Back in the Saddle

E 1950S AND 1960S BRITANNIA CRANKED OUT SOME OF THE MOST ICONIC ANO STYLISH MOTORCYCLES IN THE WORLD. WITH A CULT FOLLOWING THAT INCLUDED THE MOST REBELLIOUS CELEBRITIES OF THEIR TIME. TROUNCED BY THE JAPANESE IN THE 1970S. THE ENGLISH MACHINES HAVE NOW BEEN BORN AGAIN. 6°*° vn"

HELMET-^WTRE GOING FOR A RIDE

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WILD ONE: AMERICAN REBEL (MARLON BRANDO), BRITISH machine (Triumph). The Great Escape: American rebel (Steve McQueen), British machine (Triumph, painted Nazi gray). Lawrence of Arabia: British hero (Peter O'Toole), British machine (Brough Superior). The Motorcycle Diaries: South American rebel (Gael Garcia Bernal as Che Guevara), British machine (Norton). In Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, the gonzo journalist covers murderous Harley hordes while riding a British machine (a BSA 650 Lightning)—"400 pounds of chrome and deep red noise."

British motorcycles flicker through pop culture, igniting the imagination and firing a thirst for adventure, for mileage. You take a no-nonsense bike and push it to the limit. The cafe racer subculture—the bikes, the fashion, the attitude, all of it so much in vogue today—came out of London with the Rockers move­ment in the 1950s. At the height of the 1960s, the British Invasion consisted of motorcycles and musicians.

And then the Japanese reinvented the motorcycle. By the mid-1970s the Brit­ish companies were on the endangered-species list. By the early 1980s they were extinct. Just like that.

In recent years, however, they have made a dramatic comeback. This is not about nostalgia—it's about purity. Over the next three pages we've accumulated stories that map out the history of some of Britain's legendary two-wheeled marques, plus the new bikes that these relaunched companies are offering today.

TRIUMPH

Scrambler

$8,799

triumphmotorcycles.com

Thruxton $8,799

lifAQ FIGURES PROMINENTLY IN MOTORCYCLE 1 lMI\ history; soldiers lived and died by their riding acumen and the performance of their machines. Triumph started out mak­ing bicycles in the 1880s but made its bones with the military Model H Roadster, the "Trust)' Triumph," in World War I. The Speed Twin, which debuted in 1938, introduced the world to the parallel twin (an engine that changed British motorcycling). But like Norton and BSA, Triumph fell to the Japanese. Twenty years ago John Bloor, an English construction mogul, revived the name. His strategy was to wow the world with inexpensive modern bikes wrapped around a bombproof three-cylinder power plant. The Speed Triple (the bike Tom Cruise rides in Mission: Impossible II) was the ultimate hooligan bike and launched a whole cate­gory of stcroidal street fighters. In recent years die company has

acknowledged its roots, introducing cafe racers (the Thruxton), retro classics (the Bonncvillc and Thundcrbird) and our favorite, a tribute to Steve McQueen's desert-racing days, the Scrambler.

ROYAL

enfieldmotorcycles.com

HDIPIMAI IV

UlxlUlliMLLl in 1901 with the motto "Made like a gun, goes like a bullet." The

350 and 500 cc single-cylinder machines spread to all corners of the British empire. In the 1950s the factory moved to India. People making the trek to Kathmandu could buy a fully kitted Enfield Bullet for about SI ,000 and claw their way through the Himalayas. The Bul­let's 500 cc thumper made it a favorite with cafe racers, who would strip the beast down to essentials, slap on a set of clip-on handlebars and rear sets, and go like hell. The modern (if that's the word) Bullet Classic C5 debuted in 2009, the first new Royal Enfield model in 54 years. It boasts a 500 cc engine, fuel injection, an electric starter and a front disc brake.

NORTON

Commando 961 Cafe Racer

$20,300

nortonmotorcycles.com

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UnpTflM LEGEND WAS born °N the llUlt I U 11 racetrack. The company started

building motorcycles in 1902 in Birmingham, northwest of London, around the same time Henry Ford was mak­ing his first horseless carriages. But the gospel spread in the years before and after World War II at the most presti­gious two-wheel races in the world, most notably the Isle of Man TT. The Norton Manx—a single-cylinder engine in a superb twin-loop, swing-arm frame, pictured at left—was unbeatable. But it was the Commando—perhaps the first superbike, debuting in 1969—that branded a generation. With the rise of Honda and Kawasaki, Norton went out of business in 1975. Ten years ago an American restorer named Kenny Dreer came up with three prototypes for a resur­rected Commando. In 2008 a British businessman bought the rights and built a factory. Witness the result, above: a 961 cc parallel twin engine, 80 blip at 6,500 rpm, Brembo brakes. The reviews are in: classic, uncomplicated, visceral, robust, evocative.

