See the 2016 A2 friendly bikes 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. 

Ducati Scrambler Sixty2 £6450

New 399cc air-cooled V-twin
41bhp 25.3ftlb 183kg (wet)
A2 licence compliant 

Ducati’s new Sixty2 is ‘inspired by the youth culture of skateboarding, surfing and pop music’, apparently. Of course that doesn’t matter much to the people who buy it, who will simply be delighted to have a small-capacity urban scrambler dripping with style and class.

At the heart of the new Scrambler Sixty2 (so named because that was the year the original Ducati Scrambler was launched) is a new 399cc air-cooled V-twin which keeps it simple with a two-valve design and a bore and stroke of 72mm x 49mm. This engine is derived from the larger 803cc motor used on the rest of the Scrambler range and shares components like the 50mm single throttle body. And with 41bhp on tap, the Sixty2 is also A2 licence friendly.

Ducati are making a big deal of the accessible riding nature of the Sixty2, the nature of the engine, soft power delivery, easy-going riding position and low seat height of 790mm (770mm and 810mm options are also available).

Ducati have added ABS as standard, using the Bosch 9.1 MP system, which works with the single front 320mm disc and two piston caliper, and rear 245mm disc with single piston caliper.

Cost reductions for the Sixty2 are evidenced by the traditional Showa 41mm fork in place of the bigger inverted unit on the 803cc Scrambler, but it’s otherwise very close in terms of class and feel to the existing range.

Ducati are pitching the Sixty2 into the UK market at £6450 – just £800 less than a Scrambler Icon, and more expemnsive than the XSR700 – which could prove a little salty for British pockets against strong competition from other brands. The other thing that might detract from its charms is that the 800cc Scrambler can be restricted to be A2 compliant, and once the owner’s on a full licence, it can be derestricted to gift the rider the next bike in their riding career.

BMW G310R

34bhp
20.6ftlb
158.5kg

BMW are pinning a huge amount on the success of this small-capacity roadster. The bike has been designed and engineered in Munich, but will be built by BMW’s Indian partner TVS. At its heart is a 313cc, single-cylinder, four-valve liquid-cooled engine, with double overhead camshafts and fuel injection.

The G310R gets an inverted fork, ABS as standard, and four-piston brake caliper. It’s one of the most attractive bikes in class, while it’s also sure to be usefully utilitarian.

Yamaha MT-03 £4499

42bhp
21.8ftlb
168kg 

Essentially a naked YZF-R3, the latest addition to the MT line-up neatly fills the gap between the MT-125 and MT-07. Borrowing heavily from its faired sibling, it takes the engine, chassis, suspension and wheels from the YZF. That means a 321cc four-valve parallel-twin kicking out around 42bhp, and close to 22ftlb torque, wrapped up in a slim frame. The seat height is a workably middling 780mm, which should suit a broad range of riders, while ABS will give a useful safety net.

Honda CBR500R £5499

47bhp
31.7ftlb
194kg 

The sportiest of the three Honda 500 models, the CBR500R has an aggressive new look for 2016, with LED lighting front and rear, as well as a larger fuel tank (now with hinged cap), adjustable fork and a newly designed exhaust that both realigns the weight balance for better mass-centralisation, and gives a bit more bark, too. It also gets the same adjustable reach brake lever, redesigned seat and wave-style ignition key as the rest of the CB range.

Suzuki RV200 VanVan £3499

15bhp
10ftlb
128kg 

The VanVan 125 is a surprisingly good performer in the Suzuki range, and for 2016 it gets a visually identical bigger brother, boasting a 74cc capacity increase for its air/oil-cooled, fuel injected single cylinder engine. The rest of the bike remains essentially the same, with its trademark balloon 130 and 180 section tyres, tiny 6.5 litre fuel tank and relatively low 770mm seat height. No official word on price yet, but we’d expect it to be circa £3499 (to the 125’s £3199). 

Moto Guzzi V7 II Stornello

47bhp
44ftlb
186kg

Moto Guzzi are as anxious as the other manufacturers to quickly grab a slice of the recent glut of sales of ‘scrambler’ style bikes, and the new V7 II Stornello is their take on the theme. Based around the updated V7 II engine and chassis platform, the Stornello gets high handlebars, long flat seat, knobbly tyres and a high-level Arrow exhaust. It gets ABS and traction control as standard, along with the rest of the V7 II range, while the whole package weighs in at a claimed 186kg.