The recent arrival of Triumph’s 178bhp Speed Triple RS confirmed that supernakeds have branched into two distinct categories. Lording at the top table are hyper-pricey, – hyper-powerful hypernakeds such as Ducati’s Streetfighter V4 S (£20,143, 203bhp) Kawasaki’s Z H2 (£16,047, 197bhp) and the new Trumpet (£15,100).
These grab all the headlines, but below them is an equally compelling and far more affordable bunch; the original supernakeds. They have sorted electronics, slick suspension, track-worthy brakes and 150bhp or thereabouts, yet undercut the hypers’ prices by thousands thanks to one crucial factor: their engines are hand-me-downs from yesterday’s superbike heroes.
So, here we have the freshly revamped GSX-S1000 (engine via the 2005 GSX-R1000), the restyled CB1000R (ex-2006 Fireblade), the latest S1000R (ex-2019 S1000RR) and MT-10 (ex-2015 R1). All the engines are tuned…