Out of the jap big 4 who do you think makes the best bikes?  More over, which historically have performed the best, most reliable, most problems, so on so fourth.  This should be a fairly interesting thread.

Honda has the rep for anal retentive reliability,... if you like that sorta' thing... but, that also gives their bikes the least character or personality...

Not that they haven't dropped a few clangers... ...
... but,.. all Jap bikes are reliable...

None have the fit and finish of American, English, German, Italian bikes...

Same with cars... (America get's a pass with car fit and finish)... ...

Historically overall I think Honda has produced more dependable bikes,at least into the mid to later 1980's. The one exception would be the Yamaha XS650. That would be my #1 Jap bike of all time,followed very closely by the LS650.

Beyond that time frame they all just jumble together for me. All the Jap bikes in the last 20 years seem to fall into either the crotch-rocket or "wanna be a Hurley" class. Nothing really stands out from the Japanese builders anymore. But then you have to understand that I'm really a Triumph/BSA/Norton kind of guy anyway!

You sure you want to know? I've owned in excess of 100 street legal bikes... roughly 15% were metric, the rest were American or European.

Overall best is easy, Honda CB/CL. They can sit around for 20 years, and you add gas, change the oil and battery and will be running in a few kicks 90% of the time.

Can't wait to have another one? Again, very easy, 800 or 1500 Vulcan, any style. They are THE best handling cruisers ever made, especially the 805cc VN800A. The KZ line, twins or fours, were phenomenal.

Yamaha has only ever made a couple decent bikes... XS650 and its variants.

Dead last in every category... Suzuki. Poor QC, atrocious fit and finish, electrical systems that make Lucas parts look good, the worst seats in the history of motorcycling... The factory has turned out some excellent parts over the decades, no question at all on that. But with the exception of the full dress C50T, they are rather uninspired and underwhelming machines.

WD, Suzuki spent their money at the race track. They dont care about ol geezers like us. Back in the mid 90's when Suzuki came out with their new improved 750 Crotch Rocket that bike was ready to win at the racetrack with just a tire and jet and exhaust change. It was years ahead of anybody, put a whuppin on Ducati. Then they went to work on the 600 and just about left Honda setting a few years. You remember when just about every crotchrocket you seen was White and Blue. The 1100 ruled the dragstrips and are still being run today. I guess theres a   few die hard Suzuki fans that want a cruiser but you can tell the thought, time , and attention is not being paid to them. Here in the US their number one customers are young black males and thats who they cater to.

Like most folks I've owned at few of each brand of bikes and each has their own "quirks". The newer bikes today are so "sophisticated" electronically that they hardly fail unless you are "modding" them and making them do something more than they are designed to do.

My stock Honda 1300R VTX was probably the most bulletproof for a modern cruiser and i'm up in the air about which of the smaller ones I would favor... I owned a Yamaha WR250X supermoto, a super fun little bike, but this little Kawasaki 300 Ninja is making me think that its not really the Companies, but the designs that make the bikes what they are.

I don't know, but the fuel injected, water cooled, low maintenance of todays bikes are what make me want to keep updating each model. Of course with all the added stuff that can fail (fuel pumps, injectors, ecu's) can make a new owner go nutz because of the complicity of the systems.

I'm thinking KISS (keep it simple stupid) would be the best for any engineering team to go by, but with that comes the maintenance issues, which is why I like the savage, it is simple in design, but not maintenance free.

I've put 5,000 miles on my new little kawi, but it isn't due a major maintenance check until 8,000, and i'm hearing from most owners that its just a valve clearance check and most don't need adjusting.

So maybe todays bikes might be better engineered, but not better overall maintenance wise for the owners, unless you are a certified motorcycle mechanic that understands electronic fuel injection and can "retune" a bike that has an ECU failure.

But my best ever rock-solid bike? It wasn't a "big four", It was my Briggs and ScrapIron Sears minibike I had when I was young!! Even I could work on it at 10 years old!!

I had one very similar when I wsa a kid.  Was loads of fun...Fork tubes were weak.  Broke the forks pretty quick jumping over a little hill.  Welded a bicycle neck on it and used bicycle forks.  Never another problem.

They are a blast.  

I've got my eye on a gorgeous custom 2006 VN800 Drifter that is listed for $4K... low miles and ready to go as is once the XM radio is deleted. I've run out of time to get the Savage back in service, 45 mile each way commute starts today. I need a couple more months worth of paychecks to get the custom cables, front shoes relined, a proper windshield (small police type tombstone)... and still need to test the stator, reg/rec, and spark box. I could get it all in one check, if I skipped the bills, but...