You don’t get a name like Elite without earning it (or buying it in this case), and today Indian has introduced two model lines to get the Elite treatment: the Pursuit Elite and Chieftain Elite. What makes these models Elite? All you have to do is look at them to figure out what sets them apart from the standard models. For the Pursuit, this is the first time it will be getting Elite treatment, which consists of Super Graphite Metallic and Black Metallic paint schemes nicely offset with bronze details throughout to exude an air of exclusivity the base models can’t touch.

No matter where you are in the world, it’s practically impossible not to have noticed the yearly trend of dapper looking people riding their motorcycles. What started out as a local event in Sydney, Australia by Mark Hawwa in 2012 to bring people together, wear nice clothes, and raise awareness for men’s health, the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride has grown to become one of the world’s largest road riding charity events. Today the DGR’s global reach spans over 800 cities, 90,000 riders, and has raised over $37.5 million for prostate cancer research and men’s mental health.  

Digging deep into our archives, we bring you this First Ride review of a legendary motorcycle: the 1995 Suzuki GSX-R1100. The GSX-R1100 became super popular in drag racing circles and for good reason – that 1074cc four-banger was made to zip you in a straight line quickly. If it was handling and circuit performance you were looking for, the GSX-R750 was the bike to choose. The 1100 was the sport tourer of the time even if it wasn’t supposed to be. At least we’d consider it one now thanks to its smooth, powerful engine, clip-ons above the triple, and comfortable seating position.

Well, here’s something a little different, and it comes to us from our sister site psychobike.com. If you’ve ever wanted to give proper drag racing a try, this rolling chassis of a Hayabusa drag bike could be the perfect starter package. If you don’t know what a rolling chassis is, well, it can mean many things. At its most basic, a rolling chassis is just that – a chassis/frame and the required pieces to fit wheels on it so it can roll and move around. What we have here appears to be a complete motorcycle, minus an engine.

Writing about Ducati’s 2023 Streetfighter V4S is nice and all, but while at the Andalucia racetrack riding the bike, I also attached a GoPro to my helmet and spun some laps. This happened for a few reasons: first was so you, the viewer, could hear the amazing roar of an 1103cc V4 at 13,000-plus rpm. Next was to get an idea of the different challenges the Andalucia track poses. The camera doesn’t quite do it justice, and I never did figure all of them out, but the experience reaffirmed just how remarkable the 2023 Ducati Streetfighter V4S really is.

Crashing sucks, but getting hurt because you weren’t wearing the right gear stings just a little bit more. You all know to wear your helmets, jackets, pants, gloves, and boots – but what are you wearing under all that? If you’re not wearing at least a back protector then you’re missing out on a relatively inexpensive piece of kit that can make a big difference. Add in a chest protector, and you have two components that can further absorb some of the impact energy of hitting the ground before your body does. 

Polaris has launched a new online marketplace for buying and selling Indian motorcycles and other Polaris products. The Polaris Xchange portal allows customers to do all of their shopping online, with access to thousands of powersports vehicles across a network of participating dealerships. The Xchange also includes products from across the company’s powersports portfolio, including Indian, plus Polaris’ ATVs, side-by-sides, snowmobiles, and Slingshot auto-cycles.

It’s posts like these that helped spawn the idea for these Friday Forum Foraging posts in the first place. This particular one comes from one of our sister sites, NinjaH2.org. We don’t know the seller, nor do we know the life circumstance that has caused them to sell this basically new 2022 Kawasaki H2 Carbon with only four miles on it, but this is definitely out of the ordinary. And that’s what we like around here.

Alan Cathcart’s conversation with Stefan Pierer continues, as the PIERER Mobility president and chief executive officer discusses electrification and other future technologies. —ED.

Alan Cathcart’s conversation with Stefan Pierer continues, as the PIERER Mobility president and chief executive officer discusses his motorcycle brands (namely, KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas), and some of their competition. This includes MV Agusta, of which PIERER gained a stake in 2022. —ED.

