RoadRUNNER's Favorite Motorcycles of 2024
How many different types of motorcycles did you ride in 2024? Did your stable grow or shrink? What was your favorite bike of the year?
Motorcycles are more than just vehicles for getting from point A to point B. They take us to places in style while also serving as conversation starters.
Often, they’re extensions of our personality. However, the most important aspect of finding a suitable ride is how it makes you feel.
I rode with a die-hard travel enduro fan this summer, but we were all on Harley-Davidsons. After the first week on the road he wanted to take it home. True story.
People often ask me, “What’s your favorite bike?” I usually respond with, “The one I’m currently riding.”
Below you’ll find the list of our favorite motorcycles that we reviewed in 2024 (in no particular order). Maybe it’ll motivate you to try out something completely different next year. You never know—you might like it!
-Florian Neuhauser, Editor-in-Chief
2024 Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+
The Tracer 9 GT+ is Yamaha’s flagship sport-touring model. It has an upright seating position, comes with crucial touring accessories, and features the world’s first unified braking system on a motorcycle. But let’s peel back the layers of this advanced machine to determine if it justifies adding it to your fleet.
2024 BMW R 1300 GS
The desire to make the new GS smaller opened up a Pandora’s box of opportunities and challenges. If there were two words to describe the design process, they would be “integration” and “modularity.” Hahn-Wörnle described the previous generation GS as a “conglomerate of devices” where each component—the frame, the motor, the tank—is a discrete element. The integration of the new GS means that all of these elements are designed to fit (literally and figuratively) close together like a complex puzzle.
2024 Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide ST
For now, Harley-Davidson’s apex open-road tourer is the CVO Road Glide ST, which inspires confidence even when pushed well past the limits of the old machines. At the same time, it coddles the rider with the tech and comfort expected of a horizon chaser. Not having to choose between bagger comfort or sport-tourer performance on a large V-twin-powered road machine does indeed signal the beginnings of big possibilities at Harley-Davidson. We’ll see what comes next, and here’s hoping more future model introductions take place at racetracks.
2024 Suzuki GSX-8R
At $9,439, the 8R carries only a $440 premium over its naked stablemate, the 8S. The two share most components, but it’s more than just plastic the extra Benjamins buy you. Suspension is a key difference between the two models, with the 8R touting a non-adjustable inverted Showa SFF-BP fork and a Showa shock with preload adjustment, compared to the 8S’s non-adjustable inverted KYB fork and shock, also with preload adjustment. In addition to more plastic and different suspension, the 8R’s riding position is slightly more aggressive than the 8S’s, thanks to its individual handlebars versus the 8S’s one-piece handlebar.
2024 BMW F 900 GS
The all-new F 900 GS is based on the 2023 F 850 GS, as you might imagine. It’s still a similar bike, but BMW has taken steps to make the machine more purposeful than ever before. It’s slimmer and sportier than the R series adventure bikes, and the price tag is a bit more palatable for most people as well.
2024 Husqvarna Svartpilen 801
Lesser known in North America, the 801 is now the largest model in the Svartpilen lineup. The 401 and 701 were built around a single-cylinder engine. They were handfuls with plenty of character and a very specific DNA—simple, rowdy, and trendy. I wonder if they didn’t sell well, even though journalists lauded both models. For the 801, Husqvarna employed an engine that also powers KTM bikes. The two-cylinder powerplant is certainly more cultured. It still packs a punch, though.