These Are the Bikes We Need in 2027!

Wishes do come true. The Kawasaki Ninja H2 returns in 2027, the Honda CB1000F brings back the Bol d'Or, and the completely revamped KTM 790 Duke has been in dealerships since the summer. Three bikes we had written off or missed. 1000PS turns 25 this year, and a quarter of a century piles up quite a lot: bikes we loved, and gaps nobody fills anymore. That's why I'm continuing the list. What's confirmed, what remains a rumour and what is, for now, just our wish is noted for each one. Everything the manufacturers have actually shown already can be found in our overview New Bikes 2027. This is about the rest. About the bikes that are missing.

In 2020, we at 1000PS were convinced that a project like the supercharged Kawasaki would remain a one-off: "Pretty sure we'll never see anything like it again." Now the Kawasaki Ninja H2 for 2027 is confirmed, Euro 5+ compliant and back in Europe. Rarely have I been happier to be wrong. In 2015 I got to ride the first Ninja H2 in Qatar, and what stuck with me wasn't the 300 hp. What stuck was the feeling that this engine could pile on another hundred if it only wanted to. Equally confirmed: the Honda CB1000F, with which Zonko rediscovered the Bol d'Or in Rome, and the KTM 790 Duke. The lesson: manufacturers do listen. Sometimes it just takes longer than we'd like.

For Austria, every wish list starts in Mattighofen, and lately they've delivered. Confirmed and on sale: the model year 2027 790 Duke. Europe gets 95 hp instead of the previous 105, and in the KTM 790 Duke 2027 test, Horvath answered the question of whether you miss anything with one word: "No." The second comeback is done too. In 2021 we wrote about the RC8: "Every day we pray that KTM revives the RC8 with the current LC8." It didn't turn out to be a V2, but the KTM 990 RC R is here, road-legal. Still open are the 990 Adventure and 990 SMT: both have been photographed as prototypes, KTM isn't saying anything. So: rumour. On 3 November, KTM is hosting a press conference in Milan. I can't wait.

Now for the wish. The big single lives on: the 690 Rally is confirmed for 2027, with 79 hp and built in Mattighofen, the KTM 690 SMC R has been revised, and our test in Barcelona concluded: "The LC4 still feels like a true single – just more modern." What's missing is the naked sister. Of a new 690 Duke there's no photo, no statement, nothing. In 2007 I rode the KTM 690 Supermoto to a track day on its own wheels, no van and no trailer. That's exactly what only a single like this can do: ride there, send it, ride home. Dear KTM crew, the engine is done and freshly homologated. Build the Duke to go with it. We're waiting.

With the Yamaha R6 I have to be honest: this is a wish, and a pious one at that. In Europe it's only been available without road registration since 2021, and production is said to end for good in 2027. And yet we know exactly what's being lost. In 2017 the 1000PS test said: "What a 600 can do. The precision it has on corner entry." I myself sat on the model year 2008 YZF-R6 at Sugo in 2007, and the first outing was a disappointment. The reason: "The levers were perfectly adjusted - for children's hands." A few turns of the screwdriver later, it pushed forward with serious force.

The R1 is the more interesting case, because someone actually talked. Since 2025 it has only been available in Europe for the race track. In the 1000PS interview in December 2025, Poky asked Yamaha Europe boss Olivier Prévost directly whether a road-legal one would return. The answer: "We're not giving up. We're not giving up on this segment." How and when, he wouldn't say. On top of that, a patent for active aerodynamics is doing the rounds, which some read as a hint at a new road R1. There's no spy shot of a prototype and no date. So if you're searching for the Yamaha R1 2027, here's my honest answer: rumour, with a boss who is conspicuously reluctant to deny it. I take that as a good sign. A brand that goes racing needs a flagship with a number plate.

No bike on this list gets searched for more often, and for none is the rumour this solid. BMW itself showed a Concept RR in May 2025, and in July 2026 motorradonline.de reported barely camouflaged pre-production bikes on the Nordschleife, with winglets and a new frame. The 215 hp being floated around hasn't been confirmed by BMW. Officially, model year 2027 of the S 1000 RR brings a new colour. In 2010 my own S 1000 RR stood in the garage, and until the first service it was only allowed to rev to 9,000 rpm. Back then it was somehow like heavy petting with a super hot girlfriend. What I want from the new one is in our 2025 BMW S 1000 RR test: "If it weren't for the tingling vibrations, the drivetrain would get a straight A." Exactly that, please. The rest is spot on. And BMW has also already announced a naked bike with a 450 engine. There's already an enduro, the naked bike has been announced - you don't have to be a genius to see that BMW will eventually bring a 450 supersports too.

