[Warhammer]

Someone enlighten me. When I rode a GPZ 900R in the 80s, that wasn't considered a middleweight bike and neither was my 1986 GSXR 750. Now my Interceptor 500 was considered middleweight back in the day. So what happened? The 899(900cc) is now considered small? My R1 had 998cc's
and that wasn't considered small and this is only a 100cc's off of that. I wonder if a 1000 liter bike will be considered small in the future.

 

[Oni]

900cc on a V-Twin is different to a 4-Cylinder Japanese bike. You need to go of BHP not CC when you compare these bikes. The R1 produces near 190bhp while the 899 produces 140bhp. 50bhp difference. Now look at the 1199cc, it produces 195BHP. So as you can see the following formula works for V-Twins;

750cc = 900cc V-Twin
1000cc = 1100-1200cc V-Twin

750cc bikes have always be middle weights as they are inbetween the 600cc and 1000cc bikes. 600cc being lightweight, 750cc being middle, 1000cc heavy weight.

 

[Warhammer]

Ahhhhh... Makes sense now, thanks Oni.

 

[rybo]

And I would say what we are seeing is a resurgence of "heavyweight" bikes.

In the late 90's and early 2000's they were everywhere because the 750 cc 4 cylinder was the displacement for Superbike racing and to make it equitable the 1000cc twin was also eligible.

When the rules changed to allow the 1000cc 4 cylinder to compete as a Superbike the 750cc 4 cyl bikes completely dried up with the exception of the gsxr, which I would argue remains one of the most underrated bikes of our time. Now we are starting to see a comeback. The 899 Ducati, the 800 cc 3 cyl MV and the Triumph 675 are the bikes filling the gap at present along with the GSXR 750. I'm guessing we may see the others follow suit and I think it would be awesome. Imagine a new honda or Yamaha 750 in the mix! (Or maybe we will see them adopt a different cylinder count as well?

In my race org

Lightweight = smaller than 600 cc 4 cyl. Consider an sv650 (2 cyl) or a Kawasaki EX 650 as examples along with a ninja 250 or a ninja 500

Middleweight = 600cc 4 cyl, 700 cc 3 cyl or 850 cc 2 cyl

Heavyweight = 750 cc 4 cyl or up to 1125cc 2 cyl

Open= 1000cc 4 cyl or 1200 cc twin