A year in news | MCN's biggest biking stories of 2024

With 2024 now drawing to a close, we at MCN decided to look back at the most-read motorcycling news stories from the past 12 months.

It’s been an interesting year for the bike industry, with Euro5+ emissions regulations triggering the arrival of a surge of new metal, including a brand-new spicy CB1000 Hornet SP naked from Honda, costing under ten grand.

• Related: Most popular MCN bike reviews of 2024

We’ve also seen massive changes within the manufacturing landscape, with a new wave of Chinese motorcycles beginning to break into the European mainstream, and huge companies fighting for their survival following a shortfall in post-Covid new motorcycle sales.

Grab a cuppa and relive our top ten most popular news pages of of 2024 below.

Kawasaki embrace hydrogen

Back in January 2024, we brought you the news that Kawasaki were working on a new hydrogen combustion motorcycle, based on the supercharged Ninja H2 SX sports tourer. It now exists as a physical prototype and appeared at a number of international shows later in the year, including Intermot in Germany.

• Read the full story here

AI speed camera roll out

In April, we learned of a new kind of clever speed camera, designed to catch drivers on their mobile phone at the wheel. It makes use of Artificial Intelligence and looks down from a vantage point into the interior of the vehicle.

• Read the full story here

Yamaha R9 arrives

In the middle of October, Yamaha finally launched their three-cylinder R9 sportsbike, after years of high public demand and an abundance of production rumours swelling online. Arriving in the UK at £12,250, we can’t wait to try it out in the New Year.

• Read the full story here

The Great Wall Souo S2000

Sticking with new bikes, the fourth most-read news story of 2024 was all about the two-litre Great Wall Souo S2000 Motorcycle on its way from China. Designed to go up against the Honda GL1800 Gold Wing, it’s built by a company already selling cars in Europe – meaning we could see this monster motorcycle arrive here too.

• Read the full story here

KTM camshaft controversy

Unsurprisingly arriving on this list is the controversy surrounding claimed excessive camshaft wear on KTM’s LC8c parallel twin models. The Austrian brand have since announced a goodwill scheme for those impacted.

• Read the full story here

Speed cameras hit popular Lincs haunt

Our next most popular story of 2024 again surrounds speed cameras. It was written back in January and relates to fixed 50mph average cameras added outside popular motorcycle hotspot, Willingham Woods in Lincolnshire.

• Read the full story here

KTM in ‘self-administration’

At the end of November, KTM announced they were entering a 90-day ‘self-administration process’ at their Austrian HQ in a bid to sort out their finances. Parent company Pierer Mobility expects KTM to end the 2024 financial year with a negative net financial outlook said to be in the ‘very high’ hundreds of millions.

• Read the full story here

Next-gen Ducati Panigale V4 arrives

Back in the summertime, Ducati used their annual World Ducati Week celebration to launch a new Panigale V4S superbike. More technologically advanced than ever before, it was met with some controversy by fans due to the inclusion of a double-sided swing arm.

• Read the full story here

Return of the Suzuki DR-Z

Compared to the Ducati above, Suzuki’s single cylinder DR-Z thumpers are as simple as bikes can get, but that’s clearly what the market now demands – with the Japanese brand’s revamped 2025 versions becoming our ninth most read news story of the year.

• Read the full story here

Kawasaki hybrids explored

Hydrogen combustion wasn’t the only revolutionary tech from Kawasaki this year. The firm also launched two petrol-electric hybrid motorcycles: the Ninja 7 Hybrid and Z 7 Hybrid. We sent our tech guru Ben Purvis to find out just how the two powertrains work together.

• Read the full story here