2015 Kawasaki Ninja H2R

There's a gentlemen's agreement among motorcycle manufacturers: In the name of sanity, nobody strays above 200 horsepower or a 187-mile-per-hour top speed. At least that was the case until Kawasaki decided to ignore rules, moderation, and possibly a few laws of physics. The result is the Ninja H2R (base price: $50,345), a track-only bullet bike that takes two-wheeled performance to a scary new place. The key ingredient is the motor, a supercharged 998cc four-cylinder that revs to 14,000 revolutions per minute and generates 300 horsepower. The supercharger is a new planetary gear design created with help from Kawasaki's gas-turbine division, because existing suppliers didn't have a blower that could handle an internal speed of 130,000 revolutions per minute. The bike's carbon-fiber bodywork uses front spars that look borrowed from a Formula One car, providing downforce that riders will appreciate when nearing the H2R's top speed—over 200 miles per hour. The H2R isn't street legal, but Kawasaki knows it can't prevent customers from adding, say, lights and Department of Transportation–compliant tires. This is one case where a license plate might be the wildest modification of all.

Harley-Davidson Project Livewire

Is a Harley still a Harley without the rumble? That's the question behind Project LiveWire, an all-electric concept Harley built more than twenty examples of to gauge public interest. So far, feedback is pointing toward the green light for production. With instant torque and no shifting, the bike screams off the line. Harley estimates a zero-to-sixty time of four seconds and a range of fifty-three miles. Weighing just 463 pounds, LiveWire is agile and extremely quick around town. And while there's no rumble, intentionally noisy straight-cut gears mean that accelerating toward the ninety-two-mile-per-hour top speed produces the keening cry of a spacecraft going into warp drive.

2015 Indian Scout

The Scout looks like a laid-back cruiser, but its classic styling conceals modern, high-performance technology, courtesy of a new fuel-injected, liquid-cooled V-twin that kicks out a hundred horsepower and seventy-two pound-feet of torque. Dual overhead cams and four valves per cylinder give the Scout (base price: $10,999) big lungs at high revolutions per minute, while good old-fashioned displacement—1,133 cubic centimeters of it—provides plenty of torque. With an aluminum frame helping keep weight down to 558 pounds, the Scout has a better power-to-weight ratio than a Porsche 911 Turbo. So while it's happy to putter around town looking good, it can still boogie when it wants to.