The motorcycles that have long shaped the sportbike category are “The Ultimates.” These high-priced, liter-class superbikes—your Ducati Panigale V4s, Aprilia RSV4s, and BMW M 1000 RRs—are race-bred technological marvels that pursue lap times by any means necessary. While they occupy a great part of the motorcyclist’s imagination, they currently make up a relatively small piece of the motorcycle market. At the same time, hyper-focused 600 inline-fours which once bolstered the category have declined in popularity, making room for a new class of sportbike to emerge.
Rather than emulate The Ultimates as 600 supersports largely did, this new breed of performance-oriented sportbike remixes priorities. Usable torque is favored over outright horsepower, and slightly relaxed ergonomics are prized above the “committed” seating positions of pure racebikes. All of the motorcycles on this list also share their engines across multiple models in order to keep costs down. Although there’s nothing groundbreaking in that formula, in recent years, few motorcycles have actualized it in a compelling way. The Ducati SuperSport 950 maybe comes the closest, but even it isn’t supersport-y enough; nor was it ever supposed that it would be the mold for the next big thing in sportbikes.
OEMs have already shown that if new thinking is to prevail, it’s contingent on surrendering the sacred cow of horsepower. Big horsepower can be made easily enough in engines with long valve overlap, but you have to be willing to live with a peaky powerband that’s not particularly well suited to street riding where instant torque is the real fun-maker. The demise of traditional 600s goes a long way to show that consumers are no longer willing to live with such top-heavy torque curves. Additionally, engines with long valve overlap tend not to be terribly ecologically friendly. It’s easy to picture that in the time the intake and exhaust valves are simultaneously open, fresh charge entering the intake port has a tendency to exit the exhaust and into the atmosphere.
To appease the environmental agencies and meet changing customer preferences, the current strategy is to use little valve overlap—or variable valve timing—with high-lift valves operated via cams with “square” profiles that open and close the valve very quickly. The resulting flat torque curves—the Euro 5 torque curve, as Kevin Cameron calls it—is a hallmark of the breed.
All our picks—all twins, except for the Yamaha, incidentally—have trademark torque-rich powerbands, but range in their level of spec and performance in ways that are pretty consistent with the market positions of their respective makers. While they don’t all functionally replace beloved and departed 600 supersports like the Triumph Daytona 675R or Yamaha YZF-R6, they do fill the gaps in model lineups vacated by them. The category is really just gaining momentum, so we’re excited to see what happens when it’s firing on all cylinders.
If there’s one motorcycle that could make us stop romanticizing the 600 era, it might be the KTM 990 RC R. KTM calls the 990 RC R “The Next Generation Supersport.” And from our vantage point, that looks to be the case.
In a video on KTM’s YouTube channel, Matthew West, lead product strategy consultant at Kiska, says, “We could give the customer basically what they need to be able to push their limits and enjoy again the supersport experience, but without all of the limitations of basically this wave of product that died—like it died for a reason. [The 990 RC R] doesn’t have the limitations of these earlier supersport products. And it’s not one of these soft, sport-tourer sportbikes. It has all of the performance of a supersport bike, but you can ride it all day…but it’s a supersport bike. It’s like what they couldn’t do before in this first generation of supersport product, we’ve done now.”
In that boast, sportbike aficionados may hear echoes of “the bigger circle” (see Cycle World, February 1998), which Tadao Baba, the father of the Honda CBR900RR Fireblade, famously used as a model to explain how the latest ‘Blade was simultaneously more racetrack-worthy and more user-friendly than previous versions. If “track performance” and “fun on the street” are thought to be mutually exclusive—the former existing on a vertical axis, the latter on a horizontal axis—by describing a bigger circle to embody both virtues, KTM could revolutionize the category, much as Honda did before the turn of the century. It’s clear Mattighofen set lofty goals with the RC R.
Official details are yet to be released, but it’s evident the RC R is no mere Duke with a fairing; it’s an all-new model, though it uses a version of the 947cc LC8c, which KTM claims produces 128 hp (up from 123 in the 990 Duke) and 76 lb.-ft. of torque. From the huge TFT dash, next-gen switch gear, MotoGP-inspired aero, WP Apex open cartridge suspension, and bespoke chassis, the thing looks legit. It has to be one of the most anticipated sportbikes in recent memory—sportbike fans have been begging for it since the demise of the V-twin-powered RC8 in 2016. A fully homologated model and track-only model are on the way soon.
The Panigale V2 is a new kind of Panigale, a new kind of Ducati supersport. Rather than being based on its superbike sibling, as has historically been the case with Borgo Panigale’s middleweights, the all-new V2 takes a different tack. Far more performance-oriented than the SuperSport 950, but with an eye toward road-going comfort, midrange punch, and ease of use, the V2 backs off the single-mindedness that characterized previous versions.
