The Best Looking Motorcycle From Each Major Manufacturer In 2026

Which motorcycle manufacturer makes the best looking bikes? Well in this video we're going to go through each of the major motorcycle manufacturers. We've chosen one each from their website for their 2026 lineup. We'll see where we agree and maybe where we disagree and then at the end we'll pick our one favorite for 2026. So first up we'll go with Aprilia who I'd say they've got some good looking bikes. It's a nice place to start. I would say for this one the best looking lineup is the RS sports bikes. It comes in the 457, the 660 and the V4. So it's almost like which one has the best dimensions. You know what size of RS looks the best and for me I've gone 660. I think it looks a little bit more, I don't know, svelte maybe than the V4. Although I would say probably a lot of people would just choose the V4 because it's like the super bike you know. What do you go for? Most people then yeah. No I agree it's between those two for me and I think the 660 actually has its own merits. I think it's a little bit more compact, maybe is more attractive in certain ways and if you don't like the winglets then that probably is the one to go for because it's more subtle. It does have winglets now. They slapped them on. More subtle though than the RSV4 which has got like the mustache one. It's quite a big one which I actually don't mind on that one. I think of all the brands that do the winglet and the mustachioed look I think they are one of the best. I think along the way if you're watching do comment and let us know what you think of our choices. Next up BMW. I actually found this one a little more scarce than I was anticipating. It's a large range of bikes and there are some okay looking bikes but not that many that I would say are jaw-droppingly beautiful. But the one that I did pick which I do think is perhaps in that category is the R12S, the orange one. But yeah I got to review it last year and it's one of those bikes when you see it it's very special looking. The orange makes it really stand out. It's really expensive but I think you're getting something for your money that does look special. What about you? For me I hope this surprises you. I went with the R18. What? Yeah and I went with either the classic or I think they call it the Rocktane. There's a few different versions of it. I really like that one. So the Rocktane I think is the one where they've tried to make it look a bit more like a Harley kind of or maybe like an Indian dark horse. It's like stealthier looking. It does look quite cool. I'm not sure. It's a little bit surprising. It's arresting. It's one of those ones. If you walk up to a stand it's one of the ones that you do tend to stop at. It's an oddity. You don't see many on the road and I think that's one of the things that sort of draws me in. I actually think their sports bikes are quite nice as well not to go too much of a tangent. It was a little hard to sort of narrow those out but for me and their classic bikes the R18 just has that allure to me. I'd agree the S1000RR is quite a good looking sports bike. I can't believe they picked an R18 over an S1000RR but anyway it's subjective and that's the good thing about it. CFMoto I've put them in here. I'd be very surprised if we didn't choose the same one here. I've gone for the 800 MTX adventure bike. It looks so good. I thought we were going to choose the same one. I think it stood out to us at EICMA as well. It was one of those ones we sort of deliberated over for a while. I think they've got some others coming out in the near future. So the 1000 that looks a little more butch let's say but it is ultimately the same CFMoto family style which I think is a great looking series of bikes like a lot of them. They've got a distinct look to them which makes them stand out. I like their color palette as well the blue and white and pink. I think it's recognizable as CFMoto so I think they've done a great job on that one. It shares a lot of the architecture with the KTM 790 adventure but it's way better looking in my opinion. This one is potentially one of the harder ones to choose from. We're on to D with Ducati. I spent ages looking at this one actually. It was the most difficult one but I actually went for in the end the Streetfighter V4S. Interesting. I rode it last year. It looks amazing in the flesh and you know when you get those bikes where every angle as well if you're doing the rear three-quarter you get like the back wheels massive it's got that really swept up tail little winglets on it. It just looks so cool and also the latest gen Panigale which might be your other choice. I don't think it looks quite as good as the previous one. They've softened it up a little bit. It doesn't look as aggressive maybe. It doesn't have the single-sided swing arm anymore. Neither does the Streetfighter but I think out of the two the new Panigale and the Streetfighter for me anyway the Streetfighter just edges it in terms of looks. Okay for me I went with the Panigale V2S. Did you? Yes because we took that day out on the V4 and the V2. For me on the day I do actually think the V2 looked a little nicer. I think a lot of that comes down to maybe the exhaust configuration as well. Less winglets and kind of faff. It's a little bit more of a sort of clean shape and they've got the Marc Marquez version as well which is quite nice if you want to go for something a little extra special. So that's the one I chose. In the Marquez would you could you ride around on that? Yeah it's a good point actually can you ride around in the Marquez on when your skills are far far below. Right in checks your ass can't cash. Yeah probably the standard one than Reggie in there. They do it in yellow now. Yeah. Like the throwback to I feel like the 916 the 748s always