#MOBO2024

We decided to shake things up a bit for this year’s MOBOs, and introduce a brand new award that has never been given in the history of the Motorcycle.com Best of Awards: the Manufacturer of the Year.

It’s probably not the biggest surprise to see Triumph’s new 400s again here. There can be a fair amount of crossover between the MOBO for Entry-Level/Lightweight and value. When one model/platform is able to pull off both, it further accentuates the importance and likelihood that the model will go on to do great things for the brand and motorcycling as a whole – and that’s where we’re at with the Best Value Motorcycle of 2024: the Triumph TR 400 platform.

The evolution of Ducati’s Panigale V4 platform since its introduction is nothing short of remarkable. It’s widely accepted that the first iteration was an unruly beast of a motorcycle with a powerful engine mated to a stiff and unwieldy chassis, making it hard to ride fast and especially hard to ride fast consistently. Ducati’s updates in 2020 and 2022 have been steps in the right direction, but the 2025 version absolutely blows the doors off anything that came before it.

I didn’t get much of a chance to experience all that the standard Harley Street Glide had to offer at the launch of it back in February because Mother Nature decided to rear its ugly head and cut our ride short. Other than feeling very comfortable with the ergonomics and satisfied with the torque from the Milwaukee-Eight 117ci V-Twin, I left the event feeling a bit unsatisfied.

It seems fitting to kick things off with what is arguably the most important category to motorcycling as a whole. The entry-level and/or lightweight segment of motorcycles are most likely to be the machines to bring new riders into the fold or welcome back those who’ve spent some time away from the sport. Over the past decade, we’ve seen dozens of fantastic models introduced to this category, but only in more recent years have we seen these machines transition from being budget-based to genuinely great lightweight motorcycles that any crusty ol’ biker can appreciate.