Sportbikes That Don’t Look Like Sportbikes

Sportbikes are the bleeding edge of motorcycle design and technology. And there's nothing for pure sensation like a real race-rep—low clip-ons, taut suspension, power-just-there throttle response—but not everyone wants a race-bred machine for the road.

Fortunately, barely watered-down examples of sportbikes are available in various guises. Masquerading as civil, practical machines or stylish sporting alternatives, these bikes may not look like sportbikes, but it's a smoke screen. That means they've got dialed-in suspension, rampant power delivery, and a bit of a hooligan streak. They're sportbikes that aren't sportbikes.

Here are our top five motorcycles that don’t look like sportbikes, but basically are.

The Ducati Multistrada has always been a sportbike down not-so deep. Despite Ducati's four-bikes-in-one claim, the Multi shines brightest on the pavement—when things get twisty. No surprise there. When you shove a superbike engine in anything, there's gonna be a whiff of apex hunter about it. It's been a long time and a lot of evolution since a Testastretta engine powered a Ducati superbike, but in spite of added displacement and DVT (Desmodromic Variable Timing), the 1260 still has the raw Bolognese aggression that has made generations of riders hum Puccini in their helmets and gesticulate wildly after particularly nice stretches of road. You can take the Testastretta out of the superbike, but you can't take the superbike out of the Testastretta.

The "Ready to Race" brand seems to abide by its motto more strictly than any other motorcycle manufacturer. It's ironic that KTM doesn't make a true race-rep sportbike, but we'll give it a pass considering that practically every machine it makes is a sportbike at heart. The 1290 Super Adventure, for instance, competes with the BMW R1200GS, but where the GS is all gentlemanly and buttoned up, the Super Adventure is streaking across the quad with its front wheel in the air. The SA is a large machine to be sure, but throw it into the corners and its weight disappears as it elegantly, undramatically hits each apex. It's like a linebacker who dances ballet.

The Triumph Thruxton R has all the café-racer style that everyone loves, but it also has Öhlins suspension out back. And its parallel-twin engine sports a 270-degree crank. On our dyno it puts out close to 90 hp at the rear wheel. For the majority of road riders, the Thruxton R will be able to keep up with almost anything out there. If it doesn’t, you can try to blame the bike, but if anyone buys your excuse, it’s because they have no idea.

Related: Sportbikes We Wish They’d Make

Leave it to MV to make an upright seating position and hard luggage look so pretty. But even MV can't make the Lusso look like anything other than practical and grown up. The heyday of sport-touring bikes that look pretty similar to their track-living siblings is basically gone. ADV-influenced ergos make today's GT bikes look gangly and overly practical, but who cares? It's a winning formula. And so the Turismo Veloce Lusso, as practical as anything ever produced in Varese, still has the goods: the same 798cc three-cylinder engine from the F3 800, electronic semi-active suspension, quickshifter, dialed-in chassis, and Rekluse auto clutch. You can have it all on an MV. Just maybe not a large dealer network.

Like the Multistrada and 1290 Super Adventure, BMW’s S1000XR mashes up sportbike and ADV bike for a road-going, comfortable-all-day überbike. Its S1000RR-derived engine is pure inline-four bliss (albeit a bit buzzy at the bars), so it’ll hang with anything. Including, well, S1000RRs. Except it’s comfier, it’s much friendlier for two-up touring, has factory integrated hard luggage, and long-travel suspension designed for coping with imperfect pavement. We can’t wait for BMW to shove the new ShiftCam S1000RR engine into a new version. Is it bad that we’re already predicting potential new bikes at EICMA 2019?

Before the Suzuki GSX-R750 was released in 1985 in all its full-faired, clip-on glory, superbikes looked like what today we'd call hyper nakeds (see Wes Cooley's Suzuki GS1000, Eddie Lawson's Kawasaki Z1000R, and Freddie Spencer's Honda Interceptor for just a few iconic examples). Although today's naked bikes are more popularly associated with bikes from the streetfighter scene—a 1990s custom movement that transformed crashed sportbikes bereft of bodywork into their own beasts—there's nothing "street" about sitting upright, grabbing a one-piece bar, and hauling ass. That's just the way proddy racers used to be. The Aprilia Tuono 1100 is based on the RSV4 race-rep, one of the gold standards of performance. Since its inception, when it was based on the Rotax-powered V-twin Mille, the Tuono has been one formidable motorcycle. Just imagine what Cooley et al. could have done on one back in the day.

The Yamaha FJR1300A may look more Gold Wing than Fireblade—and certainly looks nothing like Yamaha’s own R series supersports—but don’t be fooled by its old-guy-in-an-Aerostich persona (that’s not a dig at Aerostich. Or at old guys. I’m a big fan of the former and am on my way to being the latter). The FJR is the kind of bike you see grinding hard parts at the Tail of the Dragon. It’s the classic sport-tourer. The FJR has always looked a little softer than erstwhile sport-tourers like the Ducati ST4 and Aprilia Futura, but while those bikes have gone the way of the dodo, the FJR remains a sport-touring stalwart of corner slaying.

The Husqvarna 701 is basically a KTM, so it feels like I'm double dipping on this one. Still, where the KTM 690 is a loutish-looking wedge of orange plastic, the Husky 701 looks like it was designed by Zaha Hadid. Sporty, but not exactly Gixxer territory, right? And it isn't orange. Accommodations are fairly committed and that silver tank is deceptively plasticky, but the 701 does change the silhouette of naked sportbikes. KTM's 690cc single-cylinder is a perennial winner, the WP suspension is dialed in for corner carving, and thin seat padding won't let you forget you're on a sportbike. You're just on a very posh one.