Who doesn’t love hearing a glorious sounding bike at idle, or even better screaming past with exhaust and induction singing together? Of course everyone has got their own opinion on what makes the ‘best sounding’ motorcycle, but here are some of our favourites with video clips so you can enjoy them too!
First up we’ll start with a golden oldie, the Yamaha RD350LC. While only a poky 350cc (poky for today anyway), the two-stroke power at the top end made this a speedy bike for its day and one that many mature bikers have fond memories of. ‘Only’ 47bhp was matched to a low weight and a lot of that power being stuck at high revs in two-stroke fashion meaning you felt like a racer thrashing it to get that fantastic noise and smell.
Next up, the Yamaha MT-09 and its Tracer 900 cousin that shares the same engine and drivetrain. Made to take on Triumph’s stonking Street Triple the triple cylinder engine has more cc’s (675 vs 850) and is brimming with torque and wheelie potential. Strap an Akrapovic to it and the engine’s character shines through sounding seriously beastly. With the baffle out it even spits fire!
Keeping with that theme, the MT-07 and its Tracer 700 cousin undercut basically all competition in the middleweight category with a low price, low weight, enough power and a seriously characterful parallel twin. Ordinarily parallel twins are a little staid and boring, but a 270 degree crank gives the character of a V-twin. Strap an Akrapovic on and you’ve got probably the best sounding budget middleweight you can currently buy.
Triumph are well renowned for their 3 cylinder engines and the soulful sounds they produce, somewhere in between the howl of an inline four and the growl of a twin. My favourite is the wail of the Daytona 675 at max chat – much less hard on the ears than an inline four with a whine that sets your hairs tingling. A real shame they aren’t made anymore, but the current Street Triple 765 comes close, and the limited Daytona 765 run gives a little bit of solace.
A leftfield one here, and one that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon – an electric bike. We’re used to loud, smelly engines and in fairness they are part of the experience of riding a motorcycle. Harley’s first stab at a bike that swaps petrol for electrons is the Livewire, and while it’s nowhere near as loud as other bikes its distinctive whine turns heads and shocks when it leaps off the line at a speed that most bikes simply can’t match. The sound of the future!
Moving onto the big boys, the crossplane crank of the Yamaha R1 and MT-10 give the best litre superbike sound out there, in my humble opinion. The throaty growl of the unusual firing order gives so much more character over the standard inline-four, and the fact they’re strapped to one of the best superbikes and supernakeds is the icing on the cake.
A list of ‘best sounding bikes’ wouldn’t be complete without a Ducati, so here is the obligatory addition – the Panigale V4. Until recently buying a Ducati meant buying a twin, with only their MotoGP efforts having four cylinders. The introduction of a V4 into their lineup in recent times unlocks more power for them and one of the best sounds in motorcycling.
Alongside the Livewire there’s another noise you don’t often hear with bikes, that of forced induction. Turbochargers aren’t responsive enough for motorbikes so Kawasaki opted to add a supercharger to a litre inline-four engine. The standard road-going H2 is a beast of a bike, but the track-only H2R is something else entirely. The combination of a seriously angry litre engine strapped to an even angrier supercharger and routed through a race exhaust sounds like nothing else in motorcycling.
Finally, in a similar vein to the Panigale V4 we end on another V4 which is often referred to as the best sounding bike engine around – the Aprilia RSV4 and Tuono. The blend of four cylinders with the firing order to balance the V-shape gives a unique sound that is truly superb. The fact the bikes these engines are put into are renown for being a handful just adds to that mystique, hence why it’s at no. 1!
The Bike Stop shop in Stevenage is currently temporarily closed, but our online shop is still alive and well and taking orders (and calls Monday to Friday!) We’re even doing a 10% off promotion – just enter the code ‘TOGETHER’ at checkout. You can check out our full range on our website with free delivery for any order over £25 on the UK mainland, and delivery possible to almost anywhere else. Not only that but our ‘No Quibble’ returns policy allows for returns within a 365 day period – see our returns page for more details.
