Blue Blood

Here's a little peek into motorcycling royalty, tHe crème de la crème of modern-day street-legal motorcycles

- Sherman Nazareth

Far be it for me to ever advocate the riding of sport motorcycles on the street. They’re unnecessarily uncomfortable, physically and mentally demanding, and you never have the chance to explore the full potential of the bike. And that’s just the lower-displacement sportsbikes. You’ve then got the absolutely bonkers breed of litre-class sportsbikes that ever so casually feel the insatiable need to rip your head off if you decide to ride them on the street. These are the 200-bhp fire-breathing beasts that are supremely effective tools for converting the world around you into a everlasting blur. All of this is simply because these bikes aren’t even remotely designed to conquer the weekly grocery run or simply take love interests on pleasant joyrides. No, these are finely crafted precision tools that are intended to obliterate race tracks with single-minded intent.

Considering that motorcycle racing has only been around for just over a century, it has evolved at an absolutely astounding rate. In the bid to be the fastest on the racetrack, manufacturers have put tremendous effort into strengthening the most variable factor in motorcycle racing — humans. Let’s consider the four main types of road racing; actual racing on closed sections of road, racing machines in their stock avatars, racing highly-modified versions of these production motorcycles, and most importantly - racing prototypes. Historically, MotoGP, the premier class of motorcycle racing, involves intensive testing of new components and technology to make the motorcycles faster every year. If the technology is a success, then a tamed-down version of it makes it to the production motorcycles. Because this technology is trickled down, the bikes keep getting quicker and a lot safer to ride.