Yes! It’s part two of our fabby Motorcycle Live preview. Here’s our pick of the top new 2017 machinery that’ll be on show at the NEC from this weekend. Kawasaki-Yamaha, and all points in between…

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Kawasaki

Ninja ZX-10RR
IN the future, when historians look back at 2017, once they’ve shook their heads at all the 2016 shit, they’ll cheer up when they get to the Superbike class. Because next year is set to be the year of the homologation special. Honda’s new Fireblade is coming in two racer-friendly versions as well as a base bike for the road, and Suzuki’s also bringing out two GSX-R1000 models.
On paper, you’d think Kawasaki wouldn’t need to bother with this sort of thing. Its current ZX-10R has pasted the opposition in WSB (although that Ducati is definitely on the rebound now), and it already comes with some fab moto-gizmos, including gas forks and full electronic riding aids.
But for next year, Team Green is offering an RR version, that’s more suitable for tuning nonsense. The main changes are in the head, where DLC-coated tappets cut friction, and the castings are modified to accept even higher-lift cams. The crankcases are also stronger, and there’s an up- and down- quickshifter unit fitted. The chassis is mostly unchanged from the base bike, except for some forged Marchesini rims, fancy Winter Test paint, and a posh key. Only 500 will be made, and if you’ve not got your own BSB or WSB hospitality unit, you might struggle to get your name down for one…

Ninja 650
If the Ninja RR will be near-impossible to get hold of, you should have a bit more luck with the Ninja 650. Kawasaki’s shuffled its ER-6 range up and along a bit, further from its commuting roots, and more towards the racey Minitwin identity it’s sort of fallen into over the years. So the naked ER is now the Z650, and the faired bike is now a Ninja. Under the full sports fairing is the venerable parallel twin engine, updated for 2017, with a new trellis frame, horizontal shock layout and a modern ABS setup. It’s very much a ‘sports’ bike rather than ‘supersports’, but you’ll still have a ball on one on the road. And for a first trackday bike, you could do much worse…

H2 Carbon
Not too much in the way of big changes for Kawasaki’s flagship supercharged Ninja, but there’s this flasher new carbon version for 2017. The mirror-finished bodywork is swapped for a pure carbon fibre design. Limited to 120 units worldwide – so even rarer than yer WSB homologation beasties!

Z900
Kawasaki’s Z800 gets usurped for 2017 by the new Z900 – a lighter, less brutal version of the Z1000, with a new steel trellis frame, 126bhp 948cc engine and a mid-table sporty chassis setup. Kawasaki says the steel frame keeps things light – but the 900 still tips the scales at a beefy 210kg wet. It looks sweet though – especially in the green-framed form.

Z650
The unfaired 650 parallel twin is the Ninja 650’s naked sister, and echoes the styling of Kara’s bigger roadsters. Again, we get a natty colour-coded steel tube frame, and a sweet curved swingarm, all shown off even more in naked form. The little engine pumps out a useful 68bhp and the new underslung exhaust and horizontal rear shock helps centralise mass.

KTM

1290 Super Duke R
KTM’s dubbed this the Beast v2.0, and for once, we’re tempted to believe the hype. The current 1290 is a veritable monster: massive power and torque, fine handling and plenty of intelligent rider aids on hand. For 2017 the recipe is simple – more of everything, everywhere. The bodywork is even more radical and scary, the engine gets a heft power and grunt boost to 177bhp peak, and the riding software package gets a Windows 10-style upgrade. The WP suspension is also all new, with separate damping function front forks and a stiffer rear spring. The ultimate in supersports naked machinery for 2017? It’s not going to be far away.

790 Duke Concept
This concept machine, on show at Milan last week, pleased and saddened us in equal measure. We were pleased because the new compact parallel twin 800 motor looks to be a properly sorted lump – and just the thing to sit in between the firm’s singles and the big 1290 and 1050 V-twins. But we were saddened that it’s just a concept, with no firm specs, which means we’ll probably be waiting another year before seeing it on the road.
The concept looks good all round, with radical bodywork matched to textbook KTM chassis. The only thing it’s short on is subtlety…

1290 Super Adventure
The Austrians are still looking after the knitting as it were, and its bread-and-butter adventure range has had a hefty upgrade for 2017. The Super Adventure comes in ‘S’ and ‘R’ versions, depending on how dirty you like your adventures to be. Both use a 160bhp version of the big V-twin engine, with super-spec chassis componentry and state-of-the-art electronic helpers. All a bit much? Check out the smaller-bore 1090 versions, which are cheaper, lower, slower, and a bit less intense.

Norton
The Norton stand is set for that most unusual of things – a genuine world launch of a new bike. Norton’s showing off its new V4 superbike to the public in Birmingham for the first time – and it looks like a cracker. The chromed bodywork echoes the firm’s TT race bikes, and the promise from the home-developed 1200cc 200bhp+ engine and bespoke chassis is immense. It’s a high-spec design, with the 72° engine kept in check by a fully adjustable cast alloy frame and swingarm, Öhlins suspension, 330mm Brembo front brakes and clad in full carbon bodywork (chromed or bare carbonio).
If the firm can live up to the impressive promise shown here over the next few years, this could be the start of something very big indeed…