You might be familiar with Bring a Trailer for its selection of cool cars that are up for auction, but did you know BaT also has a motorcycle page? Just as with the cars, the moto page is filled with cool and interesting submissions, including this 1958 BMW R/60 modified to accept a Geko sidecar and PAV single-wheel trailer.

As the Coronavirus pandemic gradually disappears in the rear view mirror of history, in its aftermath the global motorcycle industry continues to experience rapid and sustained growth. Leading this charge among European companies is the KTM Group, whose parent company PIERER Mobility AG finished 2022 on a continued high, after a 12th successive record year which saw sales of its three current brands KTM, Husqvarna, and GASGAS continue spiralling upwards to 375,452 motorcycles in 2022, an increase of 13% compared with the previous year’s 332,881 units. Of those, 268,575 of these motorcycles carried the KTM badge, 75,266 were Husqvarnas and 31,651 were GASGAS motorcycles, a sales volume of 375,492 motorcycles. Add to that the 118,465 pedal cycles and E-bicycles sold in the same period under its Husqvarna, GASGAS, Felt and R Raymon labels (up 15% compared to 2022’s 102,753 bikes), and the company’s overall revenues increased to EUR 2.437 billion in 2022, up 19% year-on-year.

After years of success with the 765 cc Moto2 spec engine, Triumph would be foolish to ignore all that it has learned on the international racing stage, and the 2024 Triumph Street Triple 765 R and RS are proof that the engineers have been paying attention. While most of the focus was on increasing power, some select chassis changes made it into the mix. My ride on the roads of southern Spain and on the track at the Circuito de Jerez made it clear that Triumph wants to dominate the middleweight naked class.

In honor of the beginning of the 2023 racing season, MotoAmerica, North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series, has agreed to give two lucky entrants a subscription MotoAmerica Live+ for the 2023 season and a pair of three-day passes to the MotoAmerica event of the winner’s choice. For those who don’t know, MotoAmerica is officially sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), and its racing series features seven classes of motorcycle road racing: Medallia Superbike, Supersport, SportTrackGear.com Junior Cup, Yuasa Stock 1000, REV’IT! Twins Cup, Mission King Of The Baggers, and Mini Cup by Motul. The 2023 calendar features 10 full weekends of the best roadracing to be found on the continent. While it’s always preferable to see racing in person, most of us don’t have the time to travel the country to attend every event. MotoAmerica Live+ makes it possible to stream six to eight ours of coverage per day for each race weekend. This means fans can watch practice, qualifying, racing, and special features from the comfort of their couch.

The Harley-Davidson vs. Indian rivalry is a great American classic on par with the likes of Army vs. Navy, Lakers vs. Celtics, Ford vs. Chevy, Pepsi vs. Coke, and even…Google vs. Bing? Ok, maybe not that last one, but you get the point. Harley and Indian have been at each other’s throats going back over a century, save for a 50-odd-year pause in the middle when Indian originally closed its doors. But when Polaris bought the keys to the palace and opened the doors again, the fight resumed as intense as ever when the FTR750 flat tracker started beating Harley’s legendary XR750. Repeatedly.

Kawasaki’s answer to the Suzuki Hayabusa, the ZX-14R was all about straight-line speed – up to 186 mph, or 300 kph – the speed all the Japanese manufacturers had a gentleman’s agreement on for a speed cap. Legendary in drag racing thanks to the likes of Ricky Gadson, the ZX-14 carved quite a niche for itself alongside the ‘Busa for being fast. Like the ‘Busa, the ZX-14 was also an underrated sport-touring bike, too. With some luggage on the back, many found the large ride to be comfortable, and even quite good, at chewing up big miles.

Indian pulled no punches and left no doubt when it came to the bike it had in its crosshairs when developing its latest model. Usually at press intros, we all know what other model(s) could be considered competition, but it’s very rare to have the host manufacturer come out and say it. They usually resist the urge to talk about their competitors by name – and especially won’t mention a specific competitor model – when hyping up their new product.  

