See the new 2016 Sportsbikes at the London Show

With 2016 heralding the arrival of 68 new bikes, we’re going to have a roundup of some of the most interesting metal that’s coming our way this year. All the bikes featured will be on display at the Carole Nash MCN London Motorcycle Show in February so make sure you check out all of the latest and best new bikes in the same place at the same time.  To find out more about the show and for tickets, click here.

Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R

207bhp 84ftlb 206kg
Showa balance free suspension
Bosch inertial measurement unit

I’m a red-blooded sports bike fan, but even if you already have green blood in your veins, the 2016 ZX-10R is going to get it flowing even faster. I expected improvements. What I experienced was stunning.

The new clip-on position puts me over the front a little more and I feel confident in the front end, which I need or there is no way I can push hard. I brake hard for the first time, trying to feel for the limit of the SC1 front tyre fitted, and find it easily and with finesse. The feel and feedback from the new Showa Balance Free Fork and Brembo package is the most refined I have felt on any production bike and only matched by the factory superbikes I have tested. Stunning.

Braking hard while turning in and shifting down gears was always challenging on the previous model, which had to be wrestled onto its side using my outer arm, forearm and knee usually, then lots of pressure to keep it over before firing off the turn feeding the power in gently.

I’m relaxed and stopping the bike 20% harder, it is heading to the apex where I am looking, basically on its own, completely stable thanks to the brake assist and closer gear ratios making rpm changes less dramatic on downshifts. The 10R is tracking through the turn with no stand-up and then I’m exiting the corner on full throttle, driving hard up a long right-hand uphill turn, while the 10R wheelspins ever so slightly and the front wheel hovers an inch off the ground as the electronics keep me out of hospital. It is stunning to experience and easy to trust.

The fork action is silky smooth over high and low-speed bumps, soft and subtle yet loads of support on hard braking, even sudden sharp hard braking. The brake feel is so intimate and, although the same spec as the Ducati 1299 Panigale, the ZX-10R package feels more intuitive when it comes to small lever modulations, particularly braking on the side of the tyre. The rear suspension also offers fantastic support and stability under hard acceleration.

All of the torque and punch are delivered high in the rpm range, purposely, to allow easy, fast drive. Often I felt like I was getting nowhere and it wasn’t until I saw my lap times that I knew I was going fast. I’m treating it like a supersport 600 engine not a 1000 as the power comes in with such grace that there is no need to fear the throttle. Top-end power is, as always on a 10R, absolutely stonking, provoking audible laughs in a few sections of the lap. 

Ducati 959 Panigale £13,295

157bhp 79.2ftlb 200kg
Revised styling to match 1299
Engine and chassis upgrades

Here at Valencia’s fast ‘n’ wide MotoGP circuit, the new Ducati 959 Panigale doesn’t immediately pummel your senses. With the out-going 899 Panigale motor growing to 955cc, I wondered if the L-twin 959 Panigale was going to be a fire-breathing monster, but it isn’t. It’s far more refined than that.

Of course, the 157bhp 959 would comfortably outshine a Ducati 916/996/998/999 and would no doubt lap a circuit faster and with more ease than a wayward 1098 or 1198. It doesn’t have the nerve-shattering acceleration of a V4 or inline-four cylinder superbike, either. The 959 may have effectively morphed into a litre bike now, but it’s still a twin, remember.

The new, longer-stroke Superquadro L-twin motor might be 57cc bigger, 9bhp more powerful and have an extra 6.2ftlb dollop of torque, but it’s still a supersport bike at heart, just like it was when Ducati’s superbike junior started life as a 748 all those years ago.

The joy of riding it quickly is to do all of your work in the corners and it has a sweet-handling chassis to oblige. Let go of the brakes early, roll through the turns as fast as you dare and watch brightly-painted apex kerbs flash by like strobes.

