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Typically, the most fascinating sportbikes have high price tags and outrageous levels of power. KTM’s playful new RC390 has neither but, nevertheless is almost irresistibly appealing.

When we were introduced to the 2015 Honda CBR300R at its recent press introduction at Honda’s headquarters in Southern California, Honda reps teased us by displaying the 300R’s naked sibling, the CB300F, alongside it. We weren’t able to ride it, but there it sat, ready for the assembled press to sit, ogle and stare. Thankfully, Honda didn’t keep us waiting for long, as only weeks after I rode the fully faired 300R, we were given a 300F to throw around.

The ever-curious staff over at Google-Street-View.com discovered this graphic example of the perils of riding like an untrained adventurer in the urban jungle. Unfortunately for him, our hapless crash-test-dummy performs this graphic demonstration while riding almost completely unprotected. What can we learn?

There is nothing else quite like KTM’s new RC390. Sure, there are some sporty motorcycles displacing less than 500cc, but none of them are as sharply edged or as exotically styled as the RC390. America’s bigger-is-better mentality doesn’t usually give much credence to a single-cylinder sportbike, but the RC390 has the visual appeal and sporting cred that may change some minds.

This week,  Harley-Davidson announced its 2015 models, including four CVO – that’s Custom Vehicle Operations to the rest of us – models to carry the banner of the most premium motorcycles the company manufactures. To this rarefied atmosphere, the Motor Company brought three models based on the touring chassis ( CVO Street Glide, CVO Road Glide Ultra, and CVO Limited) and one Softail-based model, the CVO Softail Deluxe. While it is notable that all four models are touring bikes, the Softail is more of a light-duty tourer that can easily be stripped of its windshield and saddlebags to become a boulevard-focused motorcycle.

Rob Woodworth, of Charleston, South Carolina, thought he was getting a great deal when, in 2010, he purchased a retired Goodwill box truck from a dealer he found on Craigslist. The truck was exactly what the amateur road racer was looking for: it could haul his girlfriend, his race bikes and himself to the track with plenty of room for tools, his assortment of gear, camping equipment and even his two dogs. It would eventually haul all the trophies that come with winning races, too.

I have a lovely Shoei Neotec I got about six months ago, which I have worn extensively and adore a little more every time I wear it. There aren’t many helmets I can wear for 12 hours at a stretch. It’s a beautiful cranberry sparkly color, but it didn’t take long for it to fall off my motorcycle seat onto the pavement, where the paint got gouged on the rear – a little ding. Dammit. I know there are people out there who would follow the rules and mail the thing to Shoei for inspection, like you’re supposed to do. I am not one of them.

The heavyweight Streetfighter category of motorcycles has exploded in popularity lately, with seemingly every manufacturer jumping on the bandwagon for a piece of the pie. Japan’s represented with the Kawasaki Z1000, Honda CB1000R, and even Suzuki is entering the ring in 2015 with the GSX-S1000. Italy’s three representatives include the MV Agusta Brutale 1090RR, Ducati Monster 1200 and Aprilia Tuono V4R. Germany, of course, gives us the BMW S1000R, and we can’t forget BMW’s Austrian neighbors and their contribution to the party: the all-conquering KTM 1290 Super Duke R, Motorcycle.com’s 2014 Motorcycle of the Year.

BMW’s new entry into the sport-adventure-touring sub-class has been caught while undergoing final testing in Europe. The S1000XR is loosely based on the thrilling and versatile S1000R, one of our favorite motorcycles of 2014, but with many changes to compete with sporty ADVs like Ducati’s Multistrada and Aprilia’s Caponord.

Indian Motorcycles made a big splash in Sturgis this year with the introduction of its new Scout. The revival of a historic model is newsworthy on its own, but the larger take-away from the emergence of the Scout is that it doesn’t directly compare to any other cruiser.

The evolution of motorcycles continues its relentless pace in 2014, with new offerings in every segment that advance the state of the art. The list of nominations for our prestigious Motorcycle of the Year award stretched across many categories and a diverse range of prices. After much debate among our editors, we’ve whittled down the best of the best to determine which two motorcycles are most deserving of our honors. And the winners are…

Your giant corporations can be a little slow to respond to trends, but sometimes they surprise you. Yamaha started teasing the idea of bringing back its old SR400 a couple years ago, and now they’ve gone ahead and done it. This is not a modern interpretation of the old bike, this is the actual old bike it’s been building and selling in other markets since the ’70s – though it does have modern fuel injection and a charcoal canister to meet current emissions requirements.

Sporting a California plate and looking production-ready, this new Suzuki looks set to expand our favorite class of motorcycles – sporting nakeds – bikes that include the KTM Super Duke R, BMW S1000R, Kawasaki Z1000 and Ducati’s Monsters.

by Tom Roderick

By John Burns