World Superbike Legend Admits Bikes Needs to be Slower

Six-time World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea made a habit of using his incredible skills, paired with a very fast Kawasaki ZX-10RR to win six titles on the bounce, but the now Yamaha rider thinks bikes have gotten too fast for certain conditions.

Those conditions include racing at circuits where the power generated by the 1000cc superbikes has taken “us to the limit”. Rea, who last won a Superbike title in 2020 before the dominance of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista took place, believes the series needs to follow in the footsteps of MotoGP.

In 2027 MotoGP bikes are dropping from 1000cc prototypes to a smaller-capacity 850cc engine, which will reduce the currently mind-boggling speeds that are currently being achieved.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Rea said: “The performance of the engines and the speeds we are reaching with them are taking us to the limit at the tracks where we currently race. We are building more and more powerful engines and constantly achieving faster times.

“The tyres are also getting better and better [and] this translates into faster laps. On some circuits, the walls cannot be moved any further back. I am convinced that we will visit tracks in the future where the situation is not worse. MotoGP is taking a step back and I think it is right that we do the same.”

There are various other rule changes coming into play for MotoGP in 2027, including 100 per cent sustainable fuel and a ban on holeshot devices, but World Superbike, as of now, is not set to follow in dropping the power of the bikes.

World Superbike did show that it's willing to make considerable changes, however, as at the beginning of last season a minimum rider/bike weight was introduced to make the series more competitive, although Razgatlioglu’s brilliance aboard the BMW M1000 RR did anything but that.

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