Today’s Friday Forum Foraging post comes to you from New Salem Borough, Pennsylvania and the KTM forums, where we find this fine example of a 2019 KTM Super Duke R. Looking at the pictures alone, it seems like this owner has taken good care of his SDR. Having long been one of our favorite streetfighters, the Super Duke R is a thrill machine. Starting with its 1301cc V-Twin, the outrageous engine is anything but short for power. Coupled with a strong WP suspension and Brembo brake package, the SDR lives up to KTM’s Ready to Race mantra.

If you are lucky, you have that one friend or neighbor who always seems to show up at your shop or garage door at the best possible times to offer help, advice, or even a spare part or two for your latest project. This guy or gal always seems to know the little tips or tricks that make the difference between a one-hour job and a four-day ordeal. With the advent of the internet, finding the right advice for your build should seemingly have gotten easier, but instead, you’re faced with a mountain of info you have to sift through to weed out the correct answers from the bad advice.

In 2021, Buell claimed it would have 10 new models by 2024. While that seems highly unlikely as of today, we now have our first look at the latest offering from the American manufacturer, which was brought to life by none other than Roland Sands Design. The Buell Super Cruiser concept unveiled to the media in Long Beach, CA on February 10, combines existing Buell componentry, including the 1190SX’s motor, into an entirely bespoke chassis developed by RSD. Cruiser faithful will likely recognize the FXR-esque silhouette of the Super Cruiser, but the performance should surpass anything seen yet. Of course this is only a concept model, so when the Super Cruiser hits the production line, we’ll have a better idea of what to expect. 

With no US publications invited to the press launch of the BMW CE 04 more than a year ago, we had to enlist the help of our friend Bertrand Gahel to send us his thoughts in the form of his First Ride Review. Thirteen months later, we finally got our hands on the BMW scoot.

Who doesn’t love a good BMW GS story? This one is especially good. Today’s example is a 2005 R1200GS – ironically, listed at the V-Strom forum  StromTrooper.com – with over 100,000 miles. If the ad (reposted below) is any indication, the bike has 133,600 miles to be exact. The GS has been known to be virtually bulletproof, and this bike is driving home that point.

The problem with the Ducati Diavel has always been the inability to adequately describe the type of motorcycle it was. Power Cruiser never came close to encompassing the bike’s capabilities. Similarly, Muscle Bike implied the brute force it’s capable of quite well but overlooked the finesse with which it could be applied. With the addition of the V4 Granturismo engine, the Diavel has matured into the bike it was always meant to be, the Mega-Monster. The 2023 Ducati Diavel V4 has reached the point in its design and performance that it leaves all vestiges of cruiserness in its dust. 

It’s another Friday, and we’re back again with another Honda. It’s even sourced from the same forum as before – the Bay Area Riders Forum. In searching for last week’s post, a few gems stood out and I knew I had to get to this one after last week’s Gold Wing post. Why? Well, here’s the story behind this 1993 Honda CBR900RR, straight from the seller himself:

Just over four years ago, Italian trophy marque Moto Morini narrowly avoided joining the many other defunct brands from all our two-wheeled yesterdays already deposited in motorcycling history’s trash bin. But in October 2018 Chen Huaneng, the owner of Chinese scooter and minimoto manufacturer Zhongneng Vehicle Group, saved it from extinction by acquiring 100% ownership of Moto Morini from the previous Italian owner.

For our February 2023 MO Giveaway, Klim has stepped up to offer one lucky winner a touring jacket and matching pants. To make things even better, the winner gets to choose between the Altitude Jacket and Altitude pants or the Latitude Jacket and Latitude Pants, depending on their gender. So, let’s dive into these impressive offerings.

