Triumphrat

DiscoStew

While we enjoy ripping on substandard motorcycles, crappy bikes are hard to find these days. Take a look at any of our comparison tests from the last couple of years and you'll find only marginal differences between our declared winners and their competitors.

With so much high-quality product to choose from, culling the field down into our Best Of winners was an arduous task. But that didn't stop us from coming up with our favorite stuff from the class of '09! Introducing the first-annual Motorcycle.com Best Of awards. And the MoBo goes to...

Find out which bikes were named in the Best of 2009 - Motorcycles of the Year on Motorcycle.com

BuzzBomb

A Classic

MassiveAttack

I must admit that the Street Triple is one seriously appealing choice for commuters and carvers. What a fantastic bike. I ride a 955i version of its bigger brother. While it's ridiculously flickable around town I can't help but wonder if the Street is even better as a urban mount.

I also really dig the Harley XR1200, and I'm not a Harley guy. Before that I liked the 1200S. That was a Harley that you could really get cute with if you wanted to. Haven't ridden the XR but I love the throwback styling and un-Harley power/weight ratio.

I have ridden a buddy's Monster 1100, but just around a few city blocks. The problem with most Ducatis is that when you're trying to make a rational decision that thuggish, guttural exhaust note just throws objective comparison out the window. In the end, I decided not to take on any debt and buy a used bike. Still, I can't get that Ducati noise out of my head. Triumph Triples are in a league of their own, music-wise, too. But that Ducati song is just like Earth opened up and belched. Beautiful.