Issue #269 What About The Others?
For your benefit, we have compiled the seven essential platforms of all time. As they say, let no good deed go unpunished.
The address is on the masthead so you know where to send the comments. It’s a bold statement we make on the cover—the seven essential platforms of all time. It’s really getting to the heart of the matter and classifying something dear to many. Lists are enjoyable to compile but, as Editor John Campbell notes, it’s also a thankless job coming up with the seven best of anything and then making it public. Whether it’s apple pie or engines, no two people are going to agree on what is the best of the best and many will argue fiercely.
We all have our own opinions. Perhaps we should have stuck with the traditional Top 10 as we would have had room for a couple of engines that I thought should have been included in the list. Perhaps I’ll write a letter to the editor or at least shout across the office at him. I would start off with “What about the boxer?” Surely a motor that has been manufactured in one incarnation or other for almost 80 years deserves recognition. It has become the “essential” engine for all those around-the-world fellows. That has got to be its bonafide right there. What about those two-stroke sportbike motors that sent smokey blue fear into the hearts of the competition? What about ... Like he said, it is a thankless job.
Unless you are living in a Third World dictatorship, Top 10 lists—or in our case Top Seven—are the beginning of a discussion and Rick Epp has given us a good place to start with his feature, “The Group of Seven.” The engines in question need to have historical significance and the ones he has chosen have just that. Some are obvious choices because of their significance in the canon of motorcycling. While some of us may not be familiar with some of the names, they created a chain of events that resonated through the industry. There may be better examples of each genre today, but the modern variants owe their existence to someone else’s original thought. I am not one of those who are predicting the end of the internal combustion engine. It’s obvious we are seeing the technological if not the “spiritual” heyday of the internal combustion engine. Though, with the arrival of Ford’s Ecoboost engine, the “no replacement for displacement” days may finally be put to rest (although I for one will always hold them dear).
As far as modern marvels go, the Kawasaki ZX-10R engine featured in this issue represents a power and technological level that was unheard of, and perhaps not even anticipated, back in the 1970s for a four-stroke of any aspiration. It was not all that long ago the automobile world was heralding normally aspirated engines that achieved 100 hp per litre while today the same specifications in a motorcycle engine are pushing 200 hp per litre. So what about the so-called “green” engines? Where do they fit into the best of all time? Those of you who were at one of the MMIC motorcycle shows this winter may have seen the Zero bikes on display. In that regard the future is here and so is the debate about what is the best. However the race in that category may depend upon who makes the best battery in the world, as that remains the key to the success of electric bikes. Not to be forgotten is the hybrid. There has been an announcement that BRP is researching a hybrid Spyder with similar performance but increased efficiency. If there is a platform that lends itself to hybrid technology the Spyder would be it. Will it become the standard upon which others are judged? One of the 10, err ... seven best? Send us a letter. We can argue the point.
