Riders Preferred Membership
Shop by Vehicle
Track Order
Contact Us
What’s the best motorcycle for sale in 2024? I would love to shrug it off with a “Who knows?” and move on, but I really painted myself into a corner with this whole Daily Rider Leaderboard thing.
After more than 20 motorcycles coming and going for Daily Rider testing this year, it’s not a huge surprise that BMW’s new R 1300 GS sits atop the heap. “Jack of all trades, master of none” is the saying that gets thrown around a lot with the GS, and big adventure-touring machines in general, which is fair until you ask how good a bike needs to be to “master” a category. How adept does a motorcycle need to be to have mastered a twisty road? A city commute? A dirt trail?
These are the types of questions The Big GS has long tried to answer, and this year tried even harder. People are still bickering about whether they like the way it looks or how much price creep and technology is too much, and I get it. I’m right there with you, bickerers. I’m not sold on all of the new stuff. I might even opt for an R 1250 or R 1200 if my wallet’s push came to shove. Beyond all of that, though, the 1300 GS is undeniably more approachable and more versatile than it’s ever been, which is ultimately the point.
And please, do keep in mind that the reason it’s the best bike I rode on the DR Route all year isn’t because it can lower itself as you come to a stop, or because I simply want to be coddled by luxury and can’t see past the dollar signs. The foundational elements of the flagship GS deliver a balance from the chassis and an attitude from the machine that is unique, and extremely capable. I haven’t yet heard a complaint about the R 1300 GS that I think dethrones it as the king of do-it-all motorcycles.
Other radness, and sadness
There aren’t a lot of standout machines that truly disappointed me this year, but there are some interesting stories, I think. BMW's F 900 GS, for example, sits pretty close to the top of the rankings and yet here I am struggling to come up with anything interesting to say about it. Cold, hard, German engineering, that seemed to be the brief and they all just about nailed it. Capability? You betcha. Personality? “CANNOT PERFORM ACTION. TRY AGAIN LATER.”
One obvious target near the bottom of the DR Leaderboard would be KTM’s 390 Duke. I wrote a fairly critical review of that bike and found myself pretty underwhelmed by the whole experience. Still, I can’t bring myself to recommend against it wholesale, even though the combination of premium features and awkward missteps left an odd taste in my mouth.
Just below the 390 Duke is a motorcycle I loved, Ducati’s Hypermotard 698 Mono. Hoo-boy, did I ever have fun on that bike, and I hope we see more of that silly single-cylinder mill in Bologna’s lineup. Also, it’s right where it belongs at the bottom of the DR Leaderboard. It just isn’t versatile, approachable, or cheap enough to recommend to almost anyone. I mean, really, you’d have to be out of your mind (wink) to buy that thing (wink, wink).
Best value
It would take a blind rider not to notice that within the top seven bikes on the 2024 DR Leaderboard, four of them received dollar-sign labels, indicating that they cost more than $20,000. So, let’s yank those bikes off the board. That leaves a top three of KTM’s 890 SMT, Moto Guzzi’s V100 Mandello, and BMW’s F 900 GS. Three solid motorcycles, depending on the mission, and each one would be a defensible podium finisher on any DR Leaderboard.
Then again, none of those machines are particularly cheap. It’ll be around $14,000 for that KTM, $15,500 for the Guzzi, and for the BMW you’re likely to top 18,000 doll hairs. Where do we go, then, to find the best value on the 2024 ‘board? I’d argue it takes the shape of a coupla Kawasakis.
Foremost, that lovable little Ninja 500. The Weenja has evolved over the years from being a playful little puppy of a motorbike that was nearly impossible to hate into a comfortable, refined, almost utilitarian machine. With that, it steps into a realm where it’s more fair to criticize it for a muffler that hits your boot or finicky dash buttons. But my goodness, it’s an awful lot of motorcycle for six grand. Daily Rider’s producer, Spenser, was quick to point out that the Ninja 500 ride was also our most-watched video in 2024. Evidently, I’m not the only one who’s smitten.
Another nod has to go to Kawasaki’s Z 900 SE. It was the first bike of 2024 and I often came back to it with some sort of “good but not great” sentiment. Practically, though, aside from a couple of luxury features, I’m not sure what exactly a V100 Mandello or R 12 nineT can do that a Z 900 can’t. Emotionally, the Guzzi and BMW can deliver more than that Kawasaki, but from the standpoint of getting a lot of capability for not a lot of money, the first bike of the year is hard to argue against.
2024 in the rearview
One of the proudest moments for me this year was passing the milestone of Daily Rider’s 100th episode, where I took the ride to work on a 1924 Harley-Davidson Model J. It took a lot of phone calls and riding around introducing myself to members of the antique-motorcycle community, and it was all worth it. I met some cool people doing cool (and arguably important) things with old bikes, plus I pushed into a new realm of the two-wheel kingdom, one with foot clutches and hand shifting.
Which brings me to the fact that making 101 episodes of this lo-fi little YouTube show would never have happened without enthusiasts watching and being interested. Each of the videos individually is a small project, but as a whole we like to think that the Daily Rider catalog has created a little community — an ecosystem where information about motorcycles can live and be understood with the help of the other 100 videos.
If you’re one of the people or Russian ghost bots that often watches the show, I can speak for the whole team and say thank you. From the powers that be at RevZilla HQ in Philadelphia, to DR’s tireless editor, Stephen, to the little devil on my shoulder that tells me to turn on the camera and record a half-dozen intro clips in the pouring rain, we all believe that it’s worth the effort. Ride safe everybody, I’ll see ya on episode 102.
| 2024 Daily Rider Leaderboard | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Machine | More from Common Tread |
| 1 | 2024 BMW R 1300 GS 💰 |
|
| 2 | 2024 KTM 890 SMT 🙂 |
|
| 3 | 2024 KTM 1390 Super Duke 🔥💰 |
|
| 4 | 2023 Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello |
|
| 5 | 2023 BMW M 1000 R 🔥💰 |
|
| 6 | 2024 BMW F 900 GS |
|
| 7 | 2024 Kawasaki Z H2 🔥💰 |
|
| 8 | 2024 Ducati Monster SP | |
| 9 | 2024 BMW R 12 nineT |
|
| 10 | 2023 Kawasaki Z900 SE |
|
| 11 | 2024 Triumph Scrambler 1200 X |
|
| 12 | 2024 Kawasaki Ninja 500 SE |
|
| 13 | 2024 Honda SCL500 |
|
| 14 | 2024 Triumph Speed 400 |
|
| 15 | 2024 Aprilia RS 457 |
|
| 16 | 2024 KTM 390 Duke | |
| 17 | 2024 Ducati Hypermotard 698 Mono 🙂 |
|
| 18 | 2024 Harley-Davidson Nightster |
|
|
19 |
|
|
|
20 |
|
|
Image Gallery
