My Top 10 Must-Review Bikes For 2018

By Paul Fenn

Contributing Editor

I have just attended The Toronto Motorcycle Show, and though it was the utterly expected thing, it did feature motorcycles, a great many of them desirable.

And so, great flocks of stomach butterflies were set free as aisles were strolled, mechanical sex dreams fabricated, hands shaken, locations for crimes against inertia discussed, and a review or two confirmed.

Based on that walk-thru and some meditative alone-time to consider all possibilities, I have compiled my personal top 10 most coveted bikes for the coming reviewing season.

In no particular order of need, they are:

BMW HP4 Race (US$74,980)

Since it was the first thing I saw on walking into the show, I have chosen this humble 999cc, 215hp, 145kg/321lb grocery fetcher as my first pick.

While it’s as likely that BMW invites me to apply this bike to a track as it is that I awaken 30 years old tomorrow, I am convinced it would be worth their while and mine. Not only am I confident that I would give it a five-star review and help sell tons as result, but I know that a day at Mosport or, more certainly, a week spent getting to know one at the Nürburgring would produce a better writer and more knowledgeable reviewer, assuming he still existed afterward.

And besides, I will always maintain a soft spot for BMW. My 2009 F800GS was the first motorcycle I ever rode legally out of the five I’ve owned and the dozens I’ve borrowed, reviewed or assumed I’d been sanctioned to use. The GS re-intro’d me to bikes and to dirt after decades spent wallowing in life’s shallows. So BMW is owed a minimum of 1,000 good words.

KTM 790 Duke & 790 Enduro R ($?)

KTM is the biggest adrenal gland teaser in motorcycling. The declaration rings no truer than when directed at the chimeric 790. For those not paying attention, with the Enduro, we’re talking Golden Mean material here: A fully dirtable, tourable, streetable 103hp/63ft-lbs parallel twin 800cc bike weighing only 195kg/430lbs.

Nothing else like it has ever existed.

The horrible, mean thing KTM did was introduce the 790 Duke concept bike about two years ago, and to date only Chris Birch and maybe two other guys have ridden it and/or the Enduro, and none has been too talkative.

If you ride dirt hard, or simply like to scratch at it with your hoe, watch this and then try to tell me you don’t want one.

Thing is, reviewers and buyers will have to wait another year or something. For now, we’re getting the street version. Times could be worse.

Husqvarna 701 Enduro (US$11,088)

Husqvarna was not even at the moto show, but they hosted the Grand Prix de Snow the following day, so they can’t be excluded here. Besides, the Austro-Swedish Empire has too much going on to deny our readers the pleasures we derive in testing the fruits of their labours.

I spent just over an hour on a ‘17 at the KTM/Husqvarna HQ Grand Opening last summer. It was mainly on two-lane paved road with some twists. All I remember is thinking I need to own one of these. It was fast, wheelie-mad, lithe as a ballerina, tourably comfortable, and just the kind of sweet and simple fun governments like to ban.

The 2018 got a few improvements to its single-cylinder 74hp/52.4ft-lbs lump, and I want to explore them all in the trails I know so well around Toronto.

Husqvarna Vitpilin 701 ($?)

Another long-awaited two-wheeled tar toy from Husky’s labs of iniquity, the 75hp Vitpilin 701 just looks a blast. Hipster cred notwithstanding, it promises to be more fun than a barrel of overproof bourbon.

I know very little about this bike, but it’s coming soon and I loves me a fast, fun street bike that’s comfortable to ride. And of those, there are too few about.

Honda Africa Twin AS ($?)

Adventure bikes continue to be the new thing. And rightly so. How many people at the bike show did I overhear saying “I sold my ____ and bought an adventure bike last year”?

ADV bikes are to motorcycles what buffets are to taste buds. If you are but a tiny bit curious, you cannot go out on a country rip without wondering what that scruffy dual-track with lawn running down its middle thinks it’s doing winding up that gnarled old mountain.

Reviews of the Africa Twin at launch were mostly rave (I was unable to get my hands on one), and Honda has certainly not sat idle since.

The new AS has a larger fairing, taller screen, bigger bashplate, heated grips and an AC socket. It holds 24L/6.3gal of gas for a claimed range of approx 500km/310m. Honda says it punched up the seat comfort and extended its height adjustability, while raising the bars up and back.

Ground clearance was lifted to 270mm/10.6”. It ships with throttle by wire, an LI battery, and other stuff like auto-cancelling turn signals, 21”/18” front/rear wheels, and a gruntier sound, they allege.

Count me in, Honda. I want to like this bike.

KTM 1090 Adventure R (US$12,211)

I also rode this bike last August at the KTM bash, and loved it – well, as much as possible, given an injury scenario demanding the bulk of available attention. It was all on pavement though, so, yeah, really need to get back on this 125hp street-legal dirtbike and take it to the nearest jungle.

It is the closest thing to my current motorcycle, the 2009 950 Super Enduro R, which hails from a far simpler and more savage time in KTM’s evolution.

Until the 790 Enduro hits the shops, I think this rock-blaster will retain state-of-the-art status in mid-sized ADVs.

Kawasaki Ninja H2 Carbon (US$27,308) or H2R (US$50,000)

These are among the most insane pair of devices invented and mass produced by the Japanese. The 998cc supercharged street-legal H2 Carbon makes around 200hp, while the H2R is said to manage a sweet-nightmares-for-life 326 horsepower when equipped with ram air.

I rode and reviewed the spanking-hot Z-10R superbike last summer and derived a massive kick out of it. So what could not be lovable about either of these?

And I swear, if Kawi and BMW invite me to track-ride their superbikes, I’ll invest in proper leathers and continue doing reviews of precision machinery.

Kawasaki Z900 RS (US$10,241)

This is one retro bike that comes by it honestly. When the Kawasaki Z1 900 hit the streets back in ’72, packing 82 horses and a growl that no one had ever heard off a track, Kawasaki started a battle among marques that rages hotter than ever today.

But the decision to look back and launch this Kawasaki naked with its terrific powerplant shows not just a keen take on sentimentality, but also an inspired alternative to the Z900 ABS that I tested last summer.

The 111hp motor is complemented by a more upright riding style and graphics that really take a fella back. Even the “900” insignia on the side cover is in the exact same font as the old Z1's.

Can’t wait to jump into this nostalgia pool.

Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro (US$18,780)

With 152hp, a 30L/8gal tank and a 19” front tire, this latest push by Ducati to make a serious ADV / enduro bike catches the cynical offroader's attention, but can it really be all that offroady? Time to find out, says I.

I reviewed Ducati’s 950 Enduro last summer after riding it a couple of weeks, and liked it very much, but for its white-noise sounding exhaust note. I also had a go at the XDiavel cruiser in 2016, and the original Multistrada 1200 back in 2015 or thereabouts. And I liked each of them for different reasons.

But they all shared one strange characteristic: That of being “not quite there” in terms of accurately representing the category they claimed to inhabit.

Beta 500 RR-S

I’ve heard nothing but praise for Beta, the little-known Italian dirtbike brand that could. These are said to be hard-riding, innovative, race-worthy machines.

And this one’s street-legal, which makes the palms perspire just thinking about it, and makes it a gimme.

And that makes 10

Here's to an early spring.

Get more of Paul Fenn's bike / gear reviews and typos here.