Deep down, in the far reaches of your brain, lie thoughts about riding a Gold Wing across the country. With your feet up, radio blasting, your significant other sitting in back, and the hum of the six-cylinder purring away as the miles melt away; how could you not want to give the ‘Wing a go? It doesn’t matter what you ride now, or what genre of motorcycling you identify with – Gold Wings permeate past every single niche. What’s not to love about riding a couch on wheels?

Harley-Davidson presented its fourth quarter 2022 financial results, and the results were generally strong, but not without a few hiccups.

Little yellow dots emblazoned on the back of helmets have become more and more prevalent in the past few years. That dot, of course, means the helmet is equipped with a slip layer known as the Multi-directional Impact Protection System, or MIPS, as the brand is known. MIPS has more than doubled the number of brands it worked with just three years earlier, now partnering with 143 brands that span industries from motorsports and cycling, to snow sports and even construction. In motorsports, MIPS works with the following brands:

The man with overall responsibility for creating Royal Enfield’s first twin-cylinder modern-era cruiser is New Jersey native Adrian Sellers, 42, who after a four-year stint with Honda R&D in Italy and, before that, nine years at Yamaha’s Design Laboratory in Los Angeles, was appointed the Indian company’s Head of Custom and Motorsport in 2016, based at its UK Technology Centre at Bruntingthorpe. Let’s leave it to him to tell us how the ground-breaking Super Meteor 650 came about.

1990 Honda ST1100 begat 2003 Honda ST1300, which begat 2014 Honda CTX1300… which at some point in the last few years seems to have gone, mercifully, the way of all flesh. Now if it’s a Honda sport tourer you crave, it’s the Gold Wing or, well, that’s about it. Anyway, the big 1261cc V-four ST1300 was quite the long-distance mile muncher 20 years ago. But I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen one in the wild. The good news is Yamaha is still manufacturing the motorcycle that showed the ST the exit – the FJR1300ES. Survival of the fittest, I suppose.

My apologies for returning so quickly to ZXForums, when we were just here two weeks ago. But this one knocked my socks off. The Kawasaki ZX-11 may have had more impact on some of our formative years than any other motorcycle. And this 1998 D model for sale in northern Arkansas (there’re a couple of nice roads there) appears to have been preserved in amber, right down to its shiny stock dual exhausts.

It’s been about a month since we introduced Motorcycle.com’s 2022 Yamaha MT-10 SP semi-long-term project bike. In case you forgot the premise of this whole thing, Yamaha offered us the opportunity to hang on to an MT-10 SP for an extended period of time, and since I have a soft spot for the bike, I decided to give it some tasteful upgrades to address some key weaknesses while also unleashing some trapped potential. The point here is two-fold: first is to see what the bike could do with some simple upgrades. Second is to not break the bank while doing so because otherwise, you could easily go buy one of the European competitors that would probably still spank this MT, stock. 

Like we said, forums are an excellent place to search for a new-to-you used motorcycle. Or car. Or whatever. Very generally speaking, people who care enough to join a forum care enough to take good care of their love object, and putting the thing up for sale on the forum may be a way of ensuring it goes to a good home. If you’re lucky. Some fora (that’s plural) even make you jump through a hoop or two to join. Ducati.MS, for instance, insists you’re a member for 15 days, and must make five posts before you can access its Marketplace. Like a cooling-off period I guess? Keeps out the riff-raff… but I kept after it and here we are.

You know what’s worse than carrying a six-pound jug of gas on your hip? Carrying two of them.  I know my riding buddies (particularly the one who puts together the awesome rides) are tired of hearing it, but c’mon strapping a gallon of gas to your waist is a drag – and sometimes, I still have to carry two. It’s a requirement for the super remote rides we usually go on in order to get deep into the backcountry – and back out again. I’d like to say the three-gallon IMS tank solved that issue for me, but really, a larger than stock tank is already imperative for the type of riding I do – plus a lil extra when the mileage calls for it. 

