Regulated pollutant emissions and fuel consumption were characterized at the exhaust of two Euro 3 4-stroke medium-size motorcycles during the execution of both standard and real world driving cycles. A principal component analysis was carried out to group in a cluster the driving cycles with similar kinematic parameters. Hot start results, analysed according to this cluster grouping, show that the main differences are explained by overall mean speed and high positive acceleration of driving cycles. Lower mean speeds produce higher CO2 emission factors, while the influence on CO and NC is more complex. NOx are not significantly affected by the driving pattern. Inside the same cluster, the whole duration of the acceleration phases could discriminate emission behaviour. In-depth analysis of cold start results was conducted in order to assess the influence of the driving cycle and vehicle characteristics on cold start duration. Cold start extra emissions are more influenced by the duration of the enrichment phase than by the catalyst light-off. The larger number of accelerations occurring during real world driving cycles produces higher variability of air fuel ratio and hence higher cold start extra emissions. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.