Your First Big Bike After A2: What to Buy in 2026, and What to Skip

The day the A2 restriction comes off is the most dangerous day in a rider's buying life. Two years of discipline, a fresh full licence, and an industry delighted to sell you ten times the horsepower you had on Tuesday. This is the guide I wish someone had refereed for me: what the step up actually buys you, which bikes reward it, and where the money classically goes wrong.

The honest starting point

You do not need the step to be enormous to feel enormous. Going from 47 hp to a modern middleweight lifts your power-to-weight by half to nearly double, which your brain will register as a religious event for at least a month. The 70 to 95 hp class exists precisely for this moment, it is currently the strongest class in motorcycling, and it holds its value because every year produces a fresh crop of A2 graduates shopping exactly where you are standing.

The three middleweights that matter

The Yamaha MT-07 is the default for a reason: 73.4 hp, 184 kg, 8,199 EUR, and the CP2 engine's 42,000 km valve intervals make it nearly free to keep. The Honda CB750 Hornet is the value ambush, 91.8 hp for 7,990 EUR with a 795 mm seat that fits nearly everyone. The KTM 790 Duke is the sharp one, 95 hp, the best electronics of the three, and the one that costs you 800 to 1,000 EUR more to choose. All three comparisons are scored: Hornet vs MT-07, 790 Duke vs MT-07, Hornet vs 790 Duke.

Which one for which rider

• Lowest cost per year and the gentlest learning curve: the MT-07. Its maintenance page reads like a rounding error.
• Most performance per euro, and the best fit for shorter riders: the Hornet. 91.8 hp under 8,000 EUR is the class's quiet scandal.
• Sharpest chassis and electronics, for the rider who misses their 390's attitude: the 790 Duke.

The adventure fork in the road

If your A2 years were spent on a 390 Adventure R or a Himalayan, the upgrade question is the Yamaha Tenere 700 against the KTM 890 Adventure R, and it is a genuine philosophical split: the Yamaha is simpler and 4,300 EUR cheaper, the KTM is 105 hp and better equipped everywhere it counts. The comparison scores it properly. Budget for luggage before you budget for horsepower; distance bikes earn their keep loaded.

The 190 hp mistake

Someone in your group chat is about to suggest going straight to a 1390 Super Duke R. It makes 190 hp, which is 143 more than you were riding last week, and it costs 21,999 EUR before the insurer finishes laughing at your two years of licence history. It is a magnificent motorcycle that will teach you exactly nothing except fear management. The 990 Duke at 123 hp is the earliest sensible version of that idea, and even it deserves a season of middleweight miles first. Skipping steps costs more than taking them, in every currency.

The boring advice that saves the most money

• Get insurance quotes on your full shortlist before test riding anything. A fresh full licence prices differently across models, and the spread is not small.
• Buy the middleweight nearly-new if you can. Two-year-old examples with full history are plentiful, because the class turns over with every A2 graduation wave.
• Spend the saved money on tyres and a course. A rider who can use 73 hp is faster than a passenger on 190.
• Run the real yearly cost on your finalists. The cheapest of the three to buy is not the cheapest to own.

The full middleweight class, ranked on points, is on the best naked bikes page. Whichever you pick, the correct emotion at the first fuel stop is a grin with a hint of respect. If it is pure terror, you bought too much bike, and if it is boredom, congratulations, you are ready to write for this site.