feels more compact. It may be a result of the ST1300's bigger fairing and angular styling opposed to the ST1100's smoothed, almost Ford Mondeo-like lines.The riding position of the ST1100 is a little more relaxed, since the ST1300's has you leaning

you go from nothing to dialling in that entire 1125CR lump, almost in one go.Around town, the 1125CR is well-suited to the carving up traffic on the daily grind. The motor is strong, although fuelling at the bottom end feels slightly lean; the bike

the conditions and from that moment the front feeling wasn't great. Even then I was worried I wouldn't be able to get any weight on the front and that's exactly what happened. I could carry the lean angle I wanted but the front wouldn't load at all, so I couldn

- and that is limited by what your lights illuminate. In bends, take a wide (but not too extreme) line, don't be tempted to turn in too early and be prepared to