THE WAITING GAME
Aprilia RSV4 RRvs. Honda CBR1000RRvs. Suzuki GSX-R1000vs. Yamaha YZF-R1
THE OLDER GENTLEMAN at the guard shack doesn’t appear to be in a hurry. The world waits. Or at least our world waits as he shuffles past the caravan of cars, stopping to make friendly but slow conversation with everyone in our group, all through a drawl that perfectly welcomes us to the farmland lining Willows, California. There’s probably some policy that keeps him from opening the gate a moment before 7 a.m. Or until every last one of us puts pen to the liability waiver hanging from his tattered clipboard. You know, legal stuff. Stuff we should’ve considered last night when we told everyone to show up no less than 30 minutes before the track opened.
None of that matters right now. Guest tester Corey Alex ander and I have got a bright-blue Yamaha YZF-R1 and an even brighter 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 strapped down in the back of Cycle World’s Nissan NV3500 van. Honda’s new CBR1000RR and Aprilia’s latest RSV4 RR are sitting at the ready in vans two and three, and somewhere behind that is the overly anxious duo of Sean MacDonald and guest tester Aaron Colton. We’re all here. All anxious. All ready to throw legs over this latest crop of superbikes and put the proverbial question of, “Who did it best?” to bed. Bob, or Billy, or Wayne, or whatever his name is—because honestly I’m too excited by what’s to come to remember— is the only thing that stands between us and the answers. I bite my tongue and know the wait is almost over.
Sean, the last guy to sign his name, packs his drone away, signs the