the fastest motorcycle in the world

With the announcement that MV Agusta’s limited edition Rush is now in production for June delivery not to mention now TVS-owned Norton looking for staff to build its V4, one of the most often asked, hotly contested and debated motorcycling questions of all – ‘What’s the fastest production bike in the world?’ rises its head yet again.

Yet it’s also the one that’s most politically sensitive and difficult to be conclusive about (after all, few manufacturers now claim top speed figures and fewer independent media outlets measure them).

So, while ever-faster road bikes, such as Ducati’s latest V4 Superleggera and Honda’s all-new Fireblade continue to be launched, the last ‘fastest’ list we compiled back in 2017 is now hopelessly out of date. Or is it? We decided to find out.
So what’s the fastest?
First, a proviso or two: First, as the Japanese ‘Big Four’ have, since 1999’s launch of the Suzuki Hayabusa, adhered to an unwritten ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ to restrict their road bikes electronically to 300kph (186mph) while others, particularly MV Agusta, don’t, claimed top speed figures would be misleading and, for the most part, irrelevant.

So instead, we’re basing our ‘fastest Top 10’ on production road bikes with the highest power-to-weight ratios, which, in simple terms, is the best indicator available to acceleration and, all other things being equal, ultimate speed.

It’s not perfect or completely conclusive, we know. Without comprehensive, independently-tested power figures available we have to go with the manufacturers’ claimed figures, which we know should be taken with a pinch of salt. While, as before, we’ve also gone with manufacturers’ claimed dry weight figures (as uniform wet weight figures don’t exist), which, by their very nature, is somewhat academic, as bikes don’t run without fuel, oil and water. A further complication is the use of race kits, track pipes etc.

But even so, we still reckon it makes fascinating reading, gives a reasonably true indication of the current ‘hierarchy of speed’ and throws up a few surprises, too…