2019’s NEW BIKES RUMOUR RATING!

As always, there’s a fair amount of blurb and bluster doing the rounds about what we could be seeing next from some manufacturers, so here’s the latest we’ve heard, along with some completely made up rumour scores!

DUCATI PANIGALE ‘NUDO’ / STREETFIGHTER

Yeah, the ‘ Nudo’ part wemade up ( it means naked, in Italian) , as we haven’t heard any particular name being bandied about for this potential machine. Ducati have a terrific naked bike in the Monster, but haven’t really had a balls deep naked sportsbike since the madcap and sorely missed Streetfighter range. As ex cellent as the Monster is, it’s more Roadster material than pure sports fare, and Ducati do need a rival to Aprilia’s all conq uering Tuono 1100, don’t they? The Panigale 1100 engine with some slight fettling will make an absolute beast of a naked bike engine – drop the delivery curve way down the range, cap a stack of rpm off it and throw it all back down low – sorted! There’s ample rumours z apping about that point to this bike maybe being revealed later this year, and unless they really want to keep sports for their sportsbikes and all the rest of their range V -twin based, we reckon it’s more than likely.

DUCATI PANIGALE V4 750 / 800

Now then, this one won' t go away. When we first heard it might become a reality we were a little sceptical, however then a very similar set of whispers came from another different source, and then another, too. Word is that the bottom-end of the incoming Panigale V 4 R engine ( which is sub litre for racing) , could be used to form the basis of a smaller capacity version to replace the current 959 Panigale, and there are various options of how they could go about it from amechanical point of view. In an ideal world, as FB is busy trying to tell anyone who will listen, the Supersport class should be replaced with bikes such as the 959 Panigale, MV Agusta F3 8 00, incoming Triumph 7 65 and potential new Suz uki GSX -R7 50; we’d love it to be a 7 50cc motor. Should it ever come to pass that is! That way it could slot into a new Supersport class as a four-cylinder. Rumours do point towards 8 00cc being a potential choice given it was a MotoGP capacity for a few years. But with four pots, a three-q uarter-litre engine would be more than handy enough against an 8 00cc F3 , and so on.

MV AGUSTA F7

The long awaited replacement for the venerable ( but still proper Bo!) F4 range, allegedly called the F7 for now, was originally intended to be revealed last year, before MV hit the financial skids. Work was well down the line, and at one point apparently had some involvement from AMG with the engine side of things, before that relationship went down the swanny. Having spoken to those who’ve seen the bike, or plans for it at least at some stage of its development, it’s supposed to look like something between an F4 and a Panigale –and that’s probably not a bad thing! The last we heard it would remain an inline-four with a traditional firing order, but this was a while ago so it could have changed by now, but that remains the likely configuration. We also know that a ‘ Final Edition’ F4 is at the precipice of being released, probably some time in July, which all points to the F7 being incoming. With that being said, and with MV still recuperating and getting back to a healthy business, maybe this year is a little early – but we can’t wait!

SUZUKI GSX-R750

We were so ex cited a few months back when we heard there was to be a new Gix er Seven Fiddy on the way, in the same vein as Suz uki have so successfully updated the GSX -R1000. It’s sad that 2018 is the first year since 198 5 that a Gix er 7 50 hasn’t been on the market, especially as even when it wasn’t the latest and greatest it sold well and was a near perfect middle-range choice. O riginally we were told to ex pect a late 2018 reveal, but have recently learned that’s unlikely to be the case ( with Euro 5 not far off) , and now more likely to be a 2020/21 machine if they still go through with it. C’mon, Suz uki, you were doing so well with some of your new bikes, keep it up, and give us another bike for our new Supersport class! Er, please?