It’s a little strange to hear Nate Kern call me, and everyone else in the rider’s meeting, one of his kids. “It’s true,” says the childless Kern as he can see the weird looks on our faces this chilly December morning at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway. “I’m man enough to say I care about you guys and when you’re here, at one of my trackdays, all I want is the best experience possible for you.” This might sound like lip service since every trackday provider wants you to have a good time, but Nate Kern and his eponymous DoubleRFest trackdays have the weight of BMW behind it to come as close as possible to ensuring this sentiment rings true. 

Meanwhile in ZXforums, 185EZ has decided it’s time to part with his 2014 ZX-14R. As you all should be aware, this is one steamy chariot – a motorcycle that challenged the Hayabusa for top-speed honors while performing steamy, 9-second quarter-miles in stock form. Kawasaki would like to sell you a new (and probably improved) one, for $16,599, but the only good reason not to to do that is that this slightly used one’s barely done 11,000 miles, and the seller says it doesn’t have a scratch on it.

Welcome to 2023! The MO offices are full again after our annual weight-gaining extravaganza, and we are ready to hit the ground running into the new model year. That means we’re all about looking ahead, which means we are (mostly) thinking about the 2023 models and what new goodies the manufacturers have in store for motorcyclists. As is our tradition, we put fingers to keyboards and opined on what we, as professional moto-journalists, were most excited about after spending days on the EICMA and other new model announcements. So, what follows is our personal opinions about the bikes we expect to ride for the first time in the upcoming year. 

If shootouts are MO’s bread and butter, single bike reviews and first rides are the main course. Motorcyclists crave information on the newest machinery, and we try our best to give you what you want. While you may not always agree with our opinions – and occasionally even accuse us of being on the take when our impressions don’t mesh with your desires – we try our level best to let you know what we think about every bike we have the good fortune to throw a leg over. For 2022, we have a resounding winner that left the rest of the reviews and first rides in the dust, and when you get to that entry, we figure that you won’t be very surprised. 

Shootouts have long been the bread and butter of Motorcycle.com’s reviews. Some of this is because the expandable nature of web pages makes long-form content much easier than back in the print media days. Another reason is that the MO motto has always been “more is more.” So naturally, we changed things for 2022. Instead of more bikes, we decided to focus on more shootouts for the year. We think the experiment was largely a success (although you can feel free to give us your opinion in the comments), and for 2023, we are considering a hybrid of shootout models to see if that is the magic combination. However, before we ride into 2023, we need to look at what made the previous year such a good one. So, here are the shootouts that you readers decided with your clicks were the best 2022 had to offer. 

Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus and good will toward all on the day of this final Church of MO for 2022. It was the best of times 20 years ago, when Attack Performance’s proprietor rolled Jason Pridmore’s championship-winning Suzuki out for little old us to have a go at California Speedway. As I recall it may have been a case of mistaken identity: Richard Stanboli may have thought it was John Burns calling from Motorcyclist (a big print publication at the time from which I had just been expelled), not John Burns from Motorcycle.com (a pipsqueak online publication which thought nothing of running a 2200-word bike test with one action photo). Say, what’s an online publication?

The e-mobility game has been heating up for a while now (literally in the case of those spontaneously combusting “hoverboards”), and I’ve been seeing more and more people on e-bikes around town and down at the beach with a fairly significant increase in the past couple of years. On the way back from some pedal-pushing of my own during lunch (#musclesnotmotors), I saw a couple of kids two up on an e-bike that looked similar to a Super73, but was not. It was a glance into what unadulterated freedom must feel like for two 13-year-olds: the boy piloting the machine sans shirt, but with a helmet, and a girl standing up on the passenger footpegs, hair flowing in the wind, both laughing and smiling, not a care in the world. Meanwhile, I hurried home to crawl back into my dark, dank office with hopes that my tyrannical editor hadn’t noticed my time away from the screen.

