most powerful bikes

Next year looks to be a good one for superbikes, right? The new R1 has undergone one of the biggest revamps seen by any topoftheline sports bike for ages. Its got a new crossplane engine which makes a claimed 200hp and weighs only 199kg wet. Thats 18hp more and 7kg less than the current model. Or, in other words, a 1hp/kg powertoweight ratio, one of the best available in any bike on the market. It has just about every electronic rider aid you could ever want and comes fitted as standard with a titanium exhaust, aluminium tank and cast magnesium wheels. If those features dont impress you then theres always the higherspec R1M, a limitededition variant with electronic ?hlins suspension, a datalogging system with integrated GPS, and the capability to upload new settings from a mobile phone or connect wirelessly to a tablet. Shove that in your supercharger and smoke it, H2.

One of the most anticipated bikes of the show, the RC213VS was finally unveiled after years of speculation that the firm was working on such a machine. No details have been released but its clear its based on Marquez worldchampionshipwinning RC213V MotoGP bike. They even got Marquez to ride it on stage, at which point he joked: This is my road bike, made just for me.

We remember a time when 1000cc in a superbike was everything you needed and more. Now it seems that if you run anything other than an inlinefour cylinder engine, you need 1200cc at the very least to be taken seriously. Ducati took their Superquadroengined Panigale a step further, reboring it to 1285cc. That places it into the elite 200hp+ group and with 107ft.lb theres no shortage of torque either. That front fairing has been changed too, along with a new tail unit and larger screen compared to the current model. Cornering ABS? Wheelie Control? Engine Brake Control? It gets the lot.

Joining the 2015 crop of 200hp+ superbikes is the new Aprilia RSV4 RR. The front end has been redesigned but all the really interesting stuff takes place under the plastics. The 999.6cc V4 engine now makes 201hp 17hp more than before. Just about everything inside the engine is either new, made of titanium, or trimmed of weight. The camshaft is now 0.5kg lighter and the connecting rods have been trimmed of 0.4kg. If those changes arent Gucci enough, Aprilia offers a limitededition RF model with forged aluminium wheels, ?hlins suspension and a different graphics kit.