look cool in yellow. They do I think I'd still go for a red because it just it just feels wrong for me not to go for a red Ducati. I don't want to go on too many tangents like you say but there are going to be a couple of honorable mentions. Oh I know which one you're going to go with this one I think. The XDiavel. Yes. When we shot that at Ducati West London or North London? North London. Yes. And in that different red that they don't normally do it's usually the flat Ducati red but they had this metallic deep red. It just looked amazing that was such a good day of filming and an incredible looking bike but for me the Streetfighter just edges it. On to Harley Davidson please tell me you didn't pick the Panamerica. No I didn't you'll be glad to know. I don't know whether you'd be surprised by my selection on this one but it's it's pretty good first. Go on. Pretty generic I went with the Sportster S. Now I think that is another bike like the Panamerica that might divide opinion a bit. I don't think it's universally loved. No. But it is quite cool when you see it in the isn't it with that massive front tyre. The proportions on it it's just so kind of like complete and compact and every space is filled up. They've got a load of other ones where they've got some more gaps in it and it kind of allows the design to breathe a little bit whereas this one is it's just a really solid little lump but I really like that. Yeah I would say it's not the best to ride. It's like a slightly uncomfortable bike to say the least. Sure. Feels a little bit slow steering with that big front wheel but it definitely has a bit of curb appeal or it stands out from the crowd a bit. I actually went for the Street Glide Limited which I don't think you will necessarily know straight away so I'm going to pull up a pic for you. Okay. But it's if you want like that big American tourer that's you know if you want like I say a bit of Americana a big bike I think that looks pretty cool. You have to lean into the brand at certain points and there's definitely other brands that I've done that to yeah. Right we're into the H's firmly and we're on to Honda. Base Africa Twin. Probably one of the best looking adventure bikes ever made and the new adventure sports with the 19 inch front wheel to make it a bit more road and touring biased detracts from that for me. I think it looks the best with a big 21 inch up front. True. It looks great in whatever colour way and I just think it's always been a great looking bike but this most recent version looks amazing. I love it. It's one of the best things about it. Yeah this one surprises me that we marry up in terms of Africa Twin because yeah they've got they've got quite a nice selection actually and obviously they've got some more retro looking bikes now as well but I think maybe there's a bias here because I had an Africa Twin so I've gone with the CRF 1100L as well and I love the I think I saw I haven't noticed before the retro colours they're sort of bringing back some you know harking back to their original styles or 90s. Yeah really nice. That's what puts the Africa Twin ahead of a lot of their retros for me this year in particular because you've got some really special colourways. Husqvarna. This one I went with the Svartpilen 801. Nice. Yeah. Yeah I don't think it necessarily like complies with the classical laws of aesthetics but it still does make for something that kind of stands out. I'd love to see one day if like Husqvarna had the chance to build something like that but from the ground up so they weren't having to you know layer it onto an existing bike because that's where I think some of those clashes come in terms of like yeah the mechanical side versus how they want it to look but it's cool but I went for the Norden 901 because I just think it does look a bit more like I say harmonious and together. It's a great looking bike. I actually was deliberating between the Expedition version with the soft luggage and the slightly fancier graphics pack but looking at them on the website I actually think the base model looks clean. It's a little lower slung. The simpler visuals on it as well maybe work better so but yeah both cool looking bikes. We're both right. Indian. Chief Baba Dark Horse I've gone. It's like um I think it's just the sort of best of everything that they can do if you know what I mean. It looks a little bit classic because it's still got the air-cooled engine and but it looks a little bit modern because it's the Dark Horse version so a little bit stripped down and I like the chunky Baba tyres on it. I think it all just yeah it works together nicely. What about you? This one I surprised myself with because I went with the Chief Vintage. The new one? Yeah. So that's the for anyone who's not seen 125th anniversary bike. It really references like Indians of old with the with the paint job and the valance fenders they call them or I call them huge mud glass in Britain. That's the translation. Yeah that's fair. And it does work. It's not necessarily something I think on paper that you'd be like oh I'd get on with that all but when you see it it just looks cool doesn't it? Like I say this is the one where I lean into the brand a little bit right and as far as their heritage and like what you would expect that to be go with the most Indian looking Indian you could find basically. It is the most Indian looking Indian. Kawasaki Z900RS SE. All right yeah yes yeah no that's a good choice. I struggled a little bit with them and I went with the H2R. I panicked. Is it the best looking bike? Sure. I mean it is it stands out. It's the most bike. It's the most bike of any bike you can currently. You know when you have one too many coffees and you're trying to edit a video or something and you're just like going crazy? Yeah. Yeah I think maybe they