Our bucket list motorcycles of the new year

Every new year, we look forward to the press releases of new and/or upgraded motorcycles soon to debut. It’s an annual ritual in our world, and 2025 is no different. We peruse the press docs, dream and scheme about how we might get a ride on the ones we really like, and start making plans. Most of the bikes we like we eventually get a chance to sample; others, not so much. But it’s fun to dream, right?

So here’s a few of our “bucket list” motorbikes of 2025. Let us know what you think in the comments section at the end, and share a couple of your picks for this year!

Ryan Nolan
Yamaha YZF-R9

The 2025 Yamaha YZF-R9 is the number one motorcycle I’d love to ride this year, hands down. And on the track preferably, to see how the chassis feels and how this new base for Yamaha Supersport next gen will fare. Joshua got a good look at one up close late last year, so we hope to get a chance to ride one soon. Rob assured me I’ll be the “wrist” if we do, and I can’t wait.

(Just in: Yamaha sent us an invitation to sample one at Sonoma Raceway soon, and Ryan is going!)

*photo by Yamaha

Phil Gauthier
Ducati Diavel V4

Ducati continues to offer some of the finest in sport and street bikes over the last 3-4 years, while H-D has been closing dealerships. I feel the need to see why Ducati is growing while much older brands are struggling. What better way than to ride one of their newest models which offers the latest in riding software technology. It just makes sense. Besides, look at this beast- it’s a freakin’ Ferrari on two wheels! (They even build a Bentley version of it)
I’d love to spend a day thrashing one of these around our north Georgia hill country.

*photo by Ducati

Mark Zweig
Janus Gryffin 450

I want to ride the new Janus Gryffin 450 Scrambler! With its twin high side pipes and 21” front wheel, with full knobbies, serrated pegs, and optional skid plate, this beautiful American designed and built machine, ordered in the right colors, is going to be fantastic for the type of riding that I do. It’s right out of the late 60s or early 70s but with fuel injection, better brakes and suspension, and lighter weight. Let’s Ramble with the Scrambler!

*photo by Janus

Ted Edwards
Mad Monkey Racing Indian Challenger

MotoAmerica’s King Of The Baggers series is the motorcycle equivalent of a bunch of apes let loose from their chains. Massive American iron, high tech suspension, race slicks and cracking V-Twins running 7,000 RPM+ equals big noises and stupid fun. MotoAmerica Superbike and KOTB racer Max Flinders is an amicable, and starving privateer racer. I know that if I slip him a good sized breakfast burrito he just might let me take a short ride on his Mad Monkey Motorsports Indian Challenger entry into the MotoAmerica 2025 King Of The Baggers series.

A few laps is all I ask. Just a few to see what it feels like to have a pair of pistons over 4 inches wide revving until they want to leave the crankcase, punch through the top of the motor, headed for your family bits. What happens when you give it full tilt boogie leaving on exit? I want to know. Our readers want to know. How hard can it be?

Big Iron doing stupid stuff, at ridiculous speeds.  Yes, please.

*photo by Mad Monkey Racing

Neale Bayly
BMW R 1300 GS

I’ve had the privilege of riding nearly every iteration of BMW’s vaunted ADV over the years, and consider these bikes the premier in on and off-road long distance motorcycle travel. I’ve ridden them through Peru, deep in Namibia, across Europe and most recently, into war-torn Ukraine on Wellspring Intl. Outreach relief efforts. I love the GS line. Reliable, powerful, comfortable motorcycles. So to spend some time in the saddle of their new-generation 1300 would definitely be a goal of mine for 2025.

*photo by BMW Motorrad

Ken “Hawkeye” Glassman
Honda Rebel 1100T DCT

I’ve never really gone after the “latest and greatest”, or most expensive, to review unless they were bikes I knew my readers would want to buy, rather than just aspire to. I look forward to riding motorcycles that I would like to own to see if I’d want to switch bikes (or have to, in case of a change in health condition).

So, I’v decided to choose the Honda Rebel 1100T DCT cruiser. It has a 1083cc liquid-cooled, fuel injected parallel-twin engine, so I’d anticipate a smooth engine with more than enough power. It also boasts ABS brakes, a low 27.5” seat height, a light 552 lb. curb weight,  and locking hard saddlebags for some light touring duty and running errands around town. And most important, the Rebel 1100T has a 6-speed automatic Dual-Clutch Transmission. It has been many years since I rode a motorcycle without a clutch, and I’d like to see how Honda has improved their technology on that. Hell, Ferrari doesn’t even make a car with a clutch pedal anymore, and nobody questions the manhood of Ferrari owners, so let’s see if this newest automatic motorcycle will give the rider the same jollies as a clutch driven one.

*photo by Honda

Rob Brooks
BMW R 12 S

I love retros and roadsters. They resonate with me. I feel the nostalgia deeply, the DNA of each bike’s heritage captured in modern tech and livery. Heck, I own a classic in my 1978 Kawasaki KZ 650, and my modern/retro 2017 Triumph Bonneville 900 Street Cup. So one look at this year’s BMW R 12 S, in that 1976 R 90 S “Daytona Orange” motif, just knocked me out. I dropped a photo of each above- the 2025 R 12 S, and it’s ’76 inspiration. I’ve got to find a way to test ride one with the BMW Motorrad USA folks. Such a gorgeous motorcycle.

*photos by BMW Motorrad, Peter Boggia

Joshua Placa
1988 Amazonas

When Editor Brooks asked us to talk a bit about the what and why of which motorcycle we would most like to ride in 2025, he was likely imagining picks from a shiny bunch of brand new go-faster or look-cooler machines. He should know better. The thing I’d like to get on is actually related to The Thing, a 1970s miscarriage of design and engineering from Volkswagen. Take an air-cooled Volkswagen Boxer and plop it into an overbuilt frame, bang sheet metal all around it and voila, you have the cantankerous, go slow, stop slower Amazonas. So cool.

The Brazilian machine was 900-lbs of trouble. This inelegant colossus looked intimidating, but was a paper tiger of a motorcycle. The 1584cc mill was considered huge at the time, but was shockingly pokey. The brakes didn’t brake and the handling compared to steering through molasses. It was big and bulky and a bear to ride, which is exactly why I wanted to give it a whirl, or more like a wobbly spin. The bike-thing was produced from 1978-’88. I chose the 1988 version, thinking it would be the most advanced, which I figured meant it probably wouldn’t spontaneously burst into flames.

Years ago, Tim Forbes, son of uber enthusiast and super rich guy Malcom, would host an annual motorcycle ride out of their estate for advertisers and some odd press. I was the odd. The giant garage doors opened, revealing dozens of bikes of most known makes and a few unknown, including a dusty Amazonas. You could have your pick. Unfortunately, Forbes’ bike wrangler wouldn’t hand me the keys, saying the machine was too “ungainly” for mere humans. I’ve been trying to be more than “mere” ever since.

So there they are- the bikes we’d most like to ride in 2025! Many of these we’ll indeed get a shot at. Some (like Joshua’s and Ted’s picks) we might not. Nonetheless, it’s fun to think about them, and hey, you never know, right?

What do you think of our picks? And what would you like to sample this year? Drop us some thoughts in the comments section below.