MAC Roarer

CONCEPT mac-motorcycles.com

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CAFE-RACER SPIRIT (STRIP IT DOWN TO NOTHING, make it go fast) still intrigues. Last year Xenophya, a design firm out of northern England, partnered with a financier to plan a series of incredible machines built around the single-cylinder 500 cc engine from the Buell Blast. Then Buell failed and went out of business. Mac is searching for a replacement motor. Drool over this design.

METISSE

acer

IB

Desert Racer

about$20,000

metisse-motorcycles.com

THE 1960S RACERS Derek and Don Rickman started build­ing exquisite nickel-plated

frames for off-road motor­cycling, eventually founding their own marque—Metisse (the French word for "mongrel")—using engines

from other British manufac­turers. The motorcycles became classics. "The best-handling bike I've ever owned," said Steve McQueen. Now in the hands of English bike enthusiast Cerry Lisi, Metisse is offering a new limited-edition Steve McQueen Desert Racer, built around a reconditioned Triumph 650 cc twin. Only 300 of these beauties will be built, nearly identical to the mount McQueen competed on, and they're not cheap. Also in the works: a 997 cc cafe racer for $25,000.

FASTm

-FURIOUS,

PLAYBOY'S PICKS FOR THE BEST NEW BIKES M

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UN/2009 motorcycle sales dropped more than 40 percent-victim of the credit crunch. Cautious companies slapped paint jobs on old models, postponing new launches. But a few companies went full throttle, showing off major innovations. Put these bikes in a time capsule, open it in 50 years and you'll say, "This was when the motorcycle world changed." Or put them in your garage to enjoy today.

KAWASAKI Z1OOO $10,439

NAKED

THE insurance industry sees a sport-bike purchase and adds a zero to your premium. A few years back manufacturers got wise and created a new category-naked bikes, also called street fighters and hooligans (as though those could calm the nerves of an insurance adjuster). Kawasaki's latest naked bike has an all-new 1,043 cc inline four that pumps out128 hpat10,100 rpm. "Intentional intake howl adds to character," the company brags. A rigid all-aluminum frame and meaty brakes make for precise handling. Styling cues are lifted from manga classics.

BMW S1000 RR

$13,800 base]

PILOTING a 1,000 cc superbike is all about power management. A touch too much throt­tle at the wrong moment and you're history. (Imagine trying to floss with a circular saw.) Drawing on years of Formula One racing, BMW engineers set out to build the ultimate superbike. They succeeded brilliantly. The S1000 RR has a dry weight of 404 pounds, 131 of which are the 193 horsepower four-cylinder engine. Top speed: 188 mph. But those are just the ballistics. For another $1,900 the most powerful production bike on the planet can be fitted with an electronic control system that juggles digital traction control, a slipper clutch, antilock brakes, fly-by-wire throttle input and a quick shifter through four modes (rain, sport, race, slick). The 1000 RR makes insanely fast seem reasonable and safe.

BIKE

of the

YEAR

DUCATI HYPERMOTARD 1100 EVO

$11,995

FUN

IN Italy no one lives more than two hours from a world-class track. But you don't have to go that far. Italians compete in city traffic, in parking lots-you name it. When riders started asking for more performance, Ducati listened. The Hyper-motard 1100 EVO comes with a 1,078 cc V-twin (95 hp with 7G foot-pounds of torque), inverted Showa forks, a Sachs shock and Brembo brakes. Check out the hand guards with built-in turn signals. For an extra $2,500, spring for the EVO SP in full racetrim-monoblock Brembos, a Marzocchi fork, Ohlins shocks, Marchesini wheels and carbon-fiber goodies galore. Tom Cruise-a guy with impeccable taste in movie mounts (see Top Cun, Mission: Impossible //)—rides a Hypermotard in Day and Knight, in theaters now.

I HARLEY-DAVIDSONFORTY-EIGHT] $10.499 Q RETRO

HARLEY\s no stranger to retro, to masculine metal, to the rogue spirit that swept postwar America. Before Europe had cafe racers, Americans produced bob jobs, stripped-down ver­sions of big V-twin cruisers. Today cruisers are the largest segment of the American market, period. And Harley does not mess with tradition. The new Forty-Eight is the latest Sportster (first launched in 1957), to come out of Harley's custom shop. It has blacked-out chrome, an old-school peanut tank and the bobbed fenders of yesteryear, with guts to match: an air-cooled 1,200 cc V-twin that cranks out G1 hp and 79 foot-pounds of torque and makes the air throb. What was it Faulkner wrote? "The past is never dead. It's not even past."