About Motorcycles
Motorcycles mean wildly different things depending on where you stand. In America and much of Europe they are mostly about pleasure: a weekend ride, a track day, a cross-country tour on a bike loaded with chrome. In India, Southeast Asia and Africa they are daily transport for hundreds of millions of people, the commuter machines and scooters that carry families, deliveries and livelihoods. Both worlds share the same thrill of balance, speed and open air.
The industry's history is a story of rising and falling powers. American makers such as Harley-Davidson and Indian ruled early, Britain's Triumph, BSA and Norton dominated the postwar years, and then Japan's Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki remade the market with reliable, affordable, high-performance machines. Italy's Ducati, Austria's KTM and Germany's BMW built premium niches, while India's Royal Enfield, Bajaj, Hero and TVS grew into giants by volume. Each shift left behind famous names and loyal riders still arguing over who built the best bikes.
Today the action is in several directions at once. Indian makers build bikes for global brands, with Triumph working with Bajaj and Harley-Davidson with Hero, and India's 350cc-to-500cc segment has become fiercely contested. Electric scooters from Ola, Ather, TVS and Bajaj are reshaping urban commuting, and Chinese manufacturers are rising fast. In the West, tariffs, aging riders and the hunt for younger ones dominate boardroom talk. The brand pages under this section cover launches, reviews, recalls, sales, racing and business news for the makers that matter most.