The vehicles

Police motorcycles

Ninety entries, ten manufacturers, 2007 to 2026 — put through the same kinds of test as the cars, and quicker than them on almost every measure.

The first Michigan book with motorcycles in it is 2007‘s, and the books explain why they arrived. In the 2007 book’s words, the Michigan State Police “used motorcycles up until late 1941 and then switched to automobiles”, “rekindled interest in motorcycles for day to day patrol operations in 1993”, and in 2004 headquarters asked for information on them, after which “we were given direction to expand vehicle testing to include motorcycle testing.” (The 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026 books give the date as late 1942.)

The tests are the same kinds as the cars’: acceleration, top speed, braking from sixty, and laps of a road course. They were not always run in the same place, which matters for braking, below.

On the figures, a police motorcycle has been quicker to sixty than every car in the books held here, quicker to a hundred, and has stopped in a shorter distance at a higher rate. The cars still hold outright top speed and the best road-course average: 1:34.39 by the 2012 Charger at Grattan, against the 2019 BMW’s 1:36.60.

Motorcycles against cars

The best figure recorded by each, across the books held here. Motorcycle braking changed from twelve stops to twenty in the 2011 book, the cars’ in the 2012 book; both braking records shown are from after that change, though not on the same surface (see below).
Measure	Best motorcycle	Best car
0–60 mph	3.61 s (2026)	3.93 s (2023)
0–100 mph	7.97 s (2026)	10.63 s (2026)
60–0 distance	118.9 ft (2017)	122.45 ft (2026)
Deceleration rate	32.57 ft/s² (2017)	31.62 ft/s² (2026)
Top speed	147 mph (2020)	160 mph (2000)

Four out of five. And the two braking records belong to the same machine.

The three-wheeler that out-brakes everything

Can-Am entered a three-wheeled Spyder — two wheels at the front, one at the back — in three consecutive tests, and it was a different model each time: the Spyder RT-P in 2015, which stopped from sixty in 126.1 feet; the Spyder F3 in 2016, at 122.4 feet and 121 mph; and the Spyder F3P in 2017, which stopped in 118.9 feet at a deceleration rate of 32.57 ft/s², with a top speed of 120 mph.

The F3P’s two figures, from this archive’s 2017 page (the 2017 book is not held), are the best under the twenty-stop procedure by any vehicle of any kind. The nearest car is the 2026 Mustang Mach-E GT at 122.45 feet and 31.62 ft/s²; the nearest two-wheeler is the 2020 BMW R 1250 RT-P at 127.3 feet.

The shortest stop under the twenty-stop procedure in this archive belongs to a three-wheeled Can-Am.

Where the motorcycles braked

A braking comparison between a motorcycle and a car is only as good as the surface under both, and for much of this period it was not the same surface. In 2007 and 2009 the motorcycles made their 60-to-0 stops at the same proving ground as the cars (DaimlerChrysler’s in 2007, Chrysler’s in 2009), and ran an extra motorcycle-only test as well: 40-to-0 ABS stops onto a low-grip surface at the department’s Precision Driving Unit in Lansing. By 2012 their main brake test had moved to Lansing too — “This year we conducted motorcycle brake testing on our track at the Precision Driving Unit in Lansing”, the 2012 book says, and the 2015 book uses the same words — while the cars still braked at the Chrysler Proving Grounds. In 2022 and 2023 the motorcycles braked on the oval at the Chelsea Proving Grounds, which, both books say, has a different coefficient of friction from the Lansing track and may have lengthened their stops (the 2024 book has no motorcycles), and in 2025 and 2026 both braked at the Chelsea Proving Grounds: the 2026 book puts cars and motorcycles on the same east/west straightaway, while the 2025 book names the straightaway for the cars and only the proving ground for the motorcycles.

So the Can-Am’s record and the Mach-E’s were not set side by side. Both are accurate figures, measured to the same twenty-stop procedure, on different tracks in different years.

Every test

The fastest machine each year, with the shortest stop any motorcycle recorded that year. All ninety entries are in all 90 motorcycle entries, filterable to motorcycles.

