Ducati 851 SP2

Produced for the 1989 Italian Sport Production series that pitted production 750cc fours against twins of up to 1000cc, the first 851 Sport Production was virtually indistinguishable from the Strada. These machines were still 851cc, with 851 Superbike Kit updates, but a more serious homologation model appeared for 1990: the 851 SP2.

Although still titled an 851, the 851 SP2 displaced 888cc. There was a return to two injectors per cylinder, and the SP retained the H-section Pankl con-rods and 300-watt alternator. The transmission was the closer-ratio unit of the earlier 851 Superbike Kit, as were the camshafts. The valve sizes were 33 and 29mm, and the exhaust a 45mm Termignoni. Chassis improvements included an upside-down Öhlins front fork, Öhlins shock absorber, and fully floating Brembo cast-iron front disc brakes. The Öhlins fork was a high-quality unit, but it suffered from premature fork seal failure. There was an aluminum rear subframe. Although it was an expensive limited production model, the SP2 provided unparalleled handling and performance in 1990.

We wonder about things. We're journalists; it's our job. Things like the meaning of life. Why is there air? Why do wintergreen Life Savers spark when you bite 'em? What is Ellen Barkin's home phone number? And most important, once you strip away the hype, bluster and effluvia, what's the most effective quantity of high-performance sportsware? In a nutshell, what works where and why?

There are no easy answers. Beasties of all shapes and sizes display relative efficiency depending on what they're doing and where. And it was on this wonderfully nebulous note that the arguments...ahem...discussions started. Small, short ones and big, loud ones began raging through the ultimate repository of two-wheel wit and wisdom otherwise known as the Motorcyclist offices, lenatsch always starts it. Agility is everything, he says.

Hoist believes in horsepower, great shimmering mountains of it. After quietly chewing his pencil for a few minutes, Carrithers offers a one-word answer, "Money." And he adds, "The ticket to the top is neither big nor small, because against the fearsome visage of the American Express Platinum card, nothing may stand."

But everybody eventually tires of argument for Tylenol's sake and cuts to the chase to settle this once and for all. To satisfy the big-stick contingent, we brought back Yamaha's FZR1000 winner of our liter-class sport-bike shoot-out. Since the unfortunate demise of Yamaha's FZR400 at the small end of the spectrum, we chose Honda's CBR600F2, top dog in this year's 600 contest, to represent the less-is-more school. The dollars-uber-a//es approach was a tougher nut to crack. Bimota's Dieci bore too much family resemblance to the FZR. And we're lucky we stopped Carrithers before he charged World Superbike Champion Raymond Roche's practice bike to his expense account, settling for a slightly less exotic if more obtainable Ducati 851 S.P.2, commonly known as the 888. At $20,400, it certainly fills the bill.

Cubic inches, quick moves or cubic dollars? To get an empirical grip on the matter, we needed data. Lots of it. To that end, the matrix for settling our little-versus-large- conundrum is a balanced hexathlon of street and track tests designed to reveal the weaknesses of each entry without catering to the strengths of any. We gave double weight to real street riding, where most of us spend the vast majority of our time.

First, our three entries would butt heads for best time over "the fastest road in the West," better known as the nine-turn, 2.5-mile road course at Willow Springs. The contest would segue to the tighter turns of the adjacent 1.1-mile Streets of Willow. After that would come the obligatory dragstrip and top-speed testing, followed by repeated back-to-back runs down one fast, rough road and another smooth, tight one, routinely used for testing purposes. Dragstrip and top-speed sections would go strictly by the numbers. Three points for the best run at each, two for second and one for third. But our twisty-road testing requires some explanation.

Winning on the big track at Willow demands ridiculously high cornering speeds, and ridiculously high cornering speeds make stability vital as well as enough cornering clearance to get through the corners at mind-bending lean angles. You also need compliant suspension to keep the chassis calm while tracking bumps at warp speed through turns one, two and eight and constant communication with a trustworthy front end. The stopwatch will find a winner here; three points for fastest time, two for second and one for third. We took radar-gun speed readings at the apex of the 600-foot-radius turn nine to quantify each bike's cornering speed setting up for the all-important drive onto the three-eighth-mile-long straight. Big radar readings at the end of the straight before riders brake for turn one mean acceleration and horsepower. But they don't pay points. Only the watch does that. The quickest lap time wins.

A quick lap on the Streets of Willow takes agility, strong, controllable brakes and cooperative steering characteristics that allow braking deep into its way-late apex bends. Once cornering, you need a quick hit of controllable power and the traction to hook it up to squirt into the next bend. Smooth pavement makes compliant suspension less of a factor, but acceleration up the main straight through the kink is vital, so we stationed the radar gun there to see who was going fastest and then pointed the gun at the apex of turn three to find out who was cornering the quickest. But here again, points come only from the stopwatch.

