When the IPM team headed down to the San Mateo Motorcycle Show this weekend, we headed down early, expecting a bit of a crowd. Still, the lines for the demo rides stretched into the parking lot by 9:45am. When I say I got the last spot for the Kawasaki ZX-10R, I got the last spot. Far more deserving fans of the Ninja line gave an audible groan as the plasma screen above the sign-in desk registered that the last of the sportbike demo rides was now full.

The Kawasaki guys gave us a quick run-down on the kinds of behavior that’d get us kicked off the ride – wheelies, endos, etc. – and then took us over to get acquainted with our machines. ZX-6Rs, ZX-10Rs and ZX-14s stood there in a neat line; only the big “demo ride” windshield sticker and the copies of our drivers licenses back at the booth stood between us and Arizona. Pushing away any thought of making a break for it on my ebony ZX-10R, I began a quick run-through of the bike’s controls. Clip-on handles with plenty of room, an Ohlin’s steering damper up top, a nicely visble HUD that was nonetheless a bit hard to read, hidden as it was up in the front end.

Despite being 386 lbs (dry) and fairly compact, the ZX-10R is not the kind of machine you automatically gel with. All I could think was, How far am I going to need to lean over in order to turn the damn thing?

As it turns out, not very far. In the initial low speeds of our test drive (leading up to a 90mph takeoff up a nearby on-ramp) she handled absolutely agreeably. Smooth clutch, a beautiful purr thrumming forth from the altogeter-too-silenced exhaust, very responsive all around.

It was when we hit that on-ramp five minutes later, when the machine subtly launched me up to speed so effortlessly, that I realized the allure of this overgrown, 998cc Ninja. This is the sort of motorcycle that’ll shove your stomach into your spine and your face through the back of that tractor-trailer, 500 yards up, before you can say “Holy Tokico brake calipers!” The ZX-10R accelerates beautifully.

Her powerband is fat and happy, too, owing to the bike’s quartet of top-end-optimized cylinder heads. She’s also set up to give the rider a plenty of feedback, with lots of contact areas to help you corner with precision. I’m not a huge fan of the Ninja’s styling (“uninspired” is a nice way of putting it), but for an easy $12,000 MSRP, who cares? Your friends will only see a blur (an ebony, lime green, or candy burnt orange blur). If you could open the exhaust up a bit, they might even hear you, too.

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Hi everyone, Paul here today, and I’m going to tell you about the exciting adventures we had with pitting the 2009 Aprilia Shiver with our 2008 Triumph Street Triple.

After picking up the motorcycle at, Scuderia West, we headed out on the highway for some open road action on our way to the sweepers in the nearby hills.

Check out my video, as well as the video by Andrew, for some interesting high-speed footage and our initial thoughts and opinions on how the two motorcycles compare.

Looks like we almost killed Michelle there as she was strying to get some shots of the two bikes. As you saw, I chose the Shiver over the Street Triple.

Also, keep a look out for our full opinions and some revealing insights in a future print edition of Inline Performance Magazine. There, I will defend my choice of the Aprilia Shiver over the highly modified Triumph Street Triple.

Stay tuned.

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The 2009 Aprilia SL Shiver has been earning some glowing reviews since its 2007 debut (the guys at Motorcycle News have been particularly lovey-dovey) so we decided it was high time for a test ride of our own. As with so many of our weekends, we wound up down at Scuderia West, proof-of-insurance in hand. And then we hit the road.

Right away, the Aprilia Shiver makes herself known with a big frame that suits a taller rider very comfortably. For a naked sportbike, she is noticeably jaunty, baring her 750cc V-twin and angular 2-in-1 exhaust for all the world to see.

The Shiver does perform very, very nicely, though her ride-by-wire throttle introduces a few idiosyncrasies in the controls, which can take getting used to. However, it was fun toggling between the bike’s Touring, Rain and Sport modes, which deliver markedly different acceleration profiles and adapt the Shiver’s overall personality to a wider range of riding conditions than the single-purposed Triumph Street Triple which we pitted her against. Apparently, the Shiver’s electronic throttle control also adjusts valve aperture based on your gear selection, engine speed, throttle grip position and movement speed, temperature and (mountain climbers take note) atmospheric pressure… if the Shiver played Blackjack, I’m pretty sure she’d count cards, too.