just overcooked it that day. I think you made maybe a safer choice and maybe the right choice as well. The SE as well of the Z900RS has the gold fork the yellow Ohlins shock. It has a red I think paint job for this year. It used to be yellow now it's red. I think it looks brilliant and it's another one when I reviewed it where I was like this every shot when you're filming it you're getting all the little cutaways filming all the details of the bike. It just looks perfect. A tricky one for me anyway KTM. I was going to say it's a trick question. None. No that's too harsh mate. Come on. It is too harsh. Is there one little nugget in there that actually appeals to you visually? Do you know the one that appeals to me the most visually and this isn't me just trying to sort of throw a joke answer. It's the 390 Enduro R genuinely. Yeah. Because it's kind of what I would expect of the brand and it's what I would want. If I had a KTM one KTM sat in my garage it would probably be that one. So yeah there are some of their sort of naked bikes like the 1390 Super Duke. It's a pretty bike I suppose. It's very aggressive looking but for me I'd probably go 390 Enduro. I think you're so right. KTM works best when it's performance off-roady or like really fast. It's an aggressive language so it has to be applied to like an aggressive bike. So I actually was thinking about the 390s. I was like that's what they do yeah like a lightweight off-roady but I actually ended up going for the 1390 Super Duke car because yeah if you ride it it's wild. Yeah. And so it deserves to look like that and there are some nice bits on it single size swing arm like all that body work coming to the front it is a little bit it maybe is another victim of too much caffeine like there's a lot but it does look kind of awesome. Sure. Moto Guzzi V7 Sport. Nice. I thought you'd go for that one. Yeah. For me I've actually gone with the V100. Okay. And I do like the fact that thankfully they've got quite a small range so it's a little bit of an easier sort of test but I do like a V7 obviously. For me though in the flesh the V100 is just that step above. Very nice bike. I think the V7 Sport appeals to me because it's got the classic look of like any other V7 with the distinctive design features like that big fuel tank, the shaft drive, the you know the V twin sticking out either side. It looks like a Moto Guzzi but almost like you know if you see a custom V7 and someone's put fancy brakes on it an upside down fork. Yeah. And it looks a bit more sporty. The lime green paint job. Someone's done like a custom fancy paint job. It looks like a custom in a way just straight out of the factory so that's why I like it. MV Agusta another rich pickings kind of situation. Yeah. Superveloce 1000 Ceri Auro. Okay. No. I think that's a good choice. I went with the Superveloce 1000 Ago. I can see why you might have gone with that. I mean they're very similar they're both red and silver. Sure. But what a crazy looking bike. Another busy one but I suppose that's how you can do it like the the lines kind of flow and all work together for me like it's it's a busy bike but it looks like one person designed the whole thing just to be like one flowing piece of art. Exactly and it looks like it's purpose built from the ground up with the sole intention of making it that exotic and pretty. Royal Enfield. I went with the Goan Classic 350. Come on. Genuine answer. Do you want my second answer? Yeah. Himalayan 450. No way. I love it. Yes. I'm going to stick with this one and I'll tell you why. I do like the other ones. I think you're going to go with one of the more sort of classic looking of their bikes. For me they just look like a more budget friendly version of a Triumph and why wouldn't you just go with the Triumph. So I'd rather go with the Goan Classic because that is trick or the Himalayan because it looks like a Royal Enfield. It doesn't look like anything else. It looks like theirs. The Goan Classic is eye-catching I'll give you that. The Himalayan 450 though for me has always looked a bit like sad like it's melted in the middle because the way that it all slopes down. Oh no. I can't look at it without feeling a bit glum. It looks good in some specs like what was that one that we saw at Motorcycle Live where it was black I think it's called the new Manor Black or something and with the tubeless rims as well where they lace to the edge they just make it look a bit more premium as well and I think with a lot of luggage it maybe looks better and crash bars and stuff looks more aggressive and less like it's melted in the middle but yeah I don't know. I went Continental 650 GT because like it's classical proportions. What it kind of does better than some of the Triumphs as well is the line through the middle of it like the bone line is just super straight the subframe straight it goes straight through the tank the headlight's a little bit lower yeah and so it really does look well proportioned and then also I think you've got the option with that bike to have a shorter solo seat with a little seat cone and it's not like on a Thruxton for example where you had a twin seat with a seat cone and it's still quite long it sort of has a bit of subframe sticking out the back so you can have the look of a custom with the chopped subframe a little bit but just with a factory light seat that you stick on I think it looks really cool so that's my choice. Suzuki I found this one a little bit tricky yeah we rode those um the Retros the AT and ATT yeah that's another bike that's built upon a modern naked and so it doesn't really have that thorough we talk sometimes about mild Retros and I call them mild Retro or deep Retro where the whole thing's been deeply designed as a Retro a mild Retro is just like a different tank body kit yeah and that's