What’s The Difference Between MotoGP and Superbike?

Image by Jiří Rotrekl from Pixabay

The world of motorsports is intense and exciting. Just like any other competitive sport, motorsports inspire our human competitiveness. This sense of competition brings out the best in our ability to build, tweak, and race our machines. These competitions are very diverse, as well. Whether its cars, motorcycles, trucks or even boats, there's a motorsports competition out there for it. The motorsports industry is so big in Malaysia and the rest of the world that automotive colleges like TOC Automotive College even offer motorsports education and superbike courses as well.

When it comes to two-wheeled motorsports, two of the biggest competitions out there are MotoGP and superbike racing. If you have a passion for motorcycle sports, these are two terms that you need to be familiar with.

So, in this article, you'll find out all about these motorsports and what makes them different from each other. Maybe you'll discover that you love one more than the other. Or perhaps, you'll realise that you love both!

What is MotoGP?

MotoGP is actually the short name for the Grand Prix motorcycle racing. This race started in 1949 and is currently divided into four classes: Moto Grand Prix, Moto2, Moto3, and MotoE. MotoGP races are held on road circuits that are approved by its governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme or FIM. These races are hosted all over the world in the Americas, Asia, Australia and even the Middle East.

All of the race's classes use purpose-built motorcycles. This means that the bikes used here are explicitly built to be raced in the MotoGP and can't be bought by the general public. As a matter of fact, you can't even ride MotoGP motorcycles on public roads, since they're not legal for that kind of use.

The moto Grand Prix, MOto2, and Moto 3 classes all use bikes with four-stroke engines. In 2019, they introduced a new category, the MotoE, to allow for motorcycles using electric motors. 

What is Superbike Racing? 

Superbike racing, on the other hand, is a category, rather than the name of a specific race. The same body that governs MotoGP, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme or FIM, also regulates its own superbike race. Theirs is known as the FIM Superbike World Championship or SBK. There are also national superbike races in Japan, Britain and other countries.

Unlike MotoGP, superbike racing actually uses production motorcycles. This means they take bikes that you can buy at a dealership and modify them for racing purposes. Naturally, motorcycle manufacturers love superbike racing as it gives them a chance to show the world what their machines are capable of. This acts as a way of marketing their bikes to potential buyers out there, especially when their bikes rank highly in those races. This method of marketing has even given birth to the saying "Win on Sunday; Sell on Monday", meaning if their bikes do well on race day, buyers will flock to choose them the next day.

Let's look a little closer at more specific differences between these two forms of motorcycle racing.

What's the difference between MotoGP bikes and superbikes?

As mentioned earlier, superbikes are production models that you can actually buy from a motorcycle dealership. They're available to the general public, and they are legal for you to ride on roads just like any other vehicle. When it comes to superbike racing, these bikes are then modified and tuned to perform to the best of their abilities.

MotoGP, on the other hand, uses purpose-built motorbikes. These bikes aren't available to the general public. In some cases, they could also be prototypes by bike manufacturers. MotoGP also places fewer restrictions on these bikes in terms of the materials used to build them or the tuning done to their engines. As such, these bikes tend to be developed using lighter materials, and are also much faster than superbikes.

Unlike MotoGP, the SBK's restrictions actually allow for new teams with lower budgets to participate in the race as well. This also increases the fairness of the competition as well, as funding will not be the main factor that determines the winner. The construction and tuning of the bikes are more significant factors here.

What about their budgets?

By now, it's clear that one significant difference between MotoGP and superbike racing is that it has fewer restrictions. This has also impacted the budgets of the teams participating in either race. MotoGP teams tend to have much higher budgets as a result, since they're allowed to spend much more on everything from the bikes to the equipment they use and the people they hire. This allows the team to have the most high-tech gear being used by only the top technicians in the field.

Superbike racing teams, on the other hand, have their spending on all these things kept within a specific limit.

What about the timing?

Racing seasons are also quite different between MotoGP and superbike races. In this case, we'll use the SBK as an example to illustrate this difference.

MotoGP seasons consists of 19 rounds all over the world from March to November. The SBK racing seasons consists of fewer rounds, only 13, from February to October.

Whether you prefer MotoGP or superbike racing, motorsports of any kind are best enjoyed up-front and in-person. These events are centred around the vehicles being raced, of course. Still, the environment that surrounds it adds a lot more to the experience. The crowds, the weather, maybe even the live musical performances that might take place; all of this combined is what makes motorsports events so exciting.

For those of us who can't make it to the racing venue, thankfully there's live coverage available online for us to enjoy. Online, we can even enjoy watching all forms of motorsports and racing from any place in the world!

No matter when, where, or how people prefer to watch motorsports, there's no denying that this is one of the most intense forms of competition that we can enjoy today.