TOP 10 MOTOGP MOTORCYCLES OF ALL TIME
1 - MV
Agusta 500cc
1952 -
1975
Champions
- John Surtees, Gary Hocking, Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read.
18 titles
in all and an incredible 17 in a row makes the MV Agusta my number 1 and I
don’t think there’ll be too many people who will disagree with my choice. The
motorcycle was so dominant as a triple or a four that on a good day it could
lap the bike in second place.
2 - Honda
NSR500/NSR500V
1984 -
2002
Champions
- Freddie Spencer, Wayne Gardner, Eddie Lawson, Mick Doohan, Àlex Crivillé and
Valentino Rossi
10 titles
in 16 years makes for great reading and that’s why it’s my second choice.
3 - Yamaha
YZR500
1973 -
2002
Champions
- Giacomo Agostini, Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson and Wayne Rainey
10 titles
in 29 years (yes it really was around for that long) means it has to be in 3rd
place just because the NSR500 got there in just 16 years. Both bikes were
amazing.
4 - Gilera
500cc
1949 -
1957
Champions
- Umberto Masetti, Geoff Duke, Libero Liberati
6 titles
in 9 years. Gilera May be a name that a lot of people aren’t familiar with but
back in the 50s the Italians new a thing or two about building a great racing
bike and Gilera set the standard - then another Italian company came on to the
scene and stole their thunder. MV Agusta would go on to dominate the class. In
the first 4 decades of the World Motorcycle Championship (later to be renamed
MotoGP) Italian bikes won 24 out of first 26 Championships.
5 - Yamaha
YZR-M1
2002 -
Present
Champions
- Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo
7 titles
in 14 years is pretty cool but I can’t see where another one is going to come
from anytime soon!
6 - Honda
RC213V
2012 -
Present
Champion -
Marc Marquez
5 titles
in 7 years says quite a lot but when you have Marc Marquez on board it’s hard
to tell how good the bike really is. He would probably win on a Yamaha and
would definitely win on a Ducati. Having said that Marc is showing no signs of
leaving Honda so we can expect the impressive win ratio to just go up and up,
roll on title number 7.
7 - Suzuki
RG500
1976 -1977
Champion -
Barry Sheene
2
consecutive titles in 1976 and 1977 put Suzuki on the map and this bike looked
so cool for its time. The trouble was that in 1978 Suzuki didn’t develop the
bike at all, fell out with Barry and didn’t take a certain Kenny Roberts very
seriously, the rest is history.
2002 -
2006
Champions
- Valentino Rossi, James Hayden
In it’s
relatively short life the RC211V managed to land 3 titles in 5 seasons before
being replaced by the under achieving RC212V which only managed one title with
the amazing Casey Stoner onboard.
9 - 800cc
Ducati Desmosedici GP7
2007
Champions
- Casey Stoner
In 2007
this bike was so fast that Casey could be ten bike lengths down on the last
corner before the straight and would end up leading before the next turn, and
none of us realised at the time that Casey was the only man on the planet who
could control the machine.
10 - AJS
500 cc Porcupine
1949 -
1954
Champion -
Leslie Graham
You can’t
have a MotoGP motorcycle top ten without including the first great motorcycle
ever to win it.
I think we
can all agree that there are some pretty cool bikes in my top 10. I’m sure
you’ll all have a different order but I don’t think the top three will change
for too many people!
