We’re still busy processing the amazing year for motorcycles that was 2023, featuring incredible metal of all shapes and sizes, from peppy little single-cylinder heroes to big-bore adventure bikes.
We’ve rounded up our favourites in Visordown’s Bike of the Year round-up, but here, we’re looking to the future. The following 10 bikes are a mix of things we’ve seen but are yet to ride, and machines we’re expecting to be revealed at some point in 2024, giving a flavour of the enticing 12 months we have ahead of us in the motorised two-wheeled world.
Triumph Daytona 660
Judging by recent spy shots a teaser (top image), the Triumph Daytona is coming back for 2024! But, just to temper your expectations, don’t expect a reborn 675 (pictured). Despite Honda making an unexpected return to the super sports segment with the 2024 CBR600RR, Triumph’s new fully faired ‘Daytona 660’ middleweight will be more of a rival to the likes of the recently refreshed CBR650R and another 2024 debutant, the Suzuki GSX-8R.
We can see from spy shots that it has a much more upright riding position than its indirect predecessor, which isn’t a surprise, given that this is where the market has been heading for a while. It’s based around the same frame and 660cc engine as the Trident 660 and Tiger Sport 660, which will prove an excellent starting point for a sporty but approachable middleweight.
Triumph 400 Cafe Racer
The Daytona 660 isn’t the only new bike Triumph is cooking up using familiar ingredients. Spy shots first seen in late 2023 showed an adorable little cafe racer sporting a Speed Triple 1200 RR-style bikini fairing seemingly on top of the engine and frame of the new single-cylinder Speed 400 and Scrambler 400 models.
So is it a ‘Speed 400 RR’? Perhaps, but another naming possibility touted by media in India - where the bike is likely to be built by Bajaj alongside the other two 400s - suggest it could be labelled as a Thruxton. Either way, it looks like it’ll be a blast to ride, putting that new 40bhp, 28lb ft single into a retro sports package.
MV Agusta 921 S
For a more bougie take on the neo-retro cafe racer genre in 2024, we can look to MV Agusta. No guesswork is necessary with this one - the 921 S has already been revealed in concept form, and the company’s CEO confirmed to MCN that production would start in the middle of 2024.
The bike takes inspiration from the MV Agusta 750S of the 1970s, reimagining it for the 2020s with a trellis-framed creation powered by a 115bhp, 921cc inline-four.
Honda CBR600RR
It’s already been name-checked here once, but for the avoidance of doubt, we’re very excited about the CBR600RR’s return after several years away. We’re also intrigued to see how well the bike fares in terms of sales - is a 600cc screamer with a narrow powerband and an uncompromising riding position still a hard sell, or does absence make the heart grow fonder?
The bike looks fairly similar outwardly, and the stats all sound pretty familiar, but the 2024 version of the CBR600RR brings with it a whole load of new tech including top-notch electronic rider assistance features and a fancy new colour TFT.
KTM 990 Adventure
Following the reveal of the 990 Duke with an updated, larger version of the LC8c parallel twin to replace the old 890 lump, it seems highly likely that a 990 Adventure with the same 947cc lump is on the way. The engine is outwardly the same size as the smaller unit it replaces (the extra capacity comes from a longer piston stroke), so packaging it shouldn’t prove difficult. The move would also give a clearer distinction from the new, made-in-China 790 Adventure (pictured), as the 990 Duke arguably has done for its CFMoto-built 790 relative.
KTM RC 990
KTM will want a good return on the investment that went into the new 990 engine, so alongside a possible 990 Adventure, 2024 could well feature the debut of the RC 990. That’s right, after many years away, KTM is going down the fully-faired route, albeit with a middleweight offering rather than a superbike like the RC8.
New RC prototypes have been spotted as far back as 2022, so by now, the bike should be reasonably far along in terms of development. In this application, KTM may choose to turn the wick up a touch from the 121bhp offered up by the new engine in its 990 Duke setting.
Suzuki GSX-8R
The GSX-8S was one of our favourite bikes of 2023, so we’re hopeful the GSX-8R will be on our best-of list for 2024. It features carefully considered changes to go along with its new fairing, including separate bars with a bit of a rise to make this more akin to a CBR650R or Aprilia RS660 than a Yamaha R7, much like the inbound and aforementioned Triumph Daytona 660.
This is a bike we’ve already seen, with the covers pulled off the machine at the EICMA show in November, but it won’t be launched to both the market and the press until early 2024.
Ducati Hypermotard 698
Another bike we’ve already seen but are looking forward to getting our first taste of in 2024 is the new Hypermotard 698. It’s powered by Ducati’s first single-cylinder engine in around two decades, so we’re expecting a very different riding experience from any other bike in the Borgo Panigale stable.
Incredibly, Ducati has extracted 82.5bhp from the single thumper (78.5bhp with a road-legal exhaust), which is effectively an old 1198 V-twin chopped in half. And, apparently, even a novice can do big skids on it.
Royal Enfield Scram 450
The Royal Enfield Scram 411 (pictured) is merely a Himalayan with a light scrambler makeover, and since there’s an all-new Himalayan ‘450’ on the scene, it’s surely only a matter of time before the new machine is given the same treatment to make a ‘Scram 450’. A prototype which might well be the new Scram was spied not so long ago.
Judging by the 2024 Himmy, the Scram 450 will be at least £1,000 more expensive than the bike it replaces, but in return, you’re getting a much more sophisticated and more powerful water-cooled ‘Sherpa’ engine, and an increase in tech including the use of a smart, colour TFT display.
Yamaha YZF-R9
Given the success of the R7 (pictured), and the recent reveal of a comprehensively updated MT-09 - something that arrived relatively soon after the original’s launch - could 2024 be the year Yamaha finally slaps a fairing and separate handlebars on its three-cylinder naked bike? The company has the patent for the R9 name, so let’s wait and see.
