Middleweight Sports Bikes are back! Not only are they back, they are back with a vengeance. This may come as a bit a surprise to you, as everyone thought that we’d all stopped riding these sports bikes on the road.
There was a time, not very long ago, when middle-weight sports-bikes dominated the hearts and minds of riders. But, in recent years, rider preferences have seemingly shifted in favour of alternative categories of motorcycle. Categories such as adventure/tourers, naked bikes, regular street bikes, modern classics and so on. But, with the re-emergence of these middleweight sports bikes, we have to ask if there’s any point to them?
For this feature we’ll take a look at two of the very best of these modern sports bikes and compare their relative merits. We’ll also ask whether these modern interpretations of the sports bike formula have what it takes to re-ignite the imagination of riders. The two bikes in question are the 2025 Yamaha YZF-R9 and the Ducati Panigale V2