The fastest production motorcycle for a given year is the unmodified, street-legal motorcycle with the highest tested top speed that was manufactured in series and available for purchase by the general public. Modified or specially produced motorcycles are a different class, motorcycle land-speed record. Unlike those records, which are officially sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), production model tests were conducted under a variety of unequal or undefined conditions, and tested by numerous different sources, mainly motorcycling magazines. This has led to inconsistent and sometimes contradictory speed statistics from various sources.
Gentlemen's agreement to end competition
The competition to create the fastest production motorcycle ended in a truce, after just over a century of one-upmanship by motorcycle manufacturers that began with the 1894–1897 Hildebrand & Wolfmüller[1] and ended with the 1999–2000 Suzuki Hayabusa. A gentlemen's agreement was reached among the major motorcycle manufactures to limit the speed of their machines to 300 km/h (186 mph), starting with some 2000 models, and becoming widespread by the 2001 model year.
After the 1999 Hayabusa sent shockwaves by exceeding the Honda CBR1100XX's record by more than 10 mph, and rumors and leaks from Kawasaki hinted that their upcoming 2000 Ninja ZX-12R would pass the 200 mph milestone, some regulators and politicians in Europe called for an import ban against high speed motorcycles. There were fears that there would be, "an outbreak of illegal racing as riders try to break the 200 mph barrier." To preempt regulation and avoid negative publicity, the manufacturers voluntarily ended the race to ever higher speeds.
Sources vary as to whether this unofficial agreement is precise or only approximate, and whether it is defined as 300 km/h or as 186 mph, though the European and Japanese manufactures normally use metric units. While Honda did announce that its motorcycles would not go faster than 300 km/h, Suzuki and Kawasaki would not speak on record about this issue. The agreement between them and the other brands has never been officially acknowledged by the manufacturers, though media sources report it via unnamed informants, and by testing the top speed of motorcycles known to be capable of exceeding the arbitrary maximum. So for 2001 models and later motorcycles, the question of which brand's bike was fastest could only be answered by tampering with the speed limiting system, meaning that it was no longer a contest between stock, production motorcycles, absolving the manufacture of blame and letting those not quite as fast avoid losing face.[8] But the speed war continued underground, out of the spotlight, with fierce competition among enthusiasts of the "200 mph club", albeit with the slight technical modification necessary to bypass the speed limiter, separating that war from the ostensibly at peace world of stock motorcycles.
Fastest production motorcycles
Several models went out of production before being surpassed by a contemporary with a higher top speed. Until a model was introduced that was faster than any previous motorcycle, the fastest bike on the market for a given year was actually slower than an earlier, out of production bike. Models which are actual top speed record holders have their make, model, and speed in bold font, while slower models which were only the fastest in their own time are in italic. For example, in 1956, the Vincent Black Shadow remained the fastest motorcycle to date, with a 125 mph (201 km/h) top speed, but it was no longer in production. The fastest model on the market in 1956 was the BSA Gold Star Clubman, which at 110 mph (180 km/h) was not a record holder, but is listed for the sake of illustrating a more complete timeline.