As one road tester described, “The Shiver’s V-twin delivers a wonderfully raspy and very Italianate song….” Well, unfortunately I couldn’t quite hear that song over the Street Triple’s trademark triple burble, and the roar of the twin Remus exhausts, but I’m assuming the writer was referring to the Shiver’s nonetheless throaty purr.

Because of her jaunty measurements – more trail, more rake than the Street Triple – the Shiver handles more smoothly, even despite a 750cc V2 setup that ought to have her leaping out of the gate. Instead, it’s the Street Triple and its 675cc 3-cylinder inline that’s rearin’ to go. Is it because the Shiver is a full 50lbs heavier? Or does that ride-by-wire throttle actually read your mind?

In the end, my vote goes to the Triumph Street Triple as the better naked sportbike, despite its aggressive, hypersensitive throttle and unfortunate lack of concern for rider comfort. Adds to the streetfighter allure, I say.

The Shiver, meanwhile, is plainly too competent for its own good.

Be sure to look for the full article in one of our future print issues. In the meantime, for more Triumph and Aprilia fun be sure to check out, Triumph Boards and Aprilia Boards.

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At noon on Saturdays, a motley assortment of motorcycle aficionados meets up in a garage in San Francisco. They get to work completing their latest modifications, installing new brake rotors, upgrading shocks, replacing gas tanks, mirrors, fairings. Then they take their Triumphs, Ducatis, Suzukis, etc. out for test drives and shootouts on the deserted access roads to the south of the city. This is the work of Inline Performance Magazine, and work is good. Sometimes, we’re even organized enough to take photos.

This is only my third weekend with IPM. The first had been a mock-shootout between my ‘06 Shadow and a crazy Soviet-era MZ Skorpion. The second weekend, we fitted an ingenious device beneath the nose of a 675cc track bike in the hopes of eliminating all front-end wobble. This weekend, I have no idea what is in store – so you might understand my extreme glee when IPM’s editor announces an impromptu shootout between the mag’s 2008 Triumph Street Triple and a brand new Aprilia Shiver, courtesy of the goodly motorheads over at Scuderia.

First, we had to go pick up the Shiver, which meant photographers Dan, Jon and Paul, hopped into a Subaru and figured out directions while I began getting acquainted with the Street Triple. Ignition, display, engine cutoff switch, clutch, brakes, signals. Short wheelbase, very light. Hyperactive throttle. Pipes that make you feel like you’re red-lining at all of 4000 rpm. It was a completely uneventful ride down to Scuderia – and that was just fine by me. They say that in an emergency, you can only handle three or four tasks at once. Well, just between my two hands and a completely unfamiliar shifting pattern, I had more than enough to worry about.

Down at the dealership, we fill out paperwork while one of the younger reps, Abby, brunette, gives us the run-down on the Aprilia Shiver. “Now, she is not broken in,” she says for the first of fifty times. “The bike only has two miles on her. Her tires are new. I can’t stress this enough.” Before walking off to process our insurance, she explains the root of her concern: somebody had gone for a test drive on and promptly dropped the very same model bike just the day before. I mean, the Shiver is a pricey machine, in all of its 750cc, ride-by-wire dual overhead camshaft V2 glory. But dropped? Knock a thousand bucks right off the MSRP. No wonder the hesitation. You’ve gotta have a big heart to leave $9,000 in the hands of a pack of yahoos like us. Luckily, Scuderia and IPM are on a first name basis!

Out behind Scuderia, we find a couple alleys covered in amazing graffiti, so we decide to take the Triumph and the Aprilia out back for some photos before the shootout. There’s one wall adorned with a massive, stylized skull, which more or less meshes with the spirit of the naked sportbike, so we stand them up on the curb in front of it and let Dan, our photographer, go to work.