It carves through corners and elbows apexes with the ease of an agile supersports machine. It revs like a maniac, flatters the rider and has just the right amount of grunt to send you smartly from corner to corner, but not so much that it becomes a tyre-shredding handful, like a 200bhp superbike.

The unchanged Brembos don’t have the power and consistency you’d hope for, and aren’t as strong as those fitted to the 1299. They never cause any scares, but could be better. But the new slipper clutch, missing from the 899, lets you glide into turns faster, more accurately and with less rear wheel-hopping drama. The servo-assisted lever action is lighter than the old bike’s, too. The 959’s real strong point is its stability on the brakes and its unflappable poise charging into corners.

Just like the 899 you get a lot of kit for your money, like traction control, racing ABS, riding modes, a quickshifter, a multi-function dash, Brembos, Pirellis and fully-adjustable suspension. 

Suzuki GSX-R1000 L7 £13,000 (est)

All-new 999cc inline-four engine
200bhp (est) 82ftlb (est) 200kg (est)
10-level traction control and ABS

A full 11 years after we first caught sight of the now legendary GSX-R1000 K5, Suzuki have pulled the covers off the first all-new version – the GSX-R1000 L7.

Suzuki claim it’s the lightest, most powerful and best handling GSX-R they’ve ever built, and there’s little reason to doubt any of that. This sixth generation GSX-R1000 is also the highest spec’d ever, with multi-mode traction control, rider modes, ABS, ride-by-wire throttle, bi-directional quickshifter, an all-new engine and chassis.

Suzuki’s design team have pushed for engineering solutions to make the perfect sportsbike, rather than relying on electronics. It’s the same approach they’ve taken with the MotoGP bike – and that performed incredibly well in 2015.

Key to the new bike’s positioning within the superbike segment will be its price. Suzuki are fully committed to making the GSX-R affordable, and that suggests the top-spec GSX-R could be arriving at around £13,000, while a lower-spec version could cost as little as £11,500.

It’s not bereft of electronics though. Ride-by-wire electronic throttle bodies, a 10-level Traction Control System, S-DMS (Suzuki Drive Mode Selector), Electronically controlled ABS, a quickshifter system and launch control system add up to a decent amount of electronic assistance.

While the engine is all-new, the headline-grabbing change is the introduction of variable valve timing – a first for a production superbike. Steel balls are positioned in grooves in the intake cam sprocket and adjacent guide plate, which are then moved outward by centrifugal force, which means they stack in different grooves at low and high rpm, rotating the intake cam at high rpm, retarding intake timing. The result is optimised valve timing at all rpm, benefiting high, mid and low-rpm responsiveness, power, and torque.

It also gets the GP bike’s Suzuki Racing Finger valve train follower rocker arm to improve valve control and allow higher rpm, while the Suzuki Exhaust Tuning-Alpha (SET-A) and Suzuki Top Feed Injector (S-TFI) systems combine to make what Suzuki call their Broad Power System, which results in strong, linear acceleration throughout the rev range.

There’s no semi-active suspension, instead you get Showa’s excellent Balance Free Front fork – a race-developed unit capable of coping with a far wider range of surfaces and conditions than a conventional fork. The cheaper model (below) appears to get a conventional Showa fork. At the rear is the latest version of Showa’s Balance Free Rear Cushion (BFRC) shock.

But don’t run down to your local Suzuki dealer just yet because the new GSX-R1000 L7 won’t actually be arriving until later on this year, most likely in September or October. It may well be worth the wait though. 

Aprilia RSV4 RF £18,135

198bhp
84.8ftlb
180kg

Aprilia’s constant evolution of the RSV4 continues in 2016 with new Superpole graphics, revised rear suspension set-up and the V4-MP multimedia platform as standard fitment. The V4-MP system is a telemetry system that will communicate with a smartphone, and allows the adjustment of the traction control and anti-wheelie systems on a corner-by-corner basis. Aprilia are now offering a 230bhp ‘Factory Works’ version, too.