Simon Hargreaves' Top 3 best sounding bikes
We asked veteran motorcycle journalist Simon Hargreaves which three bikes make him go ooh la la. No rules, no restrictions, any bike goes. Over to you Simon...
I can’t put any race machines in my list of best-sounding bikes because it's too easy. All of them, basically. The terrifying bark of a Desmosedici warming up in the pits at Jerez at 9.00am, like a fucked-off T-Rex into a megaphone.
Or the catastrophic roar of Aprilia’s RS Cube GP bike, which was the same but louder and with added flames.
Or the sharp-edged, spine-shilling purity of any 500 GP two-stroke.
Or, best of all, at the 1992 Bol d’Or, standing at the top of the Mistral Straight at Paul Ricard in the south of France at 2.00am and listening as a Ducati 888, Honda RC30 and Kawasaki ZXR750 power away simultaneously into the distance, V-twin, V4 and inline four revs falling in and out of tune with each other in the still night air. That was probably the finest mechanically informed aural experience of my life.
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3. Hinckley Triumph parallel-twin
Say, a Thruxton, modified by a company called Mototwin, running on open pipes at Bruntingthorpe on still, misty morning, ridden from a standing start by bike mag photographer Chippy Wood. Conveniently, I have such a thing as a slightly ropey .wav file. In fact you can also hear Visordown's Ben Cope in the background doing a standing start on, I think, a GSX1400. The run is remarkable for the bike’s sheer volume as much as anything – Chip hits top gear after a mile, and you can hear him shutting off after approx 1.8 miles. But by Christ it sounds good too. I had it as a ringtone for ages until the neighbours complained.
Click here to listen.
2. Honda VFR750
Although an RC30 and RC45 are acceptable alternatives (a VFR800 isn’t quite as nice; has a kind of metallic aural aftertaste; and the 400s are too small). There’s something about the gear-driven cam-ness of the V4; a mechanical perfection to it. When it revs, you can almost hear Soichiro whispering a spell. It doesn’t sound powerful or potent, but it sounds fast; Isle Of Man fast, real road fast, Joey and Hizzy and Foggy fast. And it sounds reliable. Shit, it even manages to sound compact. You hear a V4 and you think, 'Oh, good, this'll handle then...'
1. Yamaha RD350LC
As the expansion chambers crackle into life and settle into an easy burble, they stimulate a part of the brain no other sound can reach. It triggers an ancient instinct, quickening the pulse and making your palms itch. You’ll have an uncontrollable urge to slip into a pair of Frank Thomas paddock boots, chuck on a red and white paddock jacket and go pull some wheelies in front of a schoolgirl’s house in the hope she’ll drag you inside (it’s okay, this was pre-Saville. And it never happened anyway).
