BEST OPEN-CLASS STREETBIKE: Yamaha YZF-R1

Keeping a Ten Best Bikes run going these days with any top-level sporting motorcycle is not easy. Yet the Yamaha YZF-R1 makes it to the list for the third time. It has the best combination of outright performance and rideability in the liter sportbike class. It doesn’t hurt that its sublime crossplane four-cylinder engine makes some of the finest combustion-based music the world has ever heard.

About the only thing you might complain about is its racy riding position. But considering what this bike gives you in dynamic capability, you will lean in with a smile every time you ride on road or track.