Ben Cope

Overall: Great bike. It'd be in my dream garage, although it'd be fighting it out with an S4R RS

Overall: If you want unique, you're on the right track. If you want to challenge yourself on a trackday, then the 1125R is for you. Twice as good as, say, a second-hand Mille R? No. But what price exclusivity?

Overall: It's rare and it's a real head turner: if that's what you like about bikes but you don't have a massive budget, then the RS250 should appeal. I ran one as my main bike for a while but that's just not practical because decent two-stroke oil costs a fortune. It's a great Sunday toy that would be ideal to ride to a trackday and wring the neck out of all day and if you want a bike that makes you feel like a cornering legend, then this is the one to have. Everyone should own a two-stroke once in their life - you wouldn't go far wrong with one of these.

Overall: I bought this bike in 2005, so I'm coming up to 3 years of ownership. I've only done just over 10,000 miles having ridden it to Le Mans in the pissing rain, down to Northern Italy in the scorching heat, countless rideouts across the UK and I've even been to my local Sainsbury's on the odd occasion too. You know, just to fetch my shopping.

The TL is a wholly capable bike that will, these days, lose out to a 600cc sportsbike. Infact, it probably would have done even when it was first released in 1997. The thing is, if you accept you're not on this planet to wring the very last bhp from your motor, or fight physics to extract the maximum possible angle of lean and you just want a big bike that's capable of commuting, Sunday blasts and making a noise that's capable of emptying your adrenal gland in seconds, not to mention the bowels of shuffling pavement-bound OAPs, then the TL deserves your attention.

The fact that it's an easy to live with bike, that comes with an undeserved 'bad boy' reputation is the icing on the cake.