Naked Motorcycles

Norton Motorcycles has laid out its next chapter at EICMA 2025, marking what it calls the brand’s “Resurgence.” Backed by major investment and industrial muscle from parent company TVS Motor, Norton’s rebirth is less about nostalgia and more about building a sustainable, forward-looking British motorcycle brand.

Meet the 2026 MV Agusta Brutale Serie Oro, the Italian brand’s virtually all-new middleweight naked sportbike, expected to set the performance trajectory for future mid-sized models. The longstanding Brutale namesake launched back in 2001 with the limited-edition 750 Oro. Fast forward over two decades later, and we are getting our first look at MV’s limited-edition Brutale Serie Oro, set to deliver 300 individually numbered units from its factory in Varese, Italy. Availability begins Q2 2026, while pricing is TBA.

Last year at EICMA, Honda unveiled a concept with a new V3 engine. That alone is intriguing, especially considering Honda's domination of the early days of MotoGP with its V5 engine configuration. But what really stole the headlines was the electronically-controlled compressor attached to it. With the ability to summon boost electronically, the dreaded "turbo-lag" is a thing of the past. At EICMA 2025, Honda has unveiled the motorcycle it will be powering: the V3R 900 E-Compressor prototype.

If you want to have some real fun with Husqvarna's Svartpilen 801, make sure you get one with the optional Dynamic Pack.

Aprilia’s RS 457 and the Tuono 457 share engineering DNA — but their design philosophies diverge sharply, particularly in how each interprets what a modern middleweight sportbike should be.

Last November, at EICMA, KTM announced a number of new street models based on its 1390 and 990 platforms. Not long afterwards, KTM announced it was entering into self-administration under the weight of its growing debt. Production was halted, which means those new models planned for the 2025 model year have been pushed back to 2026.

Tom Roderick spent a day riding the CB1000 Hornet SP and then another on the CB750 Hornet—having the chance to ride the bikes back-to-back makes the differences between the two clear.

I rode the 2025 Honda CB750 Hornet on the second day of a two-day press event. The first day was spent aboard Big Red’s other new mechanized insect, the CB1000 Hornet SP. Both days, Honda’s Ryan Dudek led us on varied routes into the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, where ribbons of asphalt unfurl haphazardly through forests of Ponderosa and Lodgepole pines, and past small mountain towns with names such as Cool and Volcano.

The 2025 CB1000 Hornet SP retails for $10,999. During the Hornet’s press introduction held in California’s capital, Sacramento, Honda representatives confirmed that the bike is built in Japan. A few days later, discussing the Hornet SP with my friend and former MO chief editor, Kevin Duke, he was skeptical, thinking it had to be manufactured in a less-expensive-to-produce country, and rightly so. How does the new Hornet SP, outfitted with premium suspension and braking components, come stateside for $2,000 less than the outgoing CB1000R? So, I stopped by my local Honda dealer and verified, via the Hornet’s VIN, that it was manufactured in Japan. Kevin begrudgingly accepted this truth, then, as he would have done when he was my boss, suggested I discover the plot behind this reverse price gouging.

My love for the KTM 790 Duke has been well documented on MO, but the reality is that had KTM been a little less tight-lipped when I was laying down my hard-earned cash for the bike, I might never have owned it. Instead, an 890 Duke R would probably be parked in my garage. That doesn’t lessen my attachment to the 790, but it helps to explain my desire to squeeze as much power out of the parallel-Twin as I can, while maintaining its social acceptability on exhaust sound. (OK, maybe being mocked in the comments when the Akrapovic slip-on resulted in slightly lower peak power has a little to do with my search for power, too.) Regardless, my unspoken goal for my performance modifications has been to get as close as possible to a stock 890’s mid-range power. From the moment Rottweiler Performance released its Rally Edition Full Intake System for the 790/890 Adventure, I’ve been salivating at the prospect of installing an adapted version on my Duke. Well, with the release of the Rottweiler Performance Intake System for the KTM 790/890 Duke, that wait is over, and man, does it kick some butt. 

For the previous week, I’d anxiously checked the weather reports for updates. Sandwiched in between swaths of little sun icons were two little black clouds spewing raindrops. Naturally, those were the scheduled dates for the US press to ride the 2024 Triumph Street Triple 765 R and RS on the Andalusian backroads and the famed Circuito de Jerez Angel Nieto in southern Spain. 

If one were a slightly more casual Ducati fan, who wanted a classic to blip around in the post-pandemic on more than one to tear up the track with, one could do much worse than this 20-year old 2003 Ducati Monster 1000. Ten years after the original Monster, they’d already begun sticking liquid-cooled L-twins into everybody’s favorite naked bike. But the new 1000 Dual Spark air-cooled engine in the ’03 Monster 1000 was just as torquey, less pricey and complicated – plus the new air-cooled bike was much easier on the body and the occhi. Take it away, Yossef!