The bikes of EICMA 2019 – sportsbikes
Visordown brings you all the best new sportsbikes from the most important motorcycle show on the planet
WE saw a lot of new sportsbikes announced at this year’s EICMA show and in our minds that’s good news for the motorcycle industry.
Sportsbikes sales make a fairly accurate barometer as to how things are going behind the scenes – a raft of incoming sporty new metal is not a bad thing at all. Here’s our pick of the best new sportsbikes announced at EICMA 2019.
Bimota Tesi H2
Probably one of the biggest – and coolest – surprises of the show was the news that Kawasaki had brought a 49.9% stake in the floundering, yet iconic Rimini based builder Bimota. To commemorate the deal, Bimota took a rather special machine along to be unveiled on their stand, the Tesi H2.
Taking the supercharged Kawasaki Ninja H2 as a starting point, the Tesi H2 takes all that is good and great about Bimota and applies it to the 240hp superbike. Hub-centre steering, twin-shock set up with a linkage to the front swingarm, lashings of carbon fibre and probably the most complex set of aerodynamic devices this side of a fighter jet!
Honda CBR1000RR-R SP
Undergoing its biggest and probably most important makeover for some time, Honda’s latest ‘Blade has bucked the trend of not wading into the outright power war to fight it out with the likes of Kawasaki, Ducati and BMW.
To match the new machine’s 214hp (claimed) power output, the new machine gets aerodynamic winglets on the fairing, a new look and if you opt for the top-spec SP version semi-active Öhlins suspension and jewel-like Brembo Monobloc brakes.
Launch for this is expected to be late January – stay tuned!
Aprilia RS660
We first saw the concept of this machine at the 2018 EICMA show and loved the bike then. Happily enough, the type approval process and bean-counting stooges in the Aprilia/Piaggio accounts department haven’t had too much of a say in the bike’s final spec as it’s all very familiar.
A shade under 100hp, wheelie control, IMU controlled ABS and traction control, riding modes, engine braking control – you want the tech and this little marvel has got it. Coming to an Isle of Man lightweight TT grid next summer.
MV Agusta Superveloce 800
The the Aprilia above, we first caught sight of this bike at EICMA 2018, although then it was in its super-exclusive and super-expensive Serie Oro (gold series) guise. This bike though is the Superveloce for the masses – well some of the well off masses anyway.
Using the same engine, frame as the Serie Oro version, the mass-market Superveloce is just as eye-catching as its more expensive stablemate. In fact, I’d go as far as saying I prefer it in the white pearl colour above any of the other options.
Ducati Panigale V2
Getting a boost in computing power from the V4 Panigale and the face of its bigger sibling, the new Panigale V2 now becomes the sole V-twin offering in the Ducati sportsbike line-up. The software within the bike’s brain has also been reworked to hopefully eliminate some of the rear wheel skipping the old bike suffered from.
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
