THE golden days of the Superbike – at least in terms of sales domination – are well and truly behind us now but there’s no question that if you want to experience the outer limits of what a motorcycle can achieve in terms of performance there’s never been a better time to try one.
Back when Foggy dominated WSB and a set of Fieldsheer Acid Worm leathers would take pride of place in your wardrobe (some readers might have to ask their dads about those references), Superbikes sold in the sort of numbers that would fill out the whole top end of the sales charts in the UK. But those bikes, lovely as they were, were merely a prelude to the machines that we have today. Ride an original Fireblade now and it will be a retro joy, rather like playing Sonic the Hedgehog on a Sega Megadrive.
The latest machines are poles apart and the development has been as rapid as their performance figures.
Most of our choices from this current crop aren’t likely to disappoint, but here’s our top 10. Each heading is a link to a review of the bike in question.