Yamaha’s potent yet manageable FZ8 is enough to make its paternal grandfather, the R1, blush with pride.

As the latest beneficiary from Yamaha’s repli-racer genetic stock, the 779cc inline-Four is endowed with some of Yamaha’s most inspired sporting technology which should serve it well in its life as an everyday sporting Standard.

The FZ8’s DNA has roots in Yamaha’s premier sportbike, the YZF-R1. The current FZ1’s engine was derived from the pre-crossplane R1. The new offspring inherits the FZ1’s R1-inspired alloy perimeter frame, its chassis geometry, some engine components, as well as many design elements from its compact and efficient engine.

The term high tech has never had a more suitable subject to describe outside of NASA than the Aprilia RSV4 Factory APRC SE. Traction control, launch control, wheelie control, triple ride-by-wire riding modes, quick shifter, and its even got blinkers incorporated into its mirrors! The RSV4 Factory APRC is what legends are made of.

Aprilia, by offering the APRC technology to a mainstream audience, has the recipe to shatter everything that stands in its way in 2011. You’ve got to love Aprilia’s attitude of daring to fail to succeed.

It takes guts to bring along a bike such as the RS3 Cube MotoGP bike using ride-by-wire as the first manufacturer to do so in MotoGP. It failed; Aprilia packed up its GP ambitions, rebooted its computers and came back stronger than ever in World Superbike with the RSV4 Factory and Max Biaggi.

Now that Germany’s Intermot show and Italy’s EICMA exhibition are over, we’ve got a clear idea of the motorcycles that will be introduced over the next 12 months. Although the number of new models isn’t as large as we’re accustomed to seeing at this time of the year, the sheer diversity of new bikes is inspiring.

This crop of 2011 and 2012 offerings shows an almost unparalleled variety and further category fracturing and blending. We’re on tap to receive three cool entry-level, small-displacement sportbikes, an Italian power cruiser, a bleeding-edge Japanese literbike and the first inline 6-cylinder motorcycle engine we’ve seen in decades, among many other noteworthy machines.

For this article, we’ve whittled down a list of our 10 most anticipated bikes we’ll see in 2011. In alphabetical order…

It’s a sunny morning in Valencia, and I’m at the Ricardo Tormo circuit sipping a coffee whilst listening to 20 roaring V4-powered Tuonos being warmed up in the pit lane. One of them is mine, all mine, for the day with a dedicated mechanic – I’m being treated like a MotoGP star.

I start my first session with the traction control set at level six and then reduce by one for each lap until I’m down at level one. The Aprilia 2011 Tuono V4R is a bit of a shock to the system as it just pulls like an angry bull everywhere and stops as if a freight train suddenly started pulling it in reverse. When I’ve finished my second 20-minute session I’m experiencing arm pump and a threatening cramp in my left leg each time I brake hard. My mechanic made some rear-suspension adjustments which changed the bike a lot and made my hard riding much easier.

When Triumph introduced its radical (for them, anyway) new Thunderbird last year, its sights were set firmly on Harley-Davidson. Of course, to beat the standard bearer it helps to think outside the box and try something different.

Refusing to copy the trend of virtually every cruiser on the market today, the boys in Hinckley decided to power the Thunderbird with a parallel-Twin engine instead of the venerable V-Twin. Not only that, but Triumph took its expertise in parallel-Twins and produced the largest production version ever made – one that left a rather positive impression on our very own Kevin Duke, leaving him more impressed than he thought he’d be during the bike’s world introduction in Spain.

For the new year, Triumph is taking a page out of America’s book and upping the ante with the new Thunderbird Storm. Simply put, while the T-Bird is an elegant, respectful cruiser, the Storm is a certifiable badass.

When it comes to motorcycling, no two words are more synonymous with hooligan-like behavior than “Speed” followed by “Triple.” For almost two decades, Triumph’s raw, naked and all-together spritely Speed Triple has redefined the boundaries between standard and sport-type motorcycles. Its three-cylinder engine is seemingly the best combination of torque and horsepower — especially for a street-oriented machine — and it doesn’t hurt that it’s filled to the brim with character.

What has set the Speed Triple apart all these years is its styling — or rather, lack thereof. Its naked stance has been the major draw to this bike since day one, and since a naked bike doesn’t have many distinguishable features by nature, the Speed Triple stood out because of one instantly recognizable trait: its round headlights.

Well, those lights are gone now, replaced by more angular units. But the lights are just a small part of an overall whole that’s radically different, yet still largely based on the same basic motorcycle. Allow us to explain.

Yamaha’s YZF-R6 and Honda’s CBR600RR (and CBR1000RR) have been practically the same for at least four years. Suzuki and Kawasaki have only recently updated their sportbikes, and even Ducati’s 1198 (and 1098 before that) is virtually the same.

Triumph, too, is guilty of not updating its supersport machine, the Daytona 675, for some time. Introduced in 2006, five years later and the bike is basically the same. Yes, it got a few minor upgrades in 2009, but hardly enough to call it a major revamp. Honestly, we’re not complaining too much. The era of the constant updates kept us on our heels trying to stay current on all the changes. And really, the Daytona 675 is a damn good motorcycle.

It was easy to love last year’s Kawasaki KX250F. Yes, it had a carburetor, handling was merely average and even the looks and ergonomics were a little dated. What made it such a hit? Power. The 2010 KX250F engine ran so strongly nothing else mattered. The 2010 bike was so good that KX250F sales rose 18% while other brands of 250Fs saw sales drop.

Motorcycle.com became acquainted with the 2011 KX250F at the North American press launch at Budds Creek. Engineers were excited to show off their hard work; the new KX250F received over 30 changes from the previous year, including the biggest of them all, fuel injection.

Everyone knows the KX450F rips. Rips tracks to shreds, rips your arms off … In a horsepower race, team Green sits on top.

For 2012, Kawasaki has taken steps to civilize the monster for 2012, starting with a two-mode ignition dubbed ‘Launch Control, which is tuned to improve off-the-line traction without sacrificing mid range or top end power. The push-button system is activated by a switch on the left handlebar that alters ignition timing in first and second gear. When the rider shifts into third gear, the EFI returns to the standard ignition map. Sounds like exactly what we’ve been begging for!

The Monster Energy Kawasaki off-road team and scores of privateers race the KX450Fs with great success in all sorts of venues far removed from the cut and thrust world of Supercross or Outdoor motocross. Don’t forget, a few years ago during a contract dispute World Enduro star David Knight quit his team and flew to the U.S, bought a KX450F with his own money and rode it in bone stock condition that very weekend to a GNCC win. We knew from our tests of the 2010 and 2011 KX250Fs that they were great motocross bikes that just happen to also be great off-road race bikes too. But even with the 450’s fine off-road credentials it still seemed hard to believe that the holeshot king of 450-class motocross could be tamed enough to work anywhere but on the track. We decided to find out, and have been spending the past few months learning about the 2011 KX450F by riding it everywhere from frozen lakes to sloppy cross-country races, on motocross tracks and in tight singletrack.