One of the best ways to quickly increase the overall performance of your superbike is by installing a full system exhaust unit and Akrapovic is one of the brands a lot of people think when they want the best. That’s exactly the case with their latest model built especially for Honda’s latest superbike, the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade. (more…)
As we conclude this “10 Best Sounding Bikes” series, I would like to say that I truly miss the sounds of not just big bikes but of most bikes. The Covid-19 lockdown has brought on an even stronger sense of yearning to ride.
Till then, the sounds of a number of bikes do bring back a sense of nostalgia. The older bikes seem to sound better, since there wasn’t any or much regulation that emasculated their sounds. These sounds emanated not from just the exhaust but also from the engines, which added a character to the bike.
One of our friends pointed out this bike. We won’t disagree. The BMW Boxer has been liquid-cooled since 2003, bring along lots of refinement. However, the R nine T retro series is still oil/air-cooled. They have this low-down “vrom.” Not “vroom,” but “vrom.”
We’re talking about the classic Gixxers here. With the right pipes, they had a distinctive bark when blipped then sounded like Imperial TiE fighters (watch Star Wars and you’ll understand) at high revs. Suzuki sounds best with Yoshimura exhausts, right? That’s because the factory worked with the fame tuner for a long time. Check out this 1986 Yoshimura Suzuki Suzuka 8 Hours endurance racer, ridden by Kevin Schwantz and Satoshi Tsujimoto.
Ah, ye ol’ smokers. Nothing sounded dangerous like an angry swarm of bees under the tank than a two-stroke singing “on the pipe” at 10,000 RPM. Never mind that some two-strokes (especially Yamahas) sounded like they’re wet farting during tickover. Watch this video below and see how the engine comes alive from 9,500 RPM onwards.
No other bike could ever sound like the Honda CBX1000. That’s because it was an inline-Six, produced to be the fastest production bike. Oh, it braps. Yes, it howls. But with the right mechanical symphony mixed in.
It was hard to decide between the CBX and 888. But maybe because the 888 not only sounded like thunder from far away, it also sounded like a (smaller) piston engine fighter plane flying too low. Its rumble reverberates inside your rib cage, while that dry clutch rattles like a trash compactor eating a metal spoon. Added together with a goose-like intake honk under the tank, it was a sound that stirred the soul. Even its predecessor, the 851 and roadgoing 900SS cousin sounded (almost) like that. This was one of the last bellowing V-twin sportbikes ever produced, besides the 916.
The folks at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) welcomed their new CEO, Mr Azhan Shafriman Hanif today. He will be taking over the role from Dato’ Razlan Razali, who completed his resignation tenure yesterday (7 April 2020) after 11 years of excellent service to not only the country but the overall growth of the motorsports scene in Asia. (more…)
The MCO (Movement Control Order) has left a lot of bikes and cars vulnerable to theft as the usual crowded places are now temporarily deserted without the usual heavy traffic. A group of scumbag thieves in Penang has taken this opportunity to steal a bunch of wheels from several motorcycles at the Bukit Tengah KTM train station. (more…)
As we have predicted earlier during our online interview with Petronas SRT Team Principal, Dato’ Razlan Razali, the upcoming MotoGP rounds in Mugello and Catalunya have been postponed due to the growing concerns related to the COVID-19 virus pandemic. (more…)
Okay, okay, how a bike sounds is subjective just like how a bike looks. But there’s no denying a certain emotion when we hear a melodious one. But we’ve decided to put together a list of the 10 best sounding bikes, anyhow. Do leave us a comment on which other bike or bikes that you think sounded great.
You may notice that all the bikes here are pre-Euro 4 and Euro 5. That’s when they sounded glorious!
Turn it up to 11 for some eargasm.
Like it or not, it has to be here. Harley-Davidson Twins, and Big Twins in particular do produce a distinctive sound. Credit that to air-cooling which still allows much mechanical (if not “agricultural”) sounds through. Heavy metal thunder? Roll it on.
No, not the new Ninja ZX-10R. Instead, its predecessor the ZXR-750 takes the cake. It has a warble and roar at low to mid-RPMs which turns into a mad trumpet at high RPMs. It has to be heard to appreciate.
Well, any four-cylinder engine with the traditional 180-degree crank would sound the same. But the S 1000 RR has a slight mechanical edge to that howl. Most of all, however, and everyone could agree is when the rider toes the quickshifter.
Yamaha changed their crank configuration to the now famous “crossplane.” It’s because Valentino Rossi liked the race bike’s engine with the same format. It was then adopted to the street bike. The result is a bike that sounds like a V-Four at lower RPMs then mixing in the howl of an inline-Four when the needle sweeps higher up. We were so engrossed with that we found ourselves riding the test bike much harder. Oops.
Talking about V-Four engines, the RSV4 and Tuono V4 are the last V-Four production sportbikes. The V-Four engine is a wonderful unit but it’s much more expensive to produce and maintain, besides harder to pack inside a frame. Anyhow, just ride either one of these bikes through a tunnel and pull through a gear or two. No other bikes make the same sound. That roar, that warble. Heaven.
