10 Best Sport Bikes From The 2000s

Aug 11, 2023

30 years after the Honda CB750, the Japanese sport bike reigned supreme but competition was on the horizon

With the launch of the Honda CBR900RR in 1992, the Japanese sports bike reached a point of near-perfection that all manufacturers worked to improve further in the following years. By the year 2000, the sports bike craze was in full swing and, while the Japanese held sway at the beginning of the decade, by the end their supremacy was being seriously challenged by European manufacturers, most notably Ducati and BMW. Power outputs were soaring, electronics were starting to make their presence felt and extensive research into chassis and suspension design and construction were turning what were once rather unwieldy machines into finely-honed motorcycles that were virtually able to win races out of the box.

Related: 10 Most Beautiful Japanese Motorcycles Ever Built

Even though it was launched in the last year of the old century, the GSX1300R Hayabusa remained in its original form so long, it deserves to be included here. The last shot fired in the ultimate top speed wars between Kawasaki, Honda and Suzuki, the Hayabusa was as distinctive as it was unbelievably fast: that swoopy bodywork was wind-tunnel developed in the pursuit of high speed stability as well as being deliberately ugly to make it stand out from the crowd. If it lacked the ultimate pin-sharp handling of liter-superbikes, it more than made up for it with brilliant long-legged ability over long distances which could, of course, be covered at warp speed.

Even though Honda kicked off the lightweight sports-bike-for-the-road with the original CBR900RR of 1992, by 2000, it had been out-gunned by Yamaha and its YZF-R1. This prompted Honda to push the development of the next-generation Fireblade forward by two years and the result was a brand new 929cc engine, used as a stressed member of the frame and to which the swing arm was mounted. Power was very close to the R1, as was the weight, and it put Honda back into the superbike title fight. For some unfathomable reason, the CBR929RR Fireblade was not the sales success Honda had hoped for, especially when the Suzuki GSX-R1000 came on the scene in 2001, which was an altogether more raw superbike.

Despite the default displacement being 900 - 1000cc for the latest generation of sports bikes, Suzuki kept faith with the earlier upper limit of 750cc for many years and revealed a brand new model in 2000. The engine was all-new, the frame tweaked here and there, some lighter components were added and the fairing design updated. It was one of the finest handling bikes of that - or any - era, with razor-sharp responses and a punchy engine. Looked at now, it seems laughably low-tech, with no rider aids whatsoever, but without doubt it reminds riders of the time when a sports bike didn't need sky-high horsepower if the chassis was good enough.

Related: 10 Reasons Why The Suzuki GSX-R750 Is The Best Supersport

Suzuki was late to the 1000cc party but, when it arrived, it showed that it could mix with the big boys. With the GSX-R750 being so good, it made sense to retain that chassis and its compact qualities, strengthen it a little, stretch the bore and stroke of the engine to bring it up to 1000cc and unleash it on a world that thought it had seen the best the sports bike class could ever deliver. With the handling prowess of the GSX-R750 and nearly 150 horsepower it could have been a widow-maker but, thanks to its impeccable handling, it soon became the benchmark by which others were measured. Each subsequent development of the ‘Gixxer’ helped it retain that top spot for several years.

For too long, Kawasaki had been bringing a knife to a gunfight with the ZX-9R. That all changed - and how - with the arrival of the ZX-10R in 2004. If 155 horsepower (at the rear wheel) sounds a little tame compared to today's 200+ horsepower monsters, it was excellent for its day, good enough to knock the Suzuki GSX-R off its perch as the best superbike of the year. Covering the quarter mile in 10 seconds and going on to a 183mph top speed, there was nothing wrong with the performance and the chassis was more than up to the job of containing it all.

Arguably the first of the ‘modern’ Ducati sports bikes, the 1098 replaced the 999 which was, despite its unfortunate looks, still an incredible sports bike. But, as with all developments, the 1098 was better in every way, not least in the engine department. This was a development of the Testrastretta four-valve V-Twin, called the Evoluzione and, if it had ‘only’ 160 horsepower, they were thoroughbred Italian horses that could give any Japanese sports bike a run for its money while possessing so much character and personality. With the performance came a modernized 916 design language which is still being employed to this day. Fast, red, Italian and sexy: what more could you possibly need?

In 2008, the world had yet to experience the financial meltdown that would cripple sports bike development and sales and what better way of celebrating the end of excess than with the thinly-disguised MotoGP bike that was the Desmosedici RR. The engine was a V4 derived from the MotoGP bikes and pushed out a frankly bonkers 200 horsepower and the extensive use of carbon fiber kept the weight down to under 400 pounds. Only 1,500 were built and, when new, they cost $72,500 so think about adding a couple of numbers to the beginning of that if you want to buy one now. If nothing else, the Desmosedici RR shows how ugly modern MotoGP bikes have become.

Related: Roland Sands Transformed this Ducati Desmosedici RR into an Epic Streetfighter

Once upon a time, the 600cc class was huge and every Japanese manufacturer played along. In 2006, the one to have was the Yamaha YZF-R6 - on both the road and the racetrack. For the first time, here was a 600cc sports bike simply dripping in technology - ride-by-wire throttle, variable inlet tracts, titanium valves and a sky-high rev limit of 18,000rpm. Put simply, if you weren't riding a YZF-R6 in the Supersport class of World Superbike racing, you were nowhere and, even if you couldn't ride like that on the road, the R6 was still the bike to be seen on. Like the Aprilia RSV4 below, the 2006 YZF-R6 was so good, it received only detail changes between 2006 and 2020, when it began to fall foul of emissions regulations around the world.

Before the RSV4, Aprilia sports bikes were rather wild and definitely for the skilled rider, powered by a thundering V-Twin engine. Then the new-from-the-ground-up RSV4 arrived and immediately impressed with its compact design, ultra-pin-sharp agility and handling, 180 horsepower from the brand new V4 engine and better-than-ever quality, quite incredible for one of the smallest manufacturers in the sports bike game. It was so good that it is still with us today, with the usual electronic additions that have done nothing to dampen the experience. Quite why Aprilia hasn't won more World Superbike titles with this bike is a mystery which can only be partly explained away by budgets.

Just sneaking into the list by arriving before the end of the decade, the BMW S 1000 RR shook the established sports bike manufacturers by being so good straight out of the box, a feat made even more impressive when you consider this was BMW's first attempt at a sports bike of this type. 190 horsepower was impressive but even more startling was the adoption of ride-by-wire throttle which allowed traction control to be fitted - a first for the class, as were four engine power - or riding - modes. As it was developed primarily to take BMW into the World Superbike championship, everything was race-focussed, including the chassis and suspension, not to mention the blistering performance.

Harry has been writing and talking about motorcycles for 15 years, although he's been riding them for 45 years! After a long career in music, he turned his hand to writing and television work, concentrating on his passion for all things petrol-powered. Harry has written for all major publications in South Africa, both print and digital and produced and presented his own TV show called, imaginatively, The Bike Show, for seven years. He held the position of editor of South Africa's largest circulation motorcycling magazine before devoting his time to freelance writing on motoring and motorcycling. Born and raised in England, he has lived in South Africa with his family since 2002. Harry has owned examples of Triumph, Norton, BSA, MV Agusta, Honda, BMW, Ducati, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki and Moto Morini motorcycles. He regrets selling all of them.