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About Our Selections

These selections are based on road legal motorcycles that are the fastest ever made. Some of the bikes selected are barely road legal, yes, but they are road legal in at least one jurisdiction in the world. Track only motorcycles were not considered, except for the one that currently holds the speed record and has yet to be challenged for it.

1925 Brough Superior SS100

The first bike to break through into triple digits on the speedometer

1948 Vincent Black Lightning

The fastest bike in the post-War era that could reach an incredible 150 MPH!

1984 Suzuki GS1150ES (a.k.a. GSX1100ES)

The first Gixxer, and one of the fastest road legal bikes of the early 1980s

1984 Kawasaki Ninja GPZ900R

The bike that brought forth the Ninja moniker, and brought about one of the things that make sport bikes so fast: Full fairings

1990 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11 (a.k.a. ZZ-R1100)

The first superbike of the modern era to reach 170 MPH

1996 Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird

The bike that launched the Power Wars in the second half of the 1990s

1999 Suzuki GSX-1300R Hayabusa

Started by Honda, ended by Suzuki. The bike that decimated all others and won the Power Wars

2008 MV Agusta F4 R 312

The first superbike to come close to 200 MPH with a sub-1,000cc engine capacity

2013 Ducati 1199 Panigale R

A superbike that was barely road legal to start with, but in full non road legal track spec smashed the 10 second quarter mile and the 200 MPH barrier

2021 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R

The superbike that has no racing parts included, and with a small ECU reprogram can reach 200 MPH

Honorable Mention: 2015 Kawasaki Ninja H2R

A track only motorcycle that has set, and still holds, the world record as the fastest motorcycle ever