Superbike: The Epitome of Biking

Superbike:


Super bike, what does this term mean? Let’s try to define this. A bike: A two wheeled motorized vehicle use for the purpose of mobility. Super: A quality of being better, far better than the rest. So a Super bike can roughly be defined as a motorized two wheeler which is better than the rest.

In modern biking context the term Superbike is used for high performance bike, a bike which produce huge amount of power, has the best chassis component to effectively harness all the power available. These superbikes use several engine configurations e.g.
Inline four , V twin , boxer twin or flat twin , parallel twin or inline two etc. In line four and v twin though are the most famous and widely used engine configurations. Most of the Japanese Superbike manufacturers like Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha use in line configuration while European manufactures like KTM, Ducati etc prefer the v twins.

As far as the engine displacement is concerned it ranges from 250 cc to 1400cc. On the basis of displacement these bikes can be categorized in the following manner the 250CCs are considered as beginners Superbike as these produce lower amount of power compared to full blown Superbikes. 600CCs are called supersports and is a logical step before reaching the liter class 1000cc bikes. Higher displacement bikes like 1352 cc Suzuki Hayabusa and Kawasaki ZZR 1400 are called sports tourer. Though there are few exceptions to this as few European sports bike displace more than 1100CCs.

The styling is also a major criterion to distinguish these bikes; normally these can be categorized as naked sports like Honda CB 1000R . These bikes are devoid of any kind of fairing or wind protection and are best suited for city riding and up to a certain extent commuting. High speed runs on these bikes can be trouble as these machines offer no or very little wind protection.
Semi faired like Suzuki Bandit, Suzuki SV series these bikes make for a potent touring machine as the riding is stance is not aggressive as that of fully faired sports bike and coupled with this relaxed riding position semi fairing of these bikes work as boon for tourers who love munching miles on highways..
Fully faired like Yamaha R1, Honda CBR these machine are replicas of their racing cousins which do duty on racetracks. The riding stance is very aggressive and these serve the purpose of quenching the thirst of all those wannabe Rossis and Stoners of the world.
Supermotord like Ducati hypermotord , these are very distinct to look at as their styling is very unconventional, and these makes for superb hooligan tool for popping wheelies and sliding out of corner.

We have shunned Cruisers here in this discussion as they are breed apart and can’t directly be compared to Superbikes.