Since stopwatches and radar guns have no business on the public roads, we relied on the finely tuned seats of our leather pants. Settling on two of our favorite roads (we could tell you where they are, but then we'd have to kill you), we spent a day twisting the throttles on three of the most enjoyable sport bikes in the world. Aside from being extremely fast, our fast road is bumpy as bloody hell. Well-sorted suspension, stability and almighty horsepower rule our road.

The tight road is more of an endless roller coaster of tight esses. Imagine never shifting out of second gear through a perpetual chicane of narrow, smooth, grippy pavement except to downshift for a few decreasing-radius, first-gear hairpins, and you'll get the idea. Quick, light steering, the ability to turn while braking and to squirt out of corners make the difference here.

After numerous back-to-back runs on each bike, we ranked the trio over both roads: three points for the favorite, two for first runner-up and one for third, then total the points for each road and rider.

THIRD PLACE: HONDA CBR600F2

After watching Miguel DuHamel and his CBR600 Su-persport machine scream around Daytona's banking, clicking off lap times that the majority of the 750cc Su-perbikes couldn't match, no one doubted the second-generation CBR would be serious competition for the big boys in this conflict. Sure, it spots them a few ponies, but its compact, 453-pound, 100-horsepower package would surely be tough to argue with.

The straight-line contests were all but a foregone conclusion, but the CBR's slick shape and the Ducati's short gearing ended in a 147-mph dead heat for second in the top-speed run, even if it did take the Honda twice the distance to do it. In the 440-yard sprint at LACR, the quick-revving CBR blew through the lights in 11.17 seconds at 122.3 mph, ranking it as the quickest 600 we've ever tested but cleanly out of the hunt against the big-bore Ducati and Yamaha. But that's just the straight-line stuff, and the light, oh-so-flickable Honda was sure to make up in the corners what it gave away in the straights. Or would it?

At first glance, the sweeping, high-speed turns of Willow Springs connected by a pair of long straights seem to scream for horsepower, but the locals know winning takes a lot more. The user-friendly 600s let the rider flick into the all-important 140-plus-mph turn eight flat out while the bigger, faster bikes often force the rider to back out of the throttle, usually scrubbing off too much speed in the process. And since getting out of the corners fast has a lot to do with getting down the straights fast, most 600s give the big-bike riders fits at Willow. But such wasn't the case this outing.

The CBR's front end has always been on the light side and somewhat vague in terms of feedback. This particular bike lacked the well-controlled damping of our original test unit, which didn't help matters. To top it off, the Michelin A59X and M59X radial tires got greasy after a handful of hard laps and never really hooked up after that. With the tires squirming on their tall tread blocks and the front suspension going numb when we needed traction information, our testers were unable to feel confident about the quick steering inputs and high entrance speeds needed to take full advantage of a middleweight's agility. The street-sensible ergonomics make little sense on the track; with the short-coupled seat-to-bar distance cramping them and the tall bars sitting them up in the wind, testers felt awkWard riding aggressively.

The final word from the stopwatch left the Honda a distant third, a full 1.61 seconds behind the Yamaha and 2.31 seconds in back of the ripping red Ducati. Given the time, we'd lower the front ride height by raising the fork legs in their triple clamps to load the front end, a trick that works wonders on other bikes. As we said earlier, the preload-only-adjustable front end was un-derdamped, and we ran the threaded adjusters down to the second to last mark to control dive. We were happiest with the rear shock's preload collar at number four of seven positions with the rebound damping near maximum, its adjuster backed out .25 of a possible 3.5 turns. We feel confident the lowered front end and a set of sticky track-compound tires would put the 600 squarely in the hunt, but that would be cheating.

When we moved to the 1.1-mile, nine-turn Streets of Willow course, the little CBR compared more favorably. Here agility and the ability to carry braking into turns reigns supreme, and those are the pink, blue and black bike's strong suits. In this point-and-shoot environment, the Honda was far and away the easiest to ride, despite the necessary, never-ending tap dance on the shift lever. The round profile of the front Michelin gave dead-neutral steering characteristics on the brakes or off, but the power-assisted feel to the brakes seemed to rob them of some feedback and made optimum modulation difficult. Once the peg feelers were removed, the tires ran out of traction before the bike ran out of cornering clearance; no one scraped anything. Through the transitions, its lightning-quick steering made the job effortless and immediate. The Honda stopped the clock .84 second quicker than the all-powerful Yamaha. Everything looked good until the ground-pounding Ducati, with its unlimited cornering clearance and superior torque and traction, rocketed from corner to corner to seize a .3-second advantage and top honors on the Streets.

FIRST PLACE: YAMAHA FZR1000

Whack open the throttle of Yamaha's FZR1000, and you'll know why the bike came to this party and took the cake. It hauls ass. And it does said hauling without scaring the wits just of the loose nut behind the handlebars. Even at 533 pounds, 80 more than the Honda and 69 more than the Ducati, the Yamaha stops, turns and leaves better than Honda's or Ducati's best.