got separated from each other, which is not unusual. It was before GPS, but they all had maps, and the route was not very complicated. But one guy (I’ll call him Jack . . . short for Jackass) fell quite a bit behind, whether intentional or accidentally. At some point he decided to catch up to the group. So he began to speed up and got frustrated by the slower moving traffic on the two lane roads. “Jack” began to pass cars and other traffic by crossing the double yellow lines and passing on the left and right at breakneck speeds. Apparently, some of the folks he blew past were startled and other drivers got the crap scared out of them. Someone among them called the police on Jack for riding like a crazy man.
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Now, while this might seem odd to most of you, I’ve noticed something very strange lately. Every year I seem to be getting older and those track days, adventure rides or dirt bike sessions seem to be getting a little more challenging. Without much chance of adding to my limited skill set, I made a conscious decision to stay as motorcycle fit as I can and to that end find myself doing a fair amount of bicycling these days. Nearly all top level motorcycle racers use cycling as part of their training. With it being the perfect activity to complement our motorcycling habits, I found myself in Georgia recently riding with my good buddy Scott Russell. Those of your old enough to remember rotary phones will remember he won the World Superbike Championship in 1993, as well as numerous American championships and a few Daytona 200s. Well, packing up to leave his place recently he grabbed his Mountain bike and shoved it in my car saying, “Pay me later.”
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After some discussion, a little debate, and maybe a thumb-wrestling match or two, here are our top five favorite motorcycles that we got to ride in 2023. We’ll review them in reverse order from fifth to first. We also have a few “honorable mentions” to toss in at the end as well. We must point out that there was not a bike we rode in 2023 that we didn’t love, so just because some aren’t mentioned doesn’t mean they are not great bikes. We just decided to drill down on a few faves.
So let’s dive in!
I had the opportunity recently to retrace one of the last motorcycle rides I was ever able to make with my father. Neither of us knew it at the time, but within a year of that special day, he would sell his motorcycle and exit riding altogether for health reasons. Within a couple of years after that, I would say my final farewell to him. So the memory of that day trip with my father has become all the more precious to me in the years since.
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Almost a foot of snow fell yesterday around my Pacific Northwest home. My motorcycles are all parked around the 1966 Ford Mustang convertible, hibernating, tethered to their battery tender umbilicals for the winter. About a month ago was the last time any of their engines spun, Mustang included, replaced by the monotonous drone of a snowblower. Staring at them makes me reflect on the things I am most thankful for from the riding year past.
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We’d had the 2022 Tiger Sport 660 in the Road Dirt garage for a couple of weeks already, and I was very much enjoying the bike. I asked Adam, “How would you sum up the little Tiger’s reception so far this year in the North American market?” After a moment of reflection, Adam replied, “It’s the bike nobody knows they want.”
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Exiting turn 7 at the top of the track some racers call “the North Georgia rollercoaster”, I’m hard on the throttle as the XSR900 uprights, and clicking up through the gears as I rocket down the long, undulating back straight of this famous course, the Yamaha triple howling down the hill. Road Atlanta is legendary for its highly challenging layout, which winds up and down a hillside that could easily have been a ski slope in colder climates of the country. From the tight twisty “Esses” after climbing turn 1, to turns 6-7 at the pinnacle, down the long back stretch to the 45 degree pairings of 10A and 10B, then floating the front up under the bridge before the free fall to turn 12 and the front straight, Road Atlanta is a wild ride of technical curves and elevation changes.
And here we were putting the 2022 Yamaha XSR900 through its paces.
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