#superbike

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”

When it comes to liter-class sportbikes, technology has become the name of the game. There’s an alphabet soup of acronyms out there to describe the many number of ways you, the rider, can lap a racetrack as fast as you can with far fewer consequences for a mistake than ever before. Yamaha, Ducati, Kawasaki, BMW, Aprilia are just a few of the manufacturers offering top-level sportbikes with sophisticated levels of electronics.

On Monday we brought you a flying lap of Auto Club Speedway aboard the 2016 Kawasaki ZX-10R, the runner-up in our two-way fight between it and the Aprilia RSV4 RR (which you can read about here). We praised the Kawasaki’s handling prowess and were really impressed with its updated electronics. However, we still gave the overall win in the comparison test to the Aprilia by the sheer fact it’s so easy to ride quickly. The V-4 engine’s wonderful, distinctive growl down low, combined with its pissed off bark up top encourages its rider to want to twist that throttle every chance they get. Luckily for us, that engine also produces abundant, usable torque throughout its rev range – a feature that helped it win our comparo.

Look around the liter-class sportbike landscape. The field is littered with some of the most technologically advanced and blindingly fast motorcycles the world has ever seen. Trickle-down technology from the world of MotoGP and World Superbike is making its way to production motorcycles faster than ever before, and it’s hard to deny the sportbike landscape is all the better for it.

It’s fair to say that those who work in the motorcycle industry do so out of their love for bikes and our two-wheeled sport/hobby. It doesn’t really matter if you’re a PR agent, a journalist or a factory representative, a person could earn more money if their job was instead in the automotive field. Meanwhile, there are thousands of moto-loving people who work tirelessly behind the scenes to promote and help enhance the world of motorcycling, routinely without any fanfare whatsoever.

Read that headline again: Suter MMX 500 Two-Stroke To Race Isle Of Man TT. That’s right, Suter’s 580cc V-4 two-stroke grand prix replica is going to compete at the Isle of Man TT this year, not just parade around for a celebration lap. The news was reported on the official Isle of Man TT website, wherein it was also announced the MMX 500 would compete in both the Superbike class and the TT’s premier category: The six-lap Senior TT. If you’re not familiar with the MMX 500, you can read more about it here.

Have you ever wondered what separates a BMW S1000RR Superbike from the S1kRR that rolls off the BMW production line? Wonder no more, as MRT Tech, a motorcycle tuning shop in Estonia, has gone to great length to document this superbike build.

Let’s be honest – it doesn’t really matter what the words in this week’s Church feature are all about. You came here to look at the pictures. Understandable, considering the Ducati 916 body style is one of the most iconic shapes in motorcycling history. Unfortunately, this review of the 2002 Ducati 998 was filed back when MO was under different ownership and stored under different servers. The original pics have been lost to the internet gods who feast upon early digital photos, hence the small pics we’ve got here. We’re sorry about that, but there’s nothing we can do about it. 

It isn’t so far-fetched to suggest that reigning MotoAmerica AMA/FIM Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier shares a few things in common with road racing legend multi-time 500cc World Champion Wayne Rainey, the founder of the series in which the 23-year-old Beaubier is the new king.

Its 2:23 am and I am lying in bed wide awake. I have my hotel window open and I am listening to the rain coming down. Just two weeks earlier if you’d  told me I was going to be in a tiny hotel room in Alcaniz, Spain, I would have laughed. But that’s where I am, and I am filled with so many different emotions. Different emotions because I am here as a guest to ride World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea’s Kawasaki at one of my favorite tracks, Aragon.

By now, we trust you’ve had a chance to check out our 2015 Six-Way Superbike Track Shootout, in which we took the Aprilia RSV4 RF, BMW S1000RR, Ducati 1299 Panigale S, Honda CBR1000RR SP, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R and Yamaha YZF-R1 – six of the fiercest stock superbikes available in dealerships now – and pitted them against each other at the world-famous Laguna Seca Raceway. There’s a lot that goes into a big test like this, both on and off the track, most of which never make it into the actual story. So for this Top 10, we bring you outtakes from our track test, revealing to you the lighter side of MO.

In this Church feature from 1999, we look back at one Australian company with a big vision. Hunwick Hallam was a partnership between Australian Rod Hunwick and engineer Paul Hallam, to create their own take on motorcycling. While Australian Superbike racing was what the company may be most known for in Australia, the thought of producing the Boss Power Cruiser was arguably a bigger goal for the company. Actual prototypes were eventually made, and the duo had sights set firmly on the cruiser-happy American market. The bike drew eyeballs, but not much funding as the thought of buying an new motorcycle from an unknown company was a tough sell. Ultimately, Hunwick Hallam faded away, its dream never fully being realized. However, Hunwick would later go on to co-found the popular motorcycle custom shop Deus Ex Machina. This report from contributor Ken Edwards provides a few details about the Power Cruiser.

When it comes to production motorcycle racing – that is, bikes you and I can buy at a dealership – building a Superbike is the highest level you can reach. While the bikes may look fairly similar to the bike you have in your garage, underneath the fancy paint job are a number of modifications designed specifically to make bike and rider lap a racetrack as quickly as possible.

Wayne Rainey needs no introduction. As a two-time U.S. Superbike champ and three-time 500cc Grand Prix world champion, his record speaks for itself. One of the fiercest competitors ever to ride a Grand Prix motorcycle, Rainey’s talent, skill and speed have made him a legendary figure in motorcycle roadracing circles. With the crumbling status of American roadracing as of late, Rainey is looking to leverage his legendary status to help bring top U.S. talent back to the international racing scene. MotoAmerica is the name of the new AMA roadracing series, which looks to pick up the pieces the Daytona Motorsports Group left behind.

Paul Carruthers has always been a busy man, even since he was a kid. For the last 30 years at Cycle News (the last 21 of them as Editor), Carruthers was at just about every AMA National roadrace, usually with notebook and tape recorder in hand, and every Wednesday there Cycle News would be in your mailbox, packed with great race reports along with an information-dense news section up front that launched many a feature story.