First Rides

Latest First Rides

First Ride: 2008 Suzuki B-King Big Bad Ballistic Bomber, Now With Video!

Good breeding always tells, even—maybe especially—with musclebikes.One of our all-time favorite large-displacement sporting platforms, the mighty Suzuki Hayabusa, provided the foundation upon which the B-King was built. But while the B-King faithfully delivers ’Busa-like brutish power, it’s endowed with a relaxed, upright riding position and resultant ease of handling. While [...]

2008 Gilera GP800 – First Ride Automatic success?

Is there any logic in building a scooter that goes almost 120 mph, tips the scale at no less than 600 pounds and spans a 63-inch wheelbase? I strongly doubt it, but someone at Piaggio’s headquarters in Pontedera, near Pisa, has been nurturing this concept for almost two decades. Through [...]

First Ride: Triumph Rocket III Touring Tour de Torque.

Photography By Nelson and Riles Triumph’s Rocket III is a mighty Wurlitzer of a motorcycle, a bike of gargantuan proportions. As such, “nimble” and “agile” are not words in its lexicon. The bike’s road manners are hardly rhino-on-roller-skates behavior, but you get the drift. One might think—and justifiably so—that adding [...]

First Ride: 2007 Honda VTX1800T Draggin’ stuff on the Dragon.

“Exhaust valves as big as a P-51 Mustang’s!” is what billboards all over Sturgis screamed when Honda first launched the VTX1800 in 2002. That bit of hyperbole underscored that Big Red’s new V-Twin was a torque monster with a huge motor and that Honda had come to town to mark [...]

First Ride: 2008 Moto Guzzi Griso 8V Greatest Guzzi ever?

Moto Guzzi finally shoehorned a four-valve 1200cc version of their classic V-Twin into what may be their best-ever chassis. The result is the Griso 1200 8V, possibly the strongest and all-around most gratifying Moto Guzzi ever. The new motor is radically modified. The heads are more compact than their two-valve [...]

XtraPix: Touring India – First Ride Do you have what it takes?

Photography by Mykel Nicolaou Taking part in Enduro India (see “Eastern Promise” in the October print issue) doesn’t require any particular level of fitness, knowledge of strange languages or advanced riding skills. It’s a safe and extremely friendly place that requires a liking of spicy food, an open mind and [...]

First Ride: Ducati Desmosedici RR Is the price of perfection $72,000?

In 2004, Ducati tempted our moto-tastebuds with the prospect of selling a road-legal replica of its amazing 990cc V-Four MotoGP machine. The bike would cost $65,000, be built in limited quantities and only available to current 999R owners. That was three years ago, and just last week Ducati invited five [...]

First Ride: Montesa Cota 4RT Honda’s best kept secret?

Photography by Jeff Allen Over the past two years, the rumor mill has been pumping out a generous portion of hot air regarding fuel-injected dirtbikes, though the reality has been the continued use of carburetors. And from what we can gather at press time, the majority of manufacturers—except for Suzuki [...]

First Ride: 2007 Benelli TreK Triple charmer with a little help from the Chinese.

When Benelli Moto was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Zhejiang Qianjiang, Benelli already had plans to develop a full range of models based on their mainstay three-cylinder engine. The new Chinese management gave the bright-green light and now the range of Benelli models has grown from the previous two—the Tornado sportbike [...]

First Ride: 2008 Kawasaki Z1000 Spelling fun with a big letter Z.

Apparently, someone has taken all the fun out of motorcycles, and Kawasaki wants to put it back. That’s what Kawasaki told us at the recent U.S. press introduction of the new 2008 Z1000. They’ve redesigned almost every component of the big liter-sized machine, with the aim of making a good-handling, [...]