Ever since motorcycles were first invented by bolting engines into bicycles over 100 years ago, there’s been no bigger measure of potency, speed, and, yes, excitement than a bike’s power.
The brake horsepower (bhp, although other measures such as kilowatts or PS are commonly used, too) an engine generates is the single biggest identifier of what sort of performance any motorcycle (or any vehicle for that matter) is capable of. That’s why learner A1 class machines are restricted to 11kW/15bhp, with A2s broadly to 35kW/47bhp.
It’s why race or drag bikes are mostly all about power, with the latest MotoGP machines capable of approaching 300bhp and the fastest, nitromethane-burning Top Fuel drag bikes producing nearly 1500bhp.
And it’s also why, generally speaking, modern sports motorcycles have evolved into four-cylinder layouts (either transverse or as a V4) as more cylinders, in simple terms, means more valve area, which means more fuel flow which means more power. Some even dally with force-fed induction systems, like turbos and superchargers which use exhaust gases or the crank respectively to drive turbines to force in even more fuel.
Ducati Panigale V4R
Of course, depending what type of bike you’re interested in, ultimate power is not always the whole story. Sports bikes require not just power, but nimble handling, which means the weight is a factor, too, compromising engine size, cylinder number, and any extra ‘chargers’. The same is true for differing degrees of sports tourers or super nakeds. While complexity also affects price.
The ‘delivery’ of that peak power is also important: if an engine only produces worthwhile power high up the rev range or over a short rev span (or both), it becomes ‘peaky’ and difficult to ride. A ‘flexible’ engine, producing decent power over a wide rev range is usually far more usable, while torque, the rotational, twisting force an engine produces, is far more relevant in lower-speed day-to-day riding.
But it’s also true that the maximum power of any motorcycle remains a huge Top Trump style attraction – so which are the most powerful production motorcycles currently available? Here’s our round-up, in ascending order…
10. BMW M1000XR | 199bhp
2025 BMW M1000XR
You want power AND practicality? Look no further.
We’re all vaguely familiar with BMW’s ‘M’ series of performance cars, where its otherwise fairly routine 3 and 5 series saloons get monster performance and power upgrades via the biggest engines and trickiest chassis parts it can muster. Well, in recent years, BMW Motorrad has begun applying the same philosophy and performance to a selection of its motorcycles, too. The latest, introduced in 2024, is this, the M1000XR which, as its name suggests, is an ‘M’ version of its already potent 168bhp S1000XR adventure sports.
Like that bike, it’s an upright four-cylinder based on a superbike. But where the S has a detuned version of the engine, the M gets the full monty version with 200bhp; uprated electronic suspension and brakes to suit and lightened carbon fibre bodywork that even includes MotoGP style ‘aero’ wings. Upright touring has never been more bonkers.
9. Kawasaki ZX-10R | 200bhp
2025 Kawasaki ZX-10R
Although no longer reigning supreme in World Superbikes (in fact, for 2025, Kawasaki has withdrawn its team entirely in favour of a new Kawasaki-powered, Bimota entrant, which Kawasaki owns, but which is not yet available as a production bike, hence its non-inclusion here), with seven world titles under its belt, the Japanese firm’s long-dominating ZX-10R remains one of the most powerful motorcycles you can buy, renown for its high-revving, powerful motor and slick electronics and is also one of the most affordable, too.
If you want your power-packed performance in a WSB-winning package it’s second only to the latest BMW.
8. MV Agusta Brutale 1000RR | 205bhp
2025 MV Agusta Brutale 1000RR
Italian exotica experts MV Agusta have a long history in world-beating superbikes and its Brutale is effectively the super-naked, unfaired version of its flagship sportsbike.
With the F4 1000 superbike now discontinued, the Brutale remains its performance king, and the latest version, introduced in 2020, comes in two forms: the ‘standard’ 1000 RS and, here, the upspecced, lower-barred, £6000 more expensive RR.
In truth, like many Brutales, it’s raw, demanding, not particularly comfortable and so precious you’d think twice about leaving it out in the drizzle. But it’s also addictively powerful, exquisitely built and equipped, looks like little else, and is a crowd-puller ‘par excellence’ – if you can stomach its sky-high price.
7. BMW M1000R | 207bhp
2025 BMW M1000R
As with the M1000XR, see above, which is BMW’s ‘M’ version of its S1000XR adventure sports bike, the M1000R, introduced a year earlier in 20023, is the German marque’s tuned, uprated version of its already excellent 164bhp, S1000RR-derived S1000R super naked.
As such, as with its other M series bikes (and yes, there’s another one to come) the M1000R gets an uprated engine producing this time a full 207bhp, revised suspension, uprated Nissin brakes and new carbon bodywork with, likes the other Ms, even ‘aero’ winglets. The result remains, like the S1000R, one of the most practical and classy of super nakeds, but in M form has the power and class to best nearly everything.
6. BMW M1000RR | 209bhp
2025 BMW M1000RR
When BMW first began dallying with ‘M’ versions of its motorcycles, the S1000RR superbike was its natural first subject, with the result being the original BMW ‘M’ bike, the 2021 M1000RR with 209bhp, uprated suspension/brakes, carbon bodywork, and far more besides available as options.
