Rennie Scaysbrook | December 6, 2015
Bikes are sexy. Well, most bikes are, anyway. But what makes them sexier is a good set of clothes, and the last 10 years have thrown up some really pretty sportbikes. So with that in mind, here are our top 10 color schemes of the last 10 years. Is your favorite in there? Have your say at the bottom of the page!
2014 Ducati Panigale Superleggera
When Ducati dropped the Superleggera on us two years ago, the motorcycle industry took a collective gasp. This was the fastest, most delicious superbike ever to come from Ducati, and it looked it, too. The bright red, almost pink, color scheme made it look unlike anything before of since to come from Bologna. It is so, so pretty. The colors alone have ensured this is an instant collectors item, and that’s before you look at the eye-watering spec sheet.
2012 MV Agusta F3 Serie Oro
This MV’s very special indeed. The Serie Oro was a limited run of 200 units to celebrate MV’s arrival in the supersport sector and built to order from the factory. Forged alloy wheels, single-sided swingarm, Brembos and smatterings of carbon fiber aside, the Serie Oro was possibly the most beautiful of any MV since the original F4 of the mid-90s. Gold in the right places, that deep, luminous crimson red paint, it’s hard to stop looking at it. You’d want it to be, considering it cost nearly twice the price of a standard F3.
2012 EBR 1190 RS
Ahh, Buell – that poor ol’ dude whose heart is in the right place, but never his money. At least he can take responsibility for this masterstroke of carbon fiber charm. Somehow, the expensive, lightweight material wrapped around the avant-garde chassis seemed to fit with Buell’s design better than many before or since – it’s just a shame this was the best it got for Buell, as three years later the doors would shut on the factory in a fury of unpaid debts and disgruntled workers.
2009 Honda CBR1000RR Repsol
The Repsol Honda team is an institution in motorcycle racing and deserves a proper race replica paint job, and that’s exactly what we got with the Repsol CBR. This, along with the Corona Extra replica Suzuki GSX-R of a few years prior, really shifted the game forward in how close a replica paint job needed to be to the real thing. If you squint, you can see Nicky Hayden flying to victory at Laguna on it…
2007 Aprilia RSV 1000 Mille R Bol d’Or
Aprilia’s classic colors have started to reappear in the very special RSV4 Factory Works for 2016, but eight years ago they were bought out in the twin-cylinder RSV1000 Mille R Bol d’Or replica. This bike in itself was a replica of the early 250cc racers the factory campaigned in the 80s and 90s – hey, a good classic color scheme never goes out of style, right?
2012 Triumph Daytona 675 R
You didn’t have to be Chaz Davies to look factory with a 675 R. Triumph proves that clean is killer with the 675 R – smatterings of gold, understated red subframe and pearly white color Colgate would kill for. There was also the carbon front guard and exhaust heat guard, this bike looked as purposeful as any of the supersport bikes of the day but did it with a clean shave and a cup of earl grey tea for the rider. Oh, how very British…
2010 Bimota DB7
You’ve gotta love a company that gets kicked down constantly and keeps bringing itself back, and when it happened to Bimota seven years ago, their response – a year later – was the gorgeous Ducati 1098-powered DB7. The red and white color made it look unapologetically sexy and single minded, that red tubular swingarm and shock, OZ Racing wheels and billet, well, everything – man, that’s a sexy bike.
2015 MV Agusta F4 RR
Another white masterstroke comes in the MV Agusta F4 RR. MV is one of the all-time masters of beautiful design, and the color of the RR of this year equals sophisticated, unadulterated Italian speed. It’s got the goods with Öhlins and Brembo, and if you’ve ever seen a RR under streetlights at night and the gloss white on full display, it’s hard to argue this is a beautiful machine
2010 BMW S 1000 RR Acid Green
Nobody wanted an acid green S 1000 RR when they first came out. Ironically, it’s now this one everyone’s after. They never looked great in photos but get them in the right sunlight and they have this beautiful green/gold hue that makes this one stand out more than any S 1000 RR since – save for the awesome HP4 – but this one didn’t cost you a decent house deposit to put in your garage.
2012 KTM RC8 R
If ever a bike screamed ‘don’t f**k with me!’ it’s the KTM RC8 R. This thing looks like it’s ready to rob a bank and signaled a shift in tone for KTM when it was released back in 2008. Sadly, the RC8 range was somewhat neglected by the factory with minimal updates across its life except for some killer paint jobs like this. Next year will be this bike’s swansong, replaced by the RC16 MotoGP machine as the premium sportbike in KTM’s lineup for 2017.