Royal Enfield

Himalayan
Thousands of adventurous UK bikers have schlepped their way round the dirt roads of India and Nepal on Royal Enfield’s rugged roadsters over the years. So the firm’s new purpose-built adventure bike should have the cojones for just about anything you throw at it. It’s built for a long time rather than a good time – just 24bhp pootles out of the 411cc air/oil cooled single. But those 24 horses will keep appearing whatever happens – and if stuff does go wrong, you’ll be able to fix it with a developing-world hammer rather than needing a satellite link to MittelEurope for troubleshooting…

Suzuki
GSX-R1000/R
Is there a superbike more overdue than this new GSX-R1000? The legendary name has been a little tarnished of late, both on the road and on track. But for 2017, it’s all looking pretty good for the Gixxer, with this all-new litre superbike bringing Brand ‘S’ bang up to date. The motor boasts a cunning ace up its sleeve – a neat automatic variable valve timing system that uses centrifugal force from sprung ball bearings to advance and retard the timing as engine revs change. The simple system needs no control hydraulics or electronics, and is already being used on the firm’s GSX-RR MotoGP machine. The rest of the motor is more conventional, but still promises over 200bhp. With a claimed kerb weight just over 200kg, that’s bang on the money for a 2017 superbike.
Like the other firms, Suzuki’s offering two versions of the GSX-R: a base model and an ‘R’. The GSX-R1000R gets posh Showa BFF gas forks, a quickshifter and launch mode on the electronics, where the base bike has lower-spec Big Piston forks instead. It’s a lower-spec approach to things than the likes of the Honda Fireblade SP2: Suzuki reckons its base bike will be a good bit cheaper than the competition, giving a more entry-level option, and the ‘R’ will be priced closer to the base-model competition, rather than being a hugely pricey super-trick homologation special.

GSX-S750
Much of Suzuki’s efforts for 2017 revolve around tidying up its brand identities and bike families. So the old GSR750 is renamed the GSX-S750, to sit with the GSX-S1000 and new GSX-S125 roadsters. It remains as a budget option in the middleweight roadster class, but gets various updates to its GSX-R750-based engine, electronics and chassis to get it back into the 2017 ballpark.

V-Strom family
Like the GSX-S family, Suzuki’s given its disparate V-Strom range a proper shake-up, with new radical adventure styling, based on the firm’s legendary DR-BIG mega-traillie of the 1980s. There are new 1000, 650 and 250 V-Stroms for 2017, all with Euro IV engine updates, and revised chassis and equipment. The 1000 gets leaning ABS, they all get a little more power and less weight, and Suzuki’s bumped up the offering in the accessories and bolt-on stakes too. The 650 in particular has always been an excellent little adventure bike, that belies its paper spec when you ride it – and we’re got high hopes for the updated range.

GSX-R125/GSX-S125
You might be a bit ‘meh’ about a new learner-legal sportsbike, but Suzuki dealers were breaking out the cheap prosecco when they saw this little chap unveiled. Smaller capacity machines are bread and butter for a lot of shops, and Suzuki’s offerings here were sparse and unlovely. But the new GSX-R125 (and naked GSX-S version) look like pretty sweet offerings, with performance, style and equipment that can take on the rest of the class with ease. A new 4-valve engine is bang-up-to-date design-wise, and Suzuki claims it has class-leading power to weight (allowing for statutory regs). There’s a smart LCD dash, cool GSX-R looks, and a perfectly solid chassis package too.

Triumph
Bobber
They might be playing on home turf, but Triumph’s only down to show off one new bike – its new Bonneville Bobber. A fairly radical factory custom, the Bobber uses the firm’s ‘High Torque’ 1200 parallel twin engine in a hardtail-style chassis, and bespoke running gear. The British theme extends to the tyres too – it wears bespoke Avon Cobra rubber front and rear, made in Wiltshire…

Yamaha
R6
The 600 supersports class is a bit of a morass at the moment. Racers report difficulty in sourcing new machinery – things like 599cc Kawasaki ZX-6Rs and Honda CBR600RRs are in limbo, with Euro IV regs ruling out older machines from sale, and no new updates from the factories. So we should perhaps be grateful that we’re getting anything at all in this declining sector! Hats off to Yamaha though, for going in dry on the sector with this new beastie. An R1-style makeover is the overriding impression, with new bodywork and headlights. The front end is also based on the R1s, and there are new electronics with traction control, power modes, ABS, and a quickshifter. The engine has the same basic setup as before, with the emissions changes added on, so we’re not expecting massive changes in power or performance. Dry weight is up a kilo, which isn’t bad considering all the extra stuff on there. She’ll still rev for the sky and be psychotic on a twisty track though we bet…

MT-10SP
Yamaha’s naked R1-powered roadster is certifiably nuts. And for 2017 there’s a new fancy version. A two-wheeled Raffles the Gentleman Thug if you like. Yamaha’s given the base bike an R1M makeover, so it gets Öhlins electronic racing suspension, a colour TFT dash, and the whole nine yards in terms of electronic riding aids. It’ll still end up in borstal mind.

XSR900 Abarth
Like the MT-10SP, Yamaha’s taken one of its most excellent roadsters – the XSR900 – and given it a fancy limited edition tweaking. This time, it’s a tie-in with Italian car tuning legends, Abarth. The limited edition XSR gets a sweet paint job, lovely titanium Akrapovic pipe, and retro carbon nosecone. It looks super-classy, and the basic XSR is a joy to ride – so how can you go wrong? By being too slow – there’s only 695 being built…