Modern motorcycles have been through several advancements in design, powertrains, and electronics over the past few years. This makes the current crop of bikes some of the fastest machines – even when you include cars – on the planet. Things have been picking up speed since the 1990s and some of the fastest motorcycles of all time are modern sportbikes. A lot of motorcycle manufacturers have been simply estimating the speed of their bikes since they can’t just ask a rider to test drive their bikes at top speed.
The reason for why motorcycles are much quicker in a straight line than cars comes down to their power-to-weight ratio. A 500-pound motorcycle with 200 horsepower will offer a similar power-to-weight ratio as a supercar with four times the amount of power because there's a good chance that it weighs four times as much. Plus, without any doors, motorcycles have a greater sense of speed than cars, as 25 mph can feel like you're doing 100.
