If the day the music died was when the light plane carrying Buddy Holly crashed on February 3, 1959, then the year superbikes could have died was 1999, when manufacturers agreed to a self-imposed top speed of 186mph.
Up to then, the Nineties, the decade which saw the rise of the one litre-plus superbike, had seen a performance war in which the holy trinity of the Honda Blackbird, Suzuki Hayabusa and Kawasaki ZX-12R crept ever closer to the twin holy grails of 200mph and 200bhp.
It was a decade in which every manufacturer, not just those three, raised their game in the race to build ever more powerful and faster bikes, boosting sales of 800cc-plus machines from 85,000 to 300,000 in 10 years.
It peaked in 1999 when the Hayabusa breezed past the Honda’s record of 180mph by a healthy 8mph, and leaked rumours from Kawasaki hinted that its upcoming 2000 Ninja ZX-12R would break the magic 200mph barrier.
At which point there came a great wailing and gnashing of teeth from Brussels as Eurocrats called for an import ban against high speed motorcycles. At that point the manufacturers coughed and spluttered a bit, said they were only joking and came up with a gentleman’s agreement, under which top speed was limited to 186mph and maximum horsepower settled at around 180bhp.
So did it spell the death of the superbike? Not a bit of it. Although sales of pure flying machines dropped as they were overtaken by adventure bikes and more recently modern retro machines, you just can’t kill the need for speed.
In 2007, MV Agusta advertised the F4 R 312 as capable of 194mph or 312kmph, hence the 312 in the title, and the Italian magazine Motociclismo claimed to have proven it on track.
The year after, BMW, formerly the home of trusty but hardly exciting adventure bikes, shocked the world with the 188mph S1000RR; which is ironic, since it was BMW that proposed the original 186mph agreement.
Then, in 2013 Ducati brought out the 1199 Panigale R with a digital speedo which went discreetly blank at over 186mph, leading most bikers to come to the conclusion that Ducati had said ‘stuff the gentleman’s agreement’. Its successor, the 1299 Panigale S, is top of my superbike list.
Not to be outdone, Kawasaki officially tore-up the agreement with the £41,000 supercharged Ninja H2R, with a whopping 319bhp propelling it to 210mph on track. The H2 197bhp roadgoing version is still restricted to a piffling 186mph. Still, what can you expect for only £22,000?
So the good news is that if you still want flat-out uncompromising performance, and nothing else will satisfy your need for speed, there are still lots of toys to play with, and not all of them will break the bank.
Click the links below or at the top left of this page for our round-up of the best superbikes on sale…
Best superbikes
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