Of course, when we see updates coming to the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade for next year, we can expect a similar treatment of the 2022 Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP (say that three times fast).
Like its sibling, the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP sees its inline-four engine massaged for better mid-range grunt, while maintaining its 214hp (160 kW) peak power figure.
When the new Yamaha MT-10 for 2022 debuted in Europe last week, we were pretty sure that the bike would make it to American soil, but we weren’t so sure about what the price would be for this odd-looking machine.
Price is always an important aspect for a new motorcycle announcement, but it is doubly so for the MT-10 because Yamaha has positioned the MT-10 as being perhaps the bargain-buy in the streetfighter segment.
Would the updates for the 2022 model year continue that trend, or would we see some price bloat to Big Blue’s stripped naked superbike?
Sitting in the technical briefing for the Ducati Streetfighter V2 press launch in Spain, you can almost hear a tinge of regret in the voice of Ducati VP of Sales, Francesco Milicia, as he talks about the popularity of the Streetfighter 1098 and the length of time it has taken Ducati to follow through with a sequel.
Fastly becoming an iconic and unique piece in Ducati’s long history, social media is inundated with Streetfighter fans, which has only been fueled further with the debut of the Streetfighter V4 model.
While the V4 model is purely new hotness (and an obscene motorcycle on the street), in many ways, the Ducati Streetfighter V2 is the bike we have been awaiting, for roughly the past decade.
Instead of using the new Desmosedici Stradale V4 engine, the new Streetfighter V2 uses the older Superquadro v-twin power plant. Perhaps the most impressive v-twin engine we will ever witness in the sport biking realm, the Superquadro motor was long tipped to birth a Streetfighter model, but it never materialized.
Ducati tried to fill the niche with the Monster lineup, which was a move that was perhaps truer to the original ethos of the Monster name, but betrayed what has long become the realm of that more docile roadster model.
The Monster 1200 R was the best attempt to bridge the gap regarding Bologna’s lack of a true sport-naked, but compromises are compromises, and the itch wasn’t scratched. The market rebuked.
As a result, Ducati was forced to sit on the sidelines and watch brands like KTM and Aprilia re-ignite what has once been thought of as a novelty category.
Whatever lunar motions changed the tide inside of Borgo Panigale, those movements parted the waters so the Streetfighter V4 could come to fruition, and Ducati was awarded with strong sales for its 200hp+ “street bike” with wings.
As such, an encore was necessary. Enter the Ducati Streetfighter V2, and why I flew halfway across the world – to Seville, Spain – to ride this new motorcycle and see if it is any good.
We already broke the news about the KTM 1290 Super Duke R EVO, but for those who want to keep things official, the 2022 model year machine is now out in the wild.
The headline news here is KTM adding its second-generation of WP Suspension’s semi-active APEX suspension pieces, though the updated KTM 1290 Super Duke R EVO also comes with a quick-turn throttle, which has a 65° twist (7° less than before).
I got called out in the comments section of our Ducati Streetfighter V4 SP post for not having enough photos of the carbon-clad machine, despite having a bevy of photos for the new Streetfighter V2.
To make amends, here is the appropriate “mega gallery” photo dump of the Italian brand’s $35,500 sport bike sans fairings.
If you don’t keep a pulse on the work that Team Classic Suzuki has been producing the last few year, then you owe it to your nostalgia to peruse their Katana race bike or Suzuki XR69 replica endurance bike. They are exquisite.
Now the British outfit has a new bike for us to drool over – one that cuts right to our 1990’s loving superbike hearts. It is a Suzuki GSX-R750 SRAD circa 1996.
The Ducati Streetfighter V4 is already a pretty bonkers machine when it comes to “daily riders” that are just as comfortable on the street as they are on the track.
The 205hp on tap seems to come in waves as the V4 engine revs and revs and revs, as you hold onto dear life from the sheer wind force hitting your body.
If you have never experienced this, we recommend it as one of life’s simple pleasures. Like drinking an ice cold Mountain Dew on a hot summer’s day. But we digress…
How do you take a potent machine and crank it up to 11? You give it the “SP” treatment, in the form the 2022 Ducati Streetfighter V4 SP.
After many rumors and some obvious teasers, the folks in Bologna, Italy have finally unveiled the Ducati Streetfighter V2 model for 2022.
The recipe here is simply: take the Ducati Panigale V2 and give it the styling cues of the Streetfighter V4 (sans wings).
The Yamaha MT-10 is an underrated motorcycle, that isn’t helped by its polarizing “Johnny 5” styling cues. It’s fun, it’s powerful, and it’s affordable.
For many years after its initial debut, you couldn’t go wrong putting an MT-10 in your garage. But then time marched on.
Yamaha let the MT-10 languish for too long without an update, as its European competitors began to up their ante, offering more feature-packed streetfighters to the segment.
For the 2022 model year though, the tuning fork brand is hoping that sport riders will once again remember that Yamaha has a horse in this race, and that the MT-10 is once again the bargain-buy it used to be.
Getting a modest restyling and a bevy of key updates, the 2022 Yamaha MT-10 is certainly worth a look.
Buongiorno from the island of Sardinia, as this edition of “Gone Riding” sees us getting ready to ride the new Aprilia Tuareg 660.
The third of Aprilia’s 660cc parallel-twin lineup, the Tuareg 660 is the Italian brand’s middleweight ADV option, and it promises to be a potent offering for off-road riders.
I’m sitting in the airline lounge at JFK right now, waiting to hop across the pond to ride the new Aprilia Tuareg 660 in Italy, and I was thinking to myself how weird it is at this stage that we don’t have any proper photos of the Aprilia Tuareg 660.
Well, the minds in Noale must have been picking up what I was putting down, because there was a dump of high-resolution photos of the Tuareg 660 put on their press site today.
For $12,000, the 2022 Aprilia Tuareg 660 puts out 80hp from its parallel-twin engine, and tips the scales at 449 lbs at the curb.