The world’s fastest motorcycle on record is the Dodge Tomahawk, capable of 420 miles per hour (mph). Although this is the fastest speed for a motorcycle in history, the Tomahawk was a concept vehicle and never produced for sale to the public. One certainly cannot ride it legally on public streets.
Street bikes are street-legal production bikes anyone can buy and ride on the road. This excludes bikes like the Tomahawk. Currently, the fastest street-legal motorcycle is the electric Lightning LS-218, with a top speed of 218 mph. The next fastest bike is also electric, the Damon HyperSport, at 200 mph.
All other motorcycle manufacturers list the top speed of their street-legal bikes as no higher than 186 mph. The explanation as to why those motorcycles are electronically limited to never exceed a top speed of 186 mph comes later in the article.
However, top speed is not the only performance metric critical to riders. Here is a list of the ten fastest bikes available in 2024, with details on an array of performance measures.
Lightning Motorcycles, located in San Jose, California, is enthusiastic about the performance of their electric motorcycles. In 2014, they came out with the Lightning LS-218. This bike delivers 244 horsepower and can go from 0 to 60 mph in just 2 seconds. The LS-218 top speed of 218 mph makes it faster than any other street-legal electric motorcycle sold today.
Damon Motorcycles builds electric bikes from their facility in Vancouver, Canada. The manufacturer-listed top speed of the HyperSport model is 200 mph. It has 200 horsepower and can reach 60 mph in less than 3 seconds.
Kawasaki offers a complete lineup of Ninja motorcycles. The Ninja H2 is the street-legal version of the Ninja H2R racing bike, which can do 248 mph. Kawasaki does not list the Ninja H2’s top speed. Both bikes run on Kawasaki’s supercharged 998cc engine. The H2 has plastic body panels instead of the carbon panels on the H2R, although there is a street version of the H2 with carbon panels available–the Ninja H2 Carbon ABS. Maximum torque for the Ninja H2 is 104.9 pound-feet at 11,000 rpm.
Honda claims more Grand Prix wins than any other manufacturer. The new and improved 2025 Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP is available in 2024. The new model includes additional enhancements for better aerodynamics and more power, with Honda disclosing the official top speed as 186 miles per hour.
Alternatively, riders can enjoy the CBR 1000RR for 41% less than the Fireblade SP ($16,999 vs $28,999, respectively). Both bikes sport the 1000cc inline four-cylinder engine. While not as quick as the Fireblade SP, Car & Bike says it can also reach 186 mph.
According to BMW, the S 1000RR achieves 186 mph at 13,000 rpm, and 83 foot-pounds of torque at 11,000 rpm. At 13,000 rpm, this bike generates 205 horsepower. The bike is designed to be aerodynamic. The winglets generate up to 37.7 pounds of aerodynamic downforce at 186 mph. In 3.1 seconds, this bike can accelerate from 0-62 mph.
MV Agusta states its Rush model can reach speeds greater than 300 kph (186 mph) but does not say how much greater. A 998cc engine powers the bike to 208 horsepower. This bike is “naked,” meaning the bike is stripped down to the basics with little or no fairings to streamline it.
MV Agusta was legendary for their F4 RR 312, boasting a top speed of 312 kph (194 mph). However, MV Agusta stopped production of the F4 RR 312 in 2013.
The Panigale V4 is the seventh generation of Ducati’s superbike. It runs on a 998cc engine. Ducati has not released the top speed of this bike, but it did state this bike comes closest to the MotoGP, referring to Ducati’s 2024 racing bike that dominated the 2024 grand prix. Carbon Fiber Gear claims the top speed of the Ducati Panigale V4 is 299 kph (186 mph).
Yamaha’s fastest bike is the YZF-R1, driven by a 998cc engine. Yamaha does not list the top speed for the YZF-R1. As of 2025, this bike will no longer be street legal in Europe and will only be available for the track. Cycle News reported they expect it to remain street legal and available in the United States.
You may wonder why the top speed of so many street-legal motorcycles caps at 186 mph. Reasons date back to the 1990s, when we saw manufacturers chasing each other for the speed crown with faster and faster production bikes. Years of this caused a stir among politicians. The manufacturers’ response was to police themselves by agreeing to electronically limit their motorcycles to 300 kilometers per hour (186 miles per hour). This self-imposed restriction became known as “the gentleman’s agreement.” No manufacturer acknowledged the agreement was made, but bikes which were clearly capable of exceeding this speed began to peak at 300 kph or 186 mph in 1999.
In 2007, MV Agusta released the 312, deliberately capable of going 312 kph. It had no limiter. The gentleman’s agreement was officially breached. BMW soon breached the agreement as well, even though BMW is widely credited with leading the industry toward the agreement in the first place. Today, some manufacturers proudly allow their bikes to exceed the 300 kph/186 mph threshold. Other manufacturers, particularly Japanese manufacturers, continue to electronically limit the speed of their bikes, although still not acknowledging the agreement even exists. Some of the manufacturers reported to have breached the agreement in the past clearly abide by it today.
Electric bikes can be fast, and they are also quick. The most common measure of quickness is the time it takes the bike to travel 0-60 mph. No gasoline powered bike comes close to the 2-second time listed by Lightning for its LS-218. Currently, the fastest street-legal motorcycle is also the quickest.
Dennis Galbraith is a respected expert in market research. He brings 23 years of automotive and powersports industry experience to his research and writing on these subjects.