what those are it's a bit of a reskin yeah it's a nice looking bike it's nice but it yeah I couldn't I found myself the same sort of conflict and I wonder whether we've gone for the same one but for me if you're gonna go with Suzuki go with the most Suzuki Suzuki you can get go with a Hayabusa uh I did think about it it's a cool looking bike but it's also a bit podgy oh it's podgy it's and it's like it's podgy busa it's retro it's throwback like it hasn't moved on all that much at all but like I say if you're gonna get one it's just one of these like sort of pin-up bikes depending on who you are but like it's just you know it's unique to them I did like that 25th anniversary uh I'll show you a pic that we saw at some shows it was in bright orange do you remember that yeah it does look kind of cool but I actually went for the new Gixxer 1000 that they brought it back out and it's in 40th anniversary do you need to see a pic of that please because I was thinking along the same lines of if you're going to go for a Suzuki go for something that looks like a Suzuki that's actually a good looking bike actually yeah I didn't why didn't I see that yeah that's quite nice and this is a retro paint job as well the yellow with a bit of blue it's not bad I'm still sticking with Hayabusa but it's good choice Triumph oh this is another you know there's a lot to go out here yeah I couldn't really I haven't chosen one yet I'll know yeah I'll know it when you know well here's probably some of the options um I actually really like the speed triple when we reviewed that last year I thought the level of detail on it was good but not everyone loves those front headlights and I can kind of understand that it'd be up there for me and the Rocket 3 as well has to be mentioned because it just looks so impressive and it's one of those bikes that almost looks like a concept bike it's so out there and huge and the way that they just design every little bit as well there's nothing that looks unfinished or just purely functional I think it's a great looking thing but I actually just went t120 because if you want like there's nothing there's nothing bad about it if you want a retro looking bike yeah I'm biased because there's one there um but yeah if you want a retro looking bike it is perfectly proportioned everything's nicely done and also you have to say that liquid cooled t120 I think came out in 2016 it's now 2026 they've just released the latest version it looks exactly the same and so I think that's an indication that they just they nailed it it's timeless they nailed it and I'm going to say for the sake that's made my decision because for the sake of diversity let's throw something else into the mix and maybe there is some recency bias to this one but it would be the trident 800 because it is a really nice design and it is one of their newest designs so you can imagine it would be more sort of like finger on the pulse yeah you know so I think it's really nice looking it's amazing how much just sharpening up some of the shapes has taken the 660 which looks a little softer and just sharpened it up and they've now updated the 660 version with some of the same visuals and it just yeah it looks way more exciting aggressive and for an affordable bike I think it has a little bit of specialness about it yamaha to round off I've gone xsr 900 gp in the new 2026 yellow black and white kenny roberts inspired finish same I was yeah I want to ask one clarification question does it have to be road ready or can it be if it's on the website that was my rule for you when r1 race then oh yeah yeah no I was looking through their their selection and I have to say this year not as many of as many maybe I've had in previous years from yamaha um but yeah the xsr 900 absolutely was one of my selection but the r1 race for me is just mean looking it does look mean that's fair play I think it's a very cool looking bike I did give it a sort of slight moment of consideration other honorable mentions here tenere is a great looking adventure bike to be fair and the rally version I always think looks quite good and also they've got that I think it's sick and there's a lot of anniversaries to keep up with at the moment but I think they've got a 60th anniversary paint job which is red and white and sort of 80s or 90s inspired and they've put that on all the sports bikes like the r9 r7 you can get it r3 r125 I think that looks really really good but for me yeah that xsr is unlike anything else on the market it's another one that's built on a modern chassis yeah so maybe shouldn't quite work but it really does and so fair play to them for doing something so out there right I'd love to know from you guys in the comments leave us you know where you think we got it right where we've got it wrong and what your favorite is but it's time for you Tim to you know get off the fence and choose what you think is the best looking bike off your list have you already got your selection no I'm really struggling now if we're going modern I probably would say street fighter v4s if we're going retro I'd say r12s the bmw oh so you've got two of you I couldn't choose all right well if we're doing that then I would also go with a Ducati I'd go with my Panigale v2s it makes its own case and in terms of more of a classic look the Indian I thought you're gonna say going classic honestly the Indian is yeah it's a stunner yeah the vintage like I say though let us know what you think down in the comments below we'll put my review of that r12s on the screen now because if you like looking at nice bikes then that you could just mute it and leave it on probably be better anyway um yeah hit subscribe as well for more of the latest motorcycle news and reviews right here on motobob a massive thanks for watching this one and we'll see in the next video