Best Open Streetbike: Kawasaki ZX-14

Big performance generates big headlines, and no motorcycle created more of a stir last year than the ZX-14. Twelve months later, nothing has changed. Despite sophisticated electronics that soften power delivery in the bottom four gears, only the steamiest Open-class racer-replicas are as quick in the quarter-mile and nothing–repeat, nothing–posts a higher top speed. Yet there's more to this highly refined, big-bore Ninja than simply neck-snapping acceleration and landscape-blurring ultimate velocity. Dual counterbalancers all but eliminate engine vibration, and the seating position and suspension calibration fall somewhere between hard-edged sportbike and long-haul sport-tourer. Performance, comfort and agility, the ZX-14 has it all.