HONDA V4 FIREBLADE

Those rumours never go away, but then neither did the ones for decades telling us a road going NSR500 was on its way, either. God we’d love to be proved wrong on this, we really would, but j ust can’t see it happening. Has no one else noticed howmuch of Honda’s range has been a little stifled of late? Sure, updates here and there, couple of new bikes here and there but nothing substantial bar the Fireblade and Fireblade SP – and even they are basically the old bike tarted up a bit, rather than being completely new. Yes we had the RCV -alike that cost £150k a couple of years back, but even that bike out of the box made less power than a 2003 Fireblade! Honda don’t tend to play any tune other than their own, which is fine, but what makes it hard for us lot is we all know what they’re capable of – Aprilia and Ducati can produce sub-£20,000 V 4 superbikes, and sell every one they make, so there’s no real ex cuse for the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world to not easily best or beat that, nay?

MV AGUSTA BRUTALE

U sing a larger capacity version of the F7 engine, MV boss Giovanni Castiglioni has been reported as saying he wants the new Brutale to be the most powerful naked sportsbike in the world. Not j ust by a bit, but by a lot! This would point to a much larger capacity, around 1,2001,3 00cc perhaps. They need it though, the Big Brutale has q uietly shuffled off, being non Euro 4 compliant and was the only MV to not have a RBW throttle assembly. It’s missed, q uite frankly, because even the ‘ lowly’ 910 version from a few years back was insane and a bag full of fun.

SUZUKI GSX-R1000R SE

We’re q uite confident this is going to happen, although we’re basically ex pecting the same current machine to be fitted with Showa’s ridiculously good electronic suspension that’s fitted to this year’s K awasaki ZX -10R SE ( which is why we stole the ‘ SE’ bit for our purposes here!) . K awasaki had the ex clusive deal for 2018 , but we’ve heard that runs out for 2019, and as we’ve also heard Suz ukimay not have a great deal to show this winter, this could be a no-brainer for them to get a bit of coverage.

APRILIA RSV4

Can you believe we’ve had the V 4 Aprilia in our lives for nine years now? It’s still very much a masterpiece, but the Noale factory must be feeling the pressure to introduce something new to the market. Nothing too drastically different to the ex ceptional beast we know and love, but something that looks a little sharper, packs a few more ponies and carries the ex citement of a latest generation litre bike. We’ll be honest, we’ve heard from peeps on the inside that we can ex pect a new model to grace the EICMA show later this year, but have little idea of ex actly what to ex pect. With Ducati’s V 4 R hitting the scenes in the very near future, you’d be right to think Aprilia are going to want to better any brilliance that j oins the party.

YAMAHA R1

Nex t year the ‘ new’ Yamaha R1 will be five years old! That’s a long time for a model at the cutting edge. Yes, the current bike is already at the current edge, but the words used to us were to ‘ j ust look at Yamaha’s usual schedule of releasing models, you get a new one, then an updated one a year or so before it goes off sale’. The R1M was updated for 2018 , so we could see a brand new R1 q uite soon. We’d go for 2020 ourselves; there’s enough life left in the current bike to sq ueez e out another year of stocker and R1M sales, we’d venture.

TRIUMPH DAYTONA 765

This has to be a no-brainer. The world over fell head over heels for the adored 67 5 Daytona, which got unceremoniously knocked on the head a wee while back. It’s left a big gap in Triumph’s line-up, but we reckon a 7 65 powered lovely would more than take away our agony. More to the point, Triumph’s already done the hard work by producing the donor engine, which could even utilise the Street Triple’s frame ( with some reworked geometry for good measure) . It’s not impossible, and it would make perfect sense to release such a model in 2019 – tying in nicely with the brand’s take over as official supplier to the Moto2 class. We want this very much, Triumph. Pretty please with sugar on top!

BMW S1000RR

Let’s j ust be frank – this is happening and we should see it later this year – boom! From what we know so far, it’s a wholly new bike with a stiffer chassis and a torq uier motor, which should make road riding even more of a hoot. The craz y thing is that the current RR is still an absolute weapon on road and track, being one of the easiest bikes to ride fast. It’s not faultless though, and the new one will hopefully come with a decent shifter and slicker gearbox . That’s not much to ask. BMW’s very unlikely to move away from its inline-four disposition, but whether they follow suit with rivals and go for a big-bang( er) is still to be seen. We can wait. But not that long. Ex pect to start hearing teased facts in the near future.