Yamaha, KTM, Harley and Honda take top Cycle World honors

Cycle World Magazine has named its favorite motorcycles of the year, and the winner is ... everybody.

Cycle World unveiled this year’s winners at its 40th anniversary awards ceremony, held at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

The 10 winning motorcycles, in 10 categories, represent a variety of motorcycle manufacturers and manufacturing companies.

Honda’s Africa Twin was named best adventure bike, while Harley-Davidson’s Low Rider S won in the best cruiser category.

Yamaha snagged three wins, in the dual sport/enduro, middleweight street bike and superbike categories. KTM won a pair, with its 390 Duke grabbing best lightweight street bike and its 1290 Super Duke GT getting top honors as best touring bike.

Andy Leisner, vice president at Cycle World’s publisher Bonnier Motorcycle Group, said the voting this year was hotly contested. Each of the bikes under consideration was ridden by all of the Cycle World staff members and by the six editors who vote for the winners.

“We have the largest editorial staff of any motorcycle media brand, and the most experienced, and they have logged a huge number of miles on those bikes,” Leisner said.

The winners are selected from a large field of contenders — more than 100, Leisner reckoned — while finalists in each category run to at least a half dozen. The six editors generally spend an entire day locked in debate before deciding on the final list.

This year, Leisner said, the one category on which everyone agreed was cruiser.

“We have a large number of manufacturers who have bikes in that class — Indian, Harley, Victory, as well as the Japanese and even some of the European brands, but it was a hands-down victory for the Low Rider S,” Leisner said.

Leisner said the major manufacturers don’t exactly lobby to have their bikes included for consideration, beyond making them accessible to the Cycle World editors, because “they know the editors just won’t have it.”

But does the magazine hear from manufacturers who don’t win?

“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “Many manufacturers promote the fact they are 10-best award winner because it helps them sell motorcycles. When they don’t win, we hear about it.”

Who might they hear from? Leisner wouldn’t say, but top brands excluded from this year’s list of winners include BMW, Ducati, Indian, Suzuki, Moto Guzzi and Husqvarna.

Here are the winners, by category.

Best Adventure Bike: Honda Africa Twin

Best Cruiser: Harley-Davidson Low Rider S

Best Dual-Sport/Enduro: Yamaha YZ450FX

Best Lightweight Street Bike: KTM 390 Duke

Best Middleweight Street Bike: Yamaha XSR900

Best Motocrosser: Kawasaki KX450F

Best Open-Class Streetbike: Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 RR

Best Standard: Triumph Street Twin

Best Superbike: Yamaha YZF-R1

Best Touring Bike: KTM 1290 Super Duke GT

To link to Cycle World’s best bikes page, click here.

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