Most powerful twin cylinder motorcycles

Twin cylinder motorcycles (or simply "twins") strike balance between weight of 4 cylinder bikes and lack of refinement of single cylinder bikes.

Therefore, it is not surprising that most iconic road motorcycles of 1950s, 60s 70s and even 80s were two cylinder bikes. Even today, twin cylinder engines still make a lot of sense for use in motorcycles, and certain market segments continue to be dominated by V-twins.

Twin cylinder engines can be arranged either in a V-configuration ("V2" or "V-twin"), in parallel ("R2", "parallel twin" or "inline 2") or with cylinders opposing each other ("boxer twin"). All configurations have advantages and disadvantages. Recently more manufacturers have started to use parallel twin configuration in combination with cross-plane crankshaft, combining advantages of V2 and R2 configurations.

Sources

All data sourced from manufacturer's official figures.

List authored by Christian Zelcs. Last updated on 05/23/2025, last addition - Gurney Instigator.