Long-term test bikes aren’t something we normally do here at Motorcycle.com, but when Yamaha’s PR guy Gerrad Capley said I could take the MT-10 SP home after the press intro, it was an offer that was hard to resist. When I asked him how long I could have it, he basically shrugged his shoulders and winked. “Can I modify it?” I asked. “Only if you give it back to us in stock form,” he said. Just like that, I dashed away with an MT-10 SP for an indefinite amount of time. Nice.

Sometimes you don’t know what you want; you only know that you want something. If you’re in group A, keep reading MO and scanning the general marketplaces, of which there are now a bunch. On the other hand, if you know the motorcycle you want, don’t overlook shopping the online forums – of which MO‘s parent company, Verticalscope, happens to own a shedload; multiple forums is Fora, and chances are if it has wheels, wings, skis, sails or propellers, there’s an online forum full of fans.

Editor Score: 85.5%

I’m accustomed to begging scooters from the Big Four, from the companies I know – Kawasaki excluded since they don’t make a scooter – and hanging onto them as long as I can. You’d be surprised. But Honda may be sore after I crashed that last ADV150 while testing its tires over railroad tracks, even though I offered to buy it (at a discount, since it was crashed). Come to think of it, they may even be still sore about the Metropolitan we crashed in our 2002 Scooter Smackdown. Some of these huge corporations have impressively long memories, but atrocious short-term ones. Yamaha has no scooters in the current test fleet (frightening), and Suzuki has no Burgman 200s. Dunno what’s become of Kymco? There’s no love from Vespa.

Entry level dual-sport has for a very long time existed in the void between categories, particularly when you consider folks who are shorter in the inseam. We all need to start somewhere, but for most who did not grow up riding, or maybe started exclusively on street motorcycles, the reality is that the entry-level engine size is often combined with the inability to comfortably touch the ground at a stop. That’s enough to deter all but the most stubborn of vertically challenged riders. Kawasaki is hoping to change this with the 2023 Kawasaki KLX230 S.

Let’s be honest, dual-sport motorcycles aren’t really designed for touring, despite my best efforts ( here and here). The bikes are merely street-legal dirt bikes without much accommodation for creature comfort. So, spending 220-ish miles flat in the saddle from Las Vegas, NV to Palmdale, CA, mostly on Interstate 15, is a platform for cataloging discomforts, and after riding approximately 360 miles, mostly off road over the two previous days, my aches-and-pains were legion. Still, with sore muscles from my arms all the way down to the arches of my feet, why did I spend most of my time grinning as I cranked out the miles? I’d finally participated in the LA-Barstow To Vegas Dual-Sport Ride, an event that had intrigued me for over 25 years, which is 23 years longer than I have been actively riding in the dirt. Achieving life goals is always good, but somehow the physically-challenging ones accomplished after the half-century mark are even sweeter. 

They don’t do a lot of advertising at Aerostich. Instead, proprietor Andy Goldfine lets the product speak for itself, mostly by keeping the US motojournalist corp well-supplied with his suits. Once you’ve worn one a bit, it can feel weird to ride any distance in anything else. There’s more competition than when he began the business decades ago, but something about the one-piece Roadcrafter’s versatility, toughness, and wide range of uses in all kinds of environments keeps lots of long-time customers coming back, while still adding new converts, too.

When BMW created the first GS in 1980, reactions were mixed. Back then, the motorcycle industry did not have the fragmented family tree of specialized segments that it has today, with sport bikes, sport touring, touring, off-road, enduro, retro sport, standard, and all manner of cruisers. However, by mixing on-road, off-road, and touring characteristics into a single bike, BMW must have known they were on to something, because they soldiered on with the model, and not only has the GS survived, but it has thrived. Today, adventure riding, the segment that the BMW GS created, is one of the fastest growing in motorcycling, with every major manufacturer having some variation of the GS formula in their current lineup.

