Press

If 2006 was the moment technology took control, 2016 was the year motorcycling looked in the mirror.

By this point, bikes were no longer the limiting factor — riders were. Performance had peaked far beyond what most people could use, electronics had become normal, and the industry faced a question it could no longer dodge:

By the mid-2000s, motorcycling had entered a new phase — one driven less by rider demand and more by what engineering could achieve. Power figures climbed sharply. Electronics crept in quietly. Bikes became astonishingly capable, often far beyond what most riders could realistically exploit.

By the mid-1990s, motorcycling had quietly entered what many riders still describe as a golden age. The bikes were fast — genuinely fast — but no longer fragile. They handled brilliantly without trying to throw you into the scenery. Brakes worked. Frames were stiff. Engines were tractable. And, crucially, you could live with them every day.

1986: When Motorcycling Went Superbike Mad If 1976 was about survival, 1986 was about swagger. By the mid-1980s, motorcycling had shaken off the uncertainty of the previous decade and rediscovered its confidence — loudly, brightly, and at very high speed. This was the year when bikes stopped pretending to be sensible transport and started marketing themselves as barely civilised race machines. Plastic fairings replaced chrome. Power figures became bragging rights. And riders, once again, wanted machines that looked as aggressive as they felt. Looking back from today’s electronically managed, safety-netted world, 1986 stands out as the moment motorcycling unapologetically embraced...

If you want to understand modern motorcycling — not just the bikes, but the attitude, the resilience, the sheer bloody-minded determination of riders — you have to go back to 1976. Not because it was glamorous. Not because it was easy. But because this was the year motorcycling stood at a crossroads and chose to carry on anyway.