This bike then became BMW’s basis for its production racing and world superbike entries and was then in turn significantly updated in 2023 to become the version you see here. The biggest change is not to its power or chassis, which remains unchanged, but to its new wind tunnel developed, ‘aero’ equipped bodywork, enough for it to not only become the dominant bike of choice at the TT but also, in 2024, after years of trying, finally win the world superbike championship, after a dominant display by Toprak Razgatlioglu.
The M1000RR may not, quite, be the most powerful superbike out there, but it is the wildest looking.
5. MV Agusta Rush | 212bhp
2025 MV Agusta Rush
MV Agusta? Haven’t we already had their most powerful bike, the Brutale 1000RR? Well, yes… and no.
While the £29,500 Brutale is the Italian exotica expert’s most mainstream offering, it’s got nothing on the even more special, very limited edition and £44,000 Rush.
Based on the Brutale, the Rush is a limited edition (just 300 being made) special with even more power thanks to a race kit exhaust and ECU, wild styling (including an almost solid ‘disc’ rear wheel), and the very best components motorcycling man can buy. On the downside, it’s eye-wateringly expensive, fairly raw and uncomfortable, and not much use for anything other than posing around Monaco.
But, if that’s what tickles your fancy, no ‘power bike’ is more exclusive and eye-catching.
4. Aprilia RSV4 Factory | 214bhp
2025 Aprilia RSV4 Factory
Yes, we know what you’re thinking: ‘Aprilia? I didn’t know they did superbikes anymore?’ Well, they do… and sort of they don’t, and this is the result.
If you know your WSB history you may remember that Italian brand Aprilia revolutionized superbikes with its 2009 RSV4 a compact, powerful 1000cc V4 bristling with cutting-edge electronics so good it won the 2010 WSB crown for Max Biaggi who repeated in 2012 with Sylvain Guintoli claiming a third in 2014.
After that, however, it fell behind its rivals with the result that, in 2019, Aprilia turned its back on WSB and gave its RSV4 the bigger engine from the Tuono V4 supernaked (so disqualifying it from WSB) to produce this. But who cares? It may no longer be racing eligible, but the RSV4 1100 Factory is pretty much as powerful as superbikes come, still boasts the very best in electronics and cycle parts, and remains a mouth-watering but now road-targetted weapon.
3. Honda CBR1000RR-SP | 214.6bhp
2025 Honda CBR1000RR-SP
With European marques BMW and Ducati most recently dominating world superbikes racing the Japanese are a little thin on the ground, here. Suzuki no longer sells its GSX-R1000 in Europe, Kawasaki’s ZX-10R has fallen behind and Yamaha’s 197bhp R1M, although winning the crown in 2021, no longer meets Euro emissions regulations so is now offered only as a track bike, which excludes its inclusion here.
Honda, however, despite only fairly limited success over the past two decades (it last won the WSB crown in 2007) soldiers on and its latest CBR1000RR Fireblade, although still not yet a proven winner, is its most sophisticated, focussed and powerful yet. Yes it’s slightly cramped. Yes, too, it’s peakier and less compromising than ever, but it also delivers a screaming 214bhp in one of the most sublime chassis you can buy.
2. Ducati Panigale V4 R | 215bhp
2025 Ducati Panigale V4R
It’s fair to say that, before BMW’s latest M1000RR finally, in 2024, delivered the World Superbikes championship the German marque craved so much, that the dominant force – and most powerful bike – in the production-based series was Ducati’s Panigale V4 R.
Introduced in 2018 as an all-new, now V4-powered successor to the Italian marque’s previous V-twins, the Panigale V4 came with 211bhp out of the crate, and all-new monocoque chassis, the best cycle parts available, wild looks, and in three forms – base 1103cc V4, upspecced, semi-active suspension-equipped V4 S, and the homologation special, 998cc but even more powerful and extreme R.
With 215bhp (with race exhaust fitted) it’s been the basis of the bike which has taken Alvaro Bautista to two WSB crowns and remains the most powerful superbike available.
1. Kawasaki H2R | 322bhp
2025 Kawasaki H2R
Big power hasn’t always been the preserve of the latest, homologation special superbikes.
Back in the ‘90s, the fastest, biggest power-producing bikes of all were heavyweight ‘hyperbike’ sports tourers such as Kawasaki’s 1990 147bhp ZZ-R1100, Honda’s 1995 164bhp Super Blackbird and Suzuki’s 1999 199bhp Hayabusa, but with ever-increasing concerns over speed, those bikes are now largely no more. But I used the word ‘largely’, not completely.
Suzuki’s latest version of the ‘Busa lives on with 187bhp but even that’s blown away by Kawasaki’s H2 R, a track-only, supercharged corporate statement of a hyperbike that produces a mind-melting 322bhp. And, yes, if you’re concerned about that ‘track only’ bit, there’s also the road-legal Ninja H2, which produces a claimed 228!
The Last Stop!
So there you have it, I hope you enjoyed my rundown of the 10 most POWERFUL bikes to ever make it to production...
See you for the next one!