The invention of the trackday tire is the single greatest thing to happen to trackday riders since, well, trackdays. Being able to leave the tire warmers at home (or not own any at all!) has a trickle-down effect for those lazy riders among us – myself included. No warmers means the stands can stay home, and so can the generator. Better still, leaving all those things behind doesn’t compromise anything out on track; modern trackday tires provide plenty of grip and more longevity than your average race slick. (But let’s make one thing clear: if you’re actually racing, a slick is still the way to go.)

We know that regular MO readers are fans of the Isle of Man TT. Friend of MO, Andrew Capone, gives us annual posts from the event, and the analytics tell us that they are very popular. So, the release of the feature-length documentary film Tourist Trophy should spark more than a little interest among the fans. Over the course of 90+ minutes, viewers get the opportunity to get to know some of the variety of riders taking part in the 2022 Isle of Man TT. 

It was the talk of last week’s 2022 EICMA Show: MV Agusta, Italy’s most prestigious and historic manufacturer, winner to date of 270 Grand Prix races, 38 World Riders’ Championships, and 37 World Constructors’ Championships, had supposedly been acquired by KTM. Stefan Pierer, the most powerful man in European motorcycling, had captured his most iconic trophy brand yet, to add to his roster of Euro-marques including KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas. Indeed, according to one supposedly authoritative source, he’d be sealing the takeover deal with MV’s current owner, Russian entrepreneur Timur Sardarov, on the Thursday before the Valencia GP, November 3. This would permit him to announce at the final race of the 2022 season that MV Agusta would be returning to MotoGP racing in 2023 – albeit as a KTM subsidiary.

Let the record show that, despite my best efforts, Yamaha’s MT-10 was not included in either the street or track portions of our mega seven-way open-class naked bike shootouts last year. I fought for its inclusion but was ultimately denied by the Bossman who wrote it off by saying our field was big enough and it wasn’t going to win anyway. That and we also knew a new one was already on the way.

It all began when our old friend Ken Vreeke returned from a six-day ride in Spain, name-dropping and in love with the BMW S1000XR he’d ridden there. Actually, he rented a GS1250, but also got some time on the XR: Problem is with the ADV bikes, Vreeke complains, even with good tires you run off the edges long before you get any real lean angle. My tires on the rented GS were new, and the front was bald on both sides after a week in Spain. Chasing EB, I kept running out of tire at the precise moment he was grabbing a big mittful of gas and launching away. When I finally got on the XR on the last day, I was shocked at how much throttle you could feed in leaned waaaaay over. I’ve only ridden one modern Superbike – that Kawasaki H2 you brought around – so the XR blew my mind. It was soooooo stuck to the road. 

Drawing off a company’s past success is a popular starting point when it comes to future models, and MV Agusta is drawing off its success 50 years ago to guide a new category of motorcycle it hopes to bring to market in the coming years. What you see here is the 921 S concept.

MV is leaning hard into its heritage with this, the Superveloce 1000 Serie Oro, the latest – and arguably most stunning – addition to the neo-retro family that started with the Superveloce 800. In typical MV fashion, the Superveloce 1000 lives up to the brand’s “Motorcycle Art” mantra, but does so with functional technical and stylistic solutions.

At long last, the spiritual successor to Suzuki’s wildly popular SV650 (but not the actual successor, the SV is still staying in the Suzuki lineup) is finally here. Say hello to the GSX-8S, a motorcycle Suzuki says was “engineered from the ground up as an innovative path for future Suzuki sportbikes…”

Warning: Some of the content from 20 years ago will seem inappropriate to a modern audience, but then it was probably also inappropriate 20 years ago; we weren’t aware of it at the time. For that, we apologize in advance. But what were we supposed to do when publishing an Aprilia Mille R vs Honda RC51 track test with no action photography? Co-starring Kevin Erion, Bruce Kusada, Dan Kyle (RIP), and Minime.

Nobody does modern classics quite like Triumph, and today, the famed British marque is taking full advantage of its position within the modern classic space by unveiling its new, 10-bike strong limited edition Chrome collection of motorcycles. How limited? Each bike will only be available for one year.