Sportsbikes

It's been ten long years since Yamaha launched the MT-09, an accessible, affordable and very naughty nakedbike, whose 847 cc triple motor put concentrated fun exactly where street riders need it. Now, there's finally a fully-faired R9 sportsbike.

It's been a decade now since Ducati torched the rulebook and unleashed the iconoclastic Diavel on an unsuspecting market. Now the company has snipped the final thread linking the Diavel to the average cruiser, ditching its V-twin engine for a V4.

Anyone who's thought Speed Triple riders are nuts riding around on 178-horsepower monsters with zero wind protection can wear a satisfied smirk today. Triumph has revealed its new flagship: a neo-retro, bikini-faired Speed Triple 1200 RR cafe racer.

Beijing's Da Vinci Dynamics has launched its DC100, a high-performance electric streetbike with an impressive 250-mile NEDC range, and some wacky "robotic" tricks, including the alleged ability to self-balance and auto-follow you around.

You knew it was coming... Yamaha has stuck its peppy 689cc CP2 parallel twin engine into a supersport chassis that looks like a proper racebike, but will be much more approachable and accessible for road riders. The problem is, they called it the R7.

The Suzuki GSX-1300R Hayabusa was nothing short of shocking on debut in 1999, instantly becoming the fastest production bike of the century and an icon of speed and function-focused design. And 22 years later, we finally get a ground-up overhaul.

Aeons ago, when the world made sense and Cosby was still on the box, Kawasaki made a 250cc sportsbike that revved sky-high and captured hearts. Now, it's resurrecting the mini-banshee with a shrieking, 17,000-plus RPM inline four called the ZX-25R.

Two very exciting new bikes from Aprilia at this year's EICMA show: the production model of the RS 660 middleweight sportsbike – virtually unchanged from the concept we saw last year – and a Tuono 660 concept using the same architecture and engine.

KTM’s RC390 is already probably the most track-focused small-capacity sportsbike you can buy. With 40hp on tap, it’s a killer machine to hone the craft of cornering on - but with more race series beginning to open up worldwide in this class, KTM has decided to put an even sharper edge on it.

Italian manufacturer Vins is having an honest-to-god crack at getting a two-stroke 250cc roadbike back on the market, using a carbon frame and forks and some pretty wacky design to keep the weight down to a ridiculous 95 kg (209 lb). Oh, and there's a race version that's 10 percent lighter again.

The S1000RR is purring pussycat and raging cheetah in one, a magic-trick melding of otherworldly performance and pleasant rideability that defies logic as much as it defies physics. We spent two days in Tasmania with this apex predator of the supersport motorcycle world.

These numbers should make your arm hairs stand up: 180 horsepower, 140 kilograms (309lbs) wet without fuel, In a street-legal sportsbike. Let that sink in. New British company Spirit Motorcycles has just unveiled what it believes is the closest thing possible to a Moto2 bike with headlights.