Standing beside each other, the Street Triple and the Shiver are night and day – despite their similar price tags. The Triple’s 675cc inline three cylinder engine versus the Shiver’s brawny 750cc V2 illustrates plenty, but why stop there? The Shiver is plainly a bigger bike. She’s tall and jaunty, even with the slimming effect of her “Competition Black” paint job. She measures in with a 4.29in (109mm) trail and 25.7-degree rake, compared to the compact Triple’s respective 3.75in (95.25mm) and 24.3 degrees. The Shiver’s wheelbase is 1.79 inches longer than the little Triple’s, and though I’d later swear it wasn’t so, the Shiver also weighs 50 lbs more. She’s big enough that a rider who measures in the 6′-6′2″ range doesn’t feel cramped – and that’s a rarity indeed.

It may also be worth noting that, brand new, she’s pretty argumentative when it comes to shifting to neutral; and neutral is the only gear in which you can thumb the bike’s ride-by-wire throttle over from “touring” to its sport and rain settings.

Although, come to think, Abby specifically prohibited us from doing anything of the sort.

Over the next hour, we drove the bikes around a couple hundred meters of deserted warehouse parking lot with Dan snapping photos and Jon rolling with a handheld digital camera. It is a lot of fun, and I’ll err against blathering on and on about what you need in order to have this kind of fun (an M-class license, insurance, a good set of protective gear, free weekends, miles of trust, more insurance) and simply say that I look forward to these weekends with an unhealthy degree of anticipation! The Shiver handles very, very well – new tires and all – and it doesn’t take long to get comfortable carving around the parking lot debris and drainage grates. Having signed over my firstborn to Abby that I’d keep the tachometer under 6,000 (like I said, more insurance), we don’t get as full a look at the Shiver as we’d have liked… but we definitely got a look. I’m sure she’s worth the price tag, but this is a machine that belongs in a different class than the hooligan Street Triple. I don’t get the same urge to devour the pavement, to haul ass across the city,to zip, zoom, weave and eventually succumb to the pull of the ego-inflating engine of self-destruction.

The Aprilia Shiver is a shiny beacon to the more responsible among us, and unlike the Street Triple is surely deserved by the more reckless. On it, I want to tackle the Pacific Coast Highway at inadvisable speeds, to attack the bucking roads leading south out of Monterey. Maybe this one gets chalked up to taste.

Look out for the full article in our second annual print issue in the near future! Stay tuned!

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Some people go to therapy, some go to church. I do both on my motorcycle. After 10 years practicing Architecture, and now full time photography, I can definitely savor some two-wheeled solace. In the 15 or so years since getting my first street bike, a ’71 Honda CB350, going moto has kept me sane and happy. Even riding in the rain has zen appeal.

In addition to the joys of riding, motorcycles are also fascinating machines. In an era of black box engineering where the physicality of a machine is reduced to plastic shrouds and electronics, even the most advanced motorcycle still expresses its ‘machine-ness’.

My current ride, a 1995 MZ Skorpion Sport, is as visceral as modern machines get. It’s large diameter steel tube frame, compact wheelbase, and 660 cc single-cylinder engine comprise all that is needed to straighten out US 1, Skyline Drive, or any number of other great Bay Area roads. MZ, now defunct, had a great tradition in fast and nimble bikes. Prior to WWII, MZ dominated Grand Prix racing and is credited with perfecting the two-stroke racing engine.

Unfortunately, MZ lay east of Berlin and was relegated to cranking out basic oil-burning commuters until the Berlin Wall fell. The Skorpion line was conceived to put MZ back on the map in the West as a producer of mechanically simple yet character-rich bikes.

My mods have been carefully selected to enhance the simple BSA Gold Star Cafe Racer mentality of the MZ: braided brake lines, billet clip-ons, a SuperTrapp slip-on exhaust can, Pirelli Diablos, 100% synthetic fluids, and lowering the front end 5 mm. The MZ’s 660 cc single-cylinder, liquid-cooled powertrain is made by Yamaha, with various other bits like the headlight and pegs are interchangeable with mid-90’s Yamaha FZR parts. I’m currently researching how an FZR front end would install…

Stay tuned.

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