Wayno’s belated BOTY
Now before we kick things off here, know that Trev (our esteemed Ed) doesn’t do BOTYs. Doesn’t believe in all that nonsense and had a red hot go at explaining his reasons why here. Fair enough. Hence this is Wayno’s BOTY and GOTY. Not MCNews.com.au’s. This is not financial advice, please consult a professional, yadah yadah. Gottit? Great – you may continue.
Now admittedly 2023 was a year with a bit of a gap in it for me due to doing myself a mischief early on and being out of action for several months. However, I did still get to sample some crackers.
Let’s go through some highlights.
We started off pretty strong with Ducati’s magnificent Multistrada V4 S. That V4 had me at hello. Sweet Jesus it’s a good thing – and the quick-shifter had me pedalling the box even when I didn’t need to just to feel its silky goodness. Everyone talks about how good the big Multi is on-road (and it is), but I also found it surprisingly good off-road. I found it better off-road than the GS actually… the harder you push it, the better it felt. Unlike the R 1250 GS Rallye X, which stands out for its incredible balance at low speeds, but then started to feel out of its depth the harder I pushed it.
I then jumped on KTMs updated 890 Adventure R. They’ve managed to take the off-road middleweight leader and make it better again in a bunch of ways. Far more capable of getting rowdy than you can imagine a bike of that size to be. And they’ve now made the whole front-end headlight treatment look integrated with the rest of the bodywork, which visually floats my boat too. They drop well too as it turns out. Better than I do. It didn’t have a mark on it. Me on the other hand…
Honda and Suzuki went toe to toe with some new entries. The CB750 Hornet going up against the GSX-8S on the road, while their sister bikes the XL750 Transalp and V-Strom 800DE muscled it out in the gravel. Contrary to a lot of other folks, I gave the nod to the GSX-8S on the road – it’s little bit of extra torque and slightly more relaxed feel really coming together for me over the peakier but more nimble Hornet.
Maybe even more controversially I swung the other way for the all-road bikes. While the Transalp is not without its foibles (traction control deactivation being one of them), its on-road manners are next level and while I had to max out the pre-load on the rear shock to get it to work, it was happy charging in the rough stuff too. I preferred its smaller size and lighter weight over the larger, heavier (and more comfortable) V-Strom 800. Even though it’s arguably the most off-road capable V-Strom yet.
If you’re like me and like to travel light – the Transalp gets the gong. No, I didn’t expect that either. It’s not up to the sort of off-road shenanigans of the outstanding Aprilia Tuareg that was my BOTY for 2022, but for road and gravel road bias, it’s a damn good thing.
Somewhere in there I also threw the leg over CFMoto’s brilliant little 450 SR which might again surprise some people that it made it into the highlights, but it’s a surprisingly capable and well built package at a bargain price. As soon as I rode it I was asking the boys if they had plans to put that engine into a small adventure bike. They were strangely coy in their response and now we know why. Yes there is a CFMoto adventure bike on the horizon with that 450 donk. Looking forward to testing that when it lobs up.
And I got to spend some quality time with BMW’s mind-blowingly good M 1000 R. Otherworldly levels of torque and a quick-shifter that puts even the amazing Multistrada V4s to the sword. Third gear power wheelies. Sublime cornering accuracy. Insane performance but totally usable around town. I think I called it an engineering masterpiece at the time. And rightly so. Looks pretty ace too – even with the winglets that normally I’d want to remove.
I spent the road-trip of my life jaunting around Austria, Italy and Switzerland on KTM’s 890 SMT, a worthy successor to the old 990 SMT that we loved. The Swiss Austrian Army Knife in two-wheeled form. It’ll tour (3500 kms in 11 days), it’ll carve corners, it’ll even let you back it in supermotard style if you’re game. I wasn’t game enough to test that out while on tour, but it was the near perfect bike for the job. Far more agile compared to the bigger bikes and plenty enough grunt to put a smile on my dial.
Had a chance to throw the leg over Aprilia’s very tasty RS660 Extrema at Phillip Island for the day and blow some cobwebs off. What a brilliant little bike it is. 100 ponies from that lovely parallel twin, great suspension and handling. Just a confidence machine. It re–lit my desire to do more track days. I just need to find the time!
And finally I spent a couple of weeks on BMW’s surprising R 18 Roctane cruiser. What a glorious thing it is. A rolling piece of art. Not only beautiful, but superb on the road. It’s comfortable, the suspension actually works, the 1800 cc boxer engine has planet turning levels of torque and provides an effortless ride. While it’s not perfect, it’s easily the nicest cruiser I’ve ever ridden. And it’s comfortably cheaper than its direct rival from HD.
In the end it came down to two bikes. Both German! The incredible M 1000 R for being just outrageously good at everything; And the R 18 Roctane for nailing the design brief and being the ultimate expression of their R 18 platform. The mere fact that I, a guy who only a short number of years ago would have said that I’d never want to own a cruiser. A guy who actively didn’t like it when I first got on it only to eventually be won over by it. I kept being blown away by how good it was at just doing its thing. That’s what gets it into the top two.
But I can’t go past the M 1000 R. When I was riding this bike I remember looking at a nicely tricked up 1290 Superduke R and reflecting on being perfectly happy on the M. And I love the big SDR so that’s saying something. It’s sporty yet comfy, handles wonderfully, soaks up road bumps without fuss, goes like a cut cat and looks mint to boot.
A worthy winner of Wayno’s BOTY ‘23.
Notable omissions that I haven’t had a chance to throw the leg over yet but expect to rate highly:
- Triumph’s updated Street Triple 765 RS
- Ducati’s Diavel V4 (and Streetfighter V4 S for that matter)
- Yamaha Tenere World Raid and updated Tracer GT Plus