Transcribed from the Michigan State Police evaluation for each year. The stop shown is the shortest by any motorcycle that year, which is not always the machine named: 2012’s was a Harley-Davidson, 2015 to 2017’s the Can-Am, 2018 to 2020’s and 2022’s a BMW, 2026’s the BMW Dynamic Pkg. Motorcycle braking was twelve stops to 2010 and twenty from the 2011 book. The 2014 motorcycles’ braking is not yet transcribed.
Year	Machine	0–60 s	0–100 s	Top mph	Best 60–0 ft
2007	BMW R1200RT-P	4.44	10.55	130.1	136.5
2008	BMW R1200RT-P	4.10	10.01	130.9	139.0
2009	BMW R1200RT-P	4.41	11.27	130	147.6
2010	BMW R1200RT-P	4.45	11.62	127	147.3
2011	Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS Police	4.50	9.70	131	141.0
2012	BMW R 1200 RT-P	4.41	10.75	131	139.0
2013	BMW R 1200 RT-P	4.38	10.90	128	143.9
2014	BMW F800 GT-P	4.99	12.10	139	–
2015	BMW R 1200 RT-P	3.99	9.14	141	126.1
2016	BMW R 1200 RT-P	4.42	9.94	137	122.4
2017	BMW R 1200 RT-P	4.31	9.85	136	118.9
2018	Yamaha FJR1300	4.10	9.81	143	130.2
2019	Yamaha FJR1300P-AB	3.78	8.39	144	130.7
2020	Yamaha FJR1300P-AB	3.67	8.19	147	127.3
2021 — the book has no motorcycle section; the 2022 book refers to “the 2021 model year motorcycles”, whose results are not held
2022	Yamaha FJR1300P-AB	4.45	9.25	145	138.3
2023	BMW R 1250 RT-P	4.10	9.41	136	133.8
2024 — the book has no motorcycle section
2025	BMW R 1250 RT-P	4.03	9.36	137	143.2
2026	BMW R 1300 RT-P Standard Pkg.	4.35	8.57	141	132.97

Who actually turns up

Entries by manufacturer, 2007 to 2026.
Manufacturer	Entries	Note
Harley-Davidson	40	the most of any make — and never the fastest
BMW	27	the benchmark for most of the period
Victory	4	2012–2014
Moto Guzzi	4	2014–2015
Can-Am	3	three wheels, three models, two braking records
Yamaha	4	147 mph, the fastest of all
Zero	3	electric, 2016–2018
Kawasaki, Buell, Honda	5	no more than two tests each so far

Harley-Davidson has more entries than anyone and has never recorded the fastest figure. Its best top speed in eighteen tests is 119 mph, against 147 for the Yamaha. The books themselves warn against reading the tables as a ranking: “it is very important for the reader to apply your mission requirements to the motorcycle you are considering so you may make an appropriate decision.”

The electric one nobody talks about

Michigan tested a Zero electric motorcycle in 2016, 2017 and 2018, reaching 102 mph and 4.8 seconds to sixty in 2018. The first battery-electric car in the books held here is the Mustang Mach-E of 2022, six years after the first Zero, tested under a charging procedure the manufacturers had agreed in advance.

The electric police vehicle arrived on two wheels first, and quietly.

Where the records sit

Across all 90 entries, 2007 to 2026, in the books held here.
Figure	Machine	Year
3.61 s — quickest 0–60 of any vehicle in the archive	BMW R 1300 RT-P, automatic	2026
7.97 s — quickest 0–100 of any vehicle	BMW R 1300 RT-P, automatic	2026
118.9 ft and 32.57 ft/s² — shortest stop and highest rate of any vehicle	Can-Am Spyder F3P	2017
12.51 s at 116.08 mph — quickest and fastest quarter mile of any vehicle in the books that print one (to 2018)	BMW R 1200 RT-P	2015
147 mph — fastest motorcycle	Yamaha FJR1300P-AB	2020

The 2026 BMW figure is worth a second look: the automatic-shift version reached sixty 0.77 seconds quicker than the same Dynamic-package machine with a manual gearbox, in the same test.

Sources. Every figure transcribed from the Michigan State Police Police Vehicle Evaluation for the year shown and linked to that year’s page. The 2021 and 2024 books have no motorcycle section; motorcycle quarter-mile times are not printed from 2017 on. See how this site is researched and corrections.