Now it gets awkward, because I have to crush someone's hopes. A great many of you are searching for a revival of the Yamaha XT 500, including the price. The truth: it doesn't exist. No announcement, no patent, not a word from Yamaha. The videos of a supposedly new XT were made by an AI, recognisable by the fact that the exhaust switches sides.

Things look better for the big Yamaha for the rough stuff. Ever since the Super Ténéré 1200 didn't get a Euro 5 update, there's been a gaping hole above the 700. In 2022 I rode the Ténéré 700 privately. In the comparison in the Pyrenees it had less power than the others and was still popular, and that's exactly why I understand anyone who wants to take the next step after a few years. Prévost said in the same interview: "I can't confirm anything, but we can't ignore this wish." Meanwhile Yamaha has invited everyone to Milan on 2 November, and the teaser shows three uneven heartbeats. Three beats, three cylinders, say our colleagues. Yamaha hasn't mentioned the name Ténéré 900, nor a successor to the Super Ténéré 1200. It remains a rumour. But one I'd bet a coffee on.

Honda used to build things nobody else dared to. The RC30, for example, which came to Europe in 1988: a V4 with 748 cc, limited to around 5,000 units. I miss that Honda, and now it's making a comeback. At the show stand in 2025, in our video about the V3 with electric supercharger, they said: "now we're doing something completely crazy again". The state of the Honda rumours: the company has stated it is continuing development for series production, and a design registration already shows the bike with mirrors, indicators and a licence plate holder. Nobody knows the power figure or market launch. So the V3R 900 isn't yet confirmed as a production model; colleagues expect it at EICMA. Anything beyond that, from a supersports to an Africa Twin with a supercharger, is reading tea leaves. I'll take the naked bike first.

With Suzuki, many of you are searching for the same thing: a successor to the Bandit 1250. The status is quickly told. Wish, nothing more. The line-up Suzuki has shown so far for 2027 contains no Bandit, and the brand's only sign of life concerns the SV650. And yet the recipe was so simple. The first big Bandit arrived in 1996 with the air/oil-cooled four-cylinder from the GSX-R1100 and was the "big bike at a small price". About the GSX 1400, Zonko said in 2017: "the first time I saw it, I just broke down". Nobody says things like that about a crossover. The GSX-S1000GX won our sport touring bike and crossover ranking this year and is a great bike. It's just not a Bandit. Lots of metal, lots of displacement, little drama: Suzuki, you can do this. And we would buy it.

In 2017, in our Top 5 supersports for the country road, I wrote: "No supersports defines the golden mean as much as the Gixxer 750". I still stand by that today. In 2008, on a GSX-R 750 from the previous year, I was faster than colleagues on more powerful bikes, and it certainly wasn't down to the rider. More grunt than a 600, less stress than a 1000. Status for Europe: wish. In the USA the 750 is still available for 2027, with new colours and no technical changes; about Europe, Suzuki says nothing. As early as December 2018 we wrote that despite long speculation we hadn't seen a new version. Nothing has changed. I'm still not giving up. The golden mean never goes out of fashion.

The questions on this list closest to an actual purchase come from touring riders. Where is the successor to the Yamaha FJR 1300, to the Honda Crosstourer, to the Honda Deauville? The answer: nowhere, it's a wish. The FJR bowed out in Europe with Euro 5, after more than 120,000 units built. In 2024, in our sport touring bike ranking, we dryly noted: "There are fewer and fewer sport touring bikes." When I tested the Honda NT1100 in 2022, I couldn't help thinking of the Deauville, and I noticed what was missing: the shaft drive. Lubing the chain in the hotel courtyard in the evening is no holiday.

When the Japanese mothball their supersports, someone else fills the gap. The CFMOTO V4 SR-RR is a prototype for which the manufacturer claims 315.82 km/h, and according to CFMOTO Europe it's set to become a production bike. There's no date. So a rumour, albeit a loud one. We expect a production bike at EICMA in November 2026 and a test on 1000PS by March 2027 at the latest. The ZXMOTO 820 RR is further along: Valentin Debise made a statement with it in the World Supersport Championship, and in Switzerland it's already at the first dealers, as our ZX Moto 820RR test shows.

This list has an expiry date, and that's a good thing. On 2 November Yamaha reveals in Milan what's behind the three heartbeats, KTM follows on 3 November, and from 5 to 8 November EICMA opens to the public. Afterwards I'll update this article on 1000PS with which rumour has become a bike and which wish remains a wish. My prediction: the big Ténéré is coming, the BMW will show itself, and for the XT 500 and Bandit I'll have to keep begging - and Honda will turn the V3R into a production bike. But hand on heart: nobody would have bet on a new Ninja H2 either, least of all us. Manufacturers build what sells, and what sells is what people demanded loudly enough.