Sportsbikes

A 23-year old in Vietnam robbed a bank and the very next day posted on social media photos of himself standing outside a dealership with his brand new Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja.

Tesla has made huge waves in the auto manufacturing world but is it about to do the same in the motorcycle world?

Honda carries its CBR1000RR superbike, a.k.a. ’Fireblade’, into 2022 with little in the way of changes. That’s hardly surprising given the scope and scale of the revisions done prior to MY17 that brought us the newest gen of Honda’s Total Control initiative with a host of electronic goodies to help keep the 189-horsepower engine (10 more ponies than the previous gen) under control. It’s Honda’s first inline four-banger to run a throttle-by-wire induction control, and the factory piled on with Riding Modes, Wheelie Control, and more to make the ’Blade serve as a model flagship for the affordable-supersport sector with plenty of influence from the racing department for the ’everyrider’.

Done properly, brand indoctrination starts early, and the updated-in-2019 YZF-R3 is Yamaha’s primary bid for the supersport larvae it needs to support the rest of the range. The”R3” presents a race-tastic face to the world with design elements borrowed from its big brothers, the YZF-R6 and YZF-R1. It sports lower-drag bodywork and the same powerplant as the ’18 model for a net performance gain, however slim, and maintains its agile nature/fun factor for experienced pilots.

Honda goes a bit beyond the cursory “Bold New Graphics” package that frequently heralds a new model-year with new bodywork and a blackout paint package on the Honda CB1000R that sets it well apart from the previous version to make it the “Black Edition.” Improved electronics join with the new looks for some under-the-hood improvements increasing its utility as a commuter, and a fun one at that. The punchy four-banger reprises its role as the beating heart with throttle-by-wire and riding modes on board to help with engine management.

Zero Motorcycles maintains its position at the cutting edge of the rapidly-burgeoning EV motorcycle market with its revised and improved for MY22 SR/S sportbike. It maintains the same sporty looks, but backs them up with a more efficient drivetrain and remarkably fast recharge times. The new Cypher III+ operating system manages it all, and comes ready to receive downloadable performance upgrades that let you tune up without ever touching a wrench.

KTM juiced up its 790 Duke platform with a more powerful engine, beefed up electronics, and improved suspension for its 2021 release in the U.S. market. New graphics are available on this new platform that comes with a robust electronics suite to help you keep the thing dirty-side down. It rocks a price tag that’s a full grand less than the more-racetastic “R” variant for an ever so slightly more-relaxed type of rider.

Kawasaki gave its Ninja 650 supersport a facelift ahead of MY2020 with aggressive new lines. Safety and visibility were increased through LED technology, and instrumentation moves into the 21st century with a TFT display to deliver the metrics. New tires and new networking technology round out the package along with the engine performance and handling that made the last generation a hit.

Kawasaki took the next step in the struggle to find that perfect balance between displacement, performance, and affordability with the new-in-2018 Ninja 400. This ride delivers the aggressive styling that you expect from the Ninja family with a host of improvements over the previous generation. More power, less weight, and a mature presentation should hold the new Ninja in good stead in the highly-competitive small-displacement sportbike market that serves as the main battlefield in the contest to instill some brand loyalty in the increasingly important new buyer base.

While we’ve known for a while what it looks like, up to now we’ve been short on detail specification of the new Kawasaki-engined Bimota KB4. In advance of its likely appearance at the EICMA motorcycle show in November, the specification has now been confirmed.

The White Motorcycles WMC250EV is built around a striking aerodynamic tunnel running through the centre of the motorcycle, not only reducing drag, but providing positive downforce enabling effective two-wheel drive.

It’s one of those phrases that people throw out into conversations - ’Oh, yeah, the Yamaha R1: it’s got a cross-plane engine’ - and you just know they have no idea what that means. So, what does it mean?

Triumph has officially revealed the brand new Speed Triple RR, the semi-faired version of the Speed Triple RS. New look, new semi-active Ohlins suspension, new riding position to turn it into the ultimate sports road bike.

Indian expands its street-friendly Flat Track Racer line for 2022 with the addition of the FTR S model that brings top-shelf ride-quality/safety equipment and advanced electronics to the table. Power comes from the same mill that drives the rest of the platform with 120 horsepower on tap to get things moving right along.

Kawasaki beefed up its naked Z900 with even more under-the-hood updates for 2020 and an all-new look created by wild new color combinations. It may look a lot like the previous generation, but this model saw a ground-up rebuild that touched on just about everything but the engine with refinements across the board. While the 948 cc engine reprises its role as the beating heart of this machine, it also benefits from new electronic features to garner an advantage in the hotly-contested, sub-liter naked bracket.

Suzuki’s Hayabusa has always been a bike of extremes: extreme performance, extreme looks, extreme dynamics. Many thought it was coming to the end of its life in 2018 but Suzuki knew when it was on to a good thing. The 2022 Hayabusa is still as fast as ever, but has grown from the ugly duckling into a graceful swan and received a huge upgrade, both mechanical and electronic, along the way.

KTM’s RC390 and RC125 have always punched well above their weight. Now, for 2022, both bikes receive significant upgrades, gaining new chassis and shedding a lot of weight along the way. Revised styling and, on the RC390, a full suite of electronics.

The Buell name has been absent since Harley Davidson closed the doors on the brand in 2009 as a cost-cutting exercise. Now, new owners LAP have announced a new model to wear the famous brand name, the 182bhp, V-Twin-powered ’Hammerhead’, which will carry on from where the 1190RX left off.

Despite not having played in the faired litre-superbike class for well over a decade, it looks like Triumph is preparing to re-enter that class with a faired version of the Speed Triple 1200 RS. The teaser video shows virtually nothing but we can expect the Speed Triple 1200 RR - as it will be called - to be launched in time for the 2022 model year.

European trademark applications by Yamaha for the R2 and R9 names indicate that new faired sports bikes are on the way. The R9 is an obvious move, bridging the gap between the R7 and the R1 while the R2 could be a smaller version of the R3 or a larger version of the R125 and R15 and would be aimed at the Asian and Indian markets.

This on-board lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife on a home-built Yamaha R1 with precious little in the way of electronic rider aids - traction control and ABS - in the pouring rain is properly scary. Yes, it’s running on full race wet tyres but with all that standing water, the rider is either brave or foolish. And he’s not hanging around.

Electric motors are getting better all the time and this new development from Energica promises more power, lighter weight and greater range. It will be fitted on all new Energicas from now on.

So, you think your supercar really is super? Don’t care what you are driving - McLaren, Ferrari, Nissan GTR, BMW, Tesla - can it beat a stock BMW S1000RR? The good people at Bike World spent a productive Monday morning pitting the BMW S1000RR against all comers. The results might surprise you.