The new 890cc desmo-less V2 engine produces a claimed 120 hp—that’s down some 35 hp compared to the Superquadro used in its predecessor—but 70% of it is available at 3,000 rpm. The V2 adopts variable valve timing on the intake, using electronic control to vary timing across a 52-crank-degree range. Impressively, the Panigale V2 is also 37 pounds lighter than last year’s model, which should compensate for some of those ponies lost to the ether. Despite increased road-bias and decreased peak performance numbers, the new V2 is apparently no slouch on the track (which we can’t wait to sample firsthand).
As if to emphasize its performance credentials in light of decreased output, Claudio Domenicali, CEO of Ducati, recently posted on LinkedIn that Marc Márquez rode a bone stock ‘25 V2 and a race-prepped ‘24 V2 at a trackday at the Aspar Circuit in Valencia. Apparently, Márquez set identical lap times on both bikes—unofficial lap records at that (because, you know, it’s Marc Márquez). The point is, the ‘25 Panigale V2 is neither a SuperSport 950 nor a ‘24 Panigale V2, but offers supersport performance delivered in a new way—an easier way according to Ducati.
The Aprilia RS 660, debuting in 2020, was arguably the first motorcycle to display the qualities of this modern breed of sportbike. And it was an instant hit. Marrying high-tech rider aids, a gutsy motor, cool styling, rational ergos, and quality components, there’s no mistaking it for a soft, half-hearted sportbike. Its two-piece aluminum frame is wrapped around a 649cc 270-degree parallel twin that produces 100 hp at 10,500 rpm and 49.4 lb.-ft. of torque at 8,500 rpm.
In his ride of a preproduction model, Bruno dePrato says, “The basic concept is centered around the old rule that lightness is a safe and rational way to obtain exciting performance, even from a claimed 100 hp engine.” And so at a tad over 400 pounds with a full tank, the RS 660 has proven a capable performer.
For 2025, Aprilia has upped the ante with the RS 660 Factory, featuring a 5 hp bump and full Öhlins suspension. Reworked styling/aero includes an RS-GP look-alike wing upfront and a bulge in the fairing that resembles the ground-effect aero of the MotoGP racer. There’s also updated rider aids, a new TFT dash, and backlit switch gear. Road-going features like cruise control carryover, as do the laid-back ergos. As dePrato notes about the preproduction 660, “I have to say this is one of the best ergonomic combinations I’ve ever experienced on a stock bike.” Not something you would have ever heard applied to late-generation 600 supersports.
The KTM, Ducati, Yamaha, and Aprilia appear indistinguishable from race-replica sportbikes, but the GSX-8R’s styling announces its attitude adjustment straight away. While clearly sharing DNA with its GSX-R siblings, the 8R’s tall bar risers and less racy proportions give it a stance that’s nowhere near as aggressive as the Gixxers we’ve always known (and loved). That may make it come across as the least superport-like motorcycle on this list, but in that way it cuts to the chase. For less than $10,000, the 8R does more with less, which is why it topped the Middleweight Category in CW’s annual Ten Best list in 2024.
The 8R uses a 776cc parallel-twin engine with a 270-degree crank, double-overhead cams, and four valves per cylinder. It’s the same engine used in the V-Strom 800 and the GSX-8S naked bike, which partly explains why it’s such a street-friendly unit. Abundant torque right off idle means it’s a ton of fun on the street, but also a surprisingly willing partner on track. The 8R has ride-by-wire throttle and three ride modes and comes standard with a bidirectional quickshifter and a slick 5-inch TFT display. In a CW comparison test between the Suzuki, the Triumph Daytona 660, and the Yamaha R7, the 8R came out on top, thanks to its comfortable riding position, dialed-in chassis, and engaging engine.
As Editor-at-Large Blake Conner says, “This is a bike that can serve duty as an everyday commuter during the week, but one that is fully capable of lapping at the occasional trackday.”
More than a decade since Yamaha introduced its first-generation CP3 crossplane triple in the FZ-09 naked bike, the Iwata brand has shoehorned the latest version in an all-new aluminum chassis and wrapped it in aero-sporting bodywork. If the clip-ons and winglets weren’t enough of a statement of intent, the Brembo Stylema calipers should be: The 2025 YZF-R9 is a sportbike worthy of the R badge—at least from the looks of things.
The always-great 890cc engine uses bespoke ECU settings and taller gearing (16/45 versus 16/43), which should make it right at home at your local trackday. Yamaha doesn’t cite performance figures, but the last time we put an MT-09 on the dyno in 2021, the CP3 produced 107.2 hp at 9,950 rpm and 63.3 lb.-ft. of peak torque at 7,050 rpm. Yamaha says the new aluminum frame is the lightest it’s ever produced, which contributes to the R9′s claimed 430-pound curb weight—that’s just 11 pounds heavier than the 2020 R6. Sounds promising, right? Fully adjustable KYB suspension, lean-angle-sensitive rider aids, up-spec Brembo braking components, a TFT dash, and a bidirectional quickshifter are all reasons to believe the R9 could be the three-cylinder little sibling the R1′s always wanted. While clip-on bars mounted beneath the triple clamp mean ergos won’t be as upright as the GSX-8R’s, for instance, Yamaha says it has a more relaxed rider triangle than the R1. And it has cruise control—so you know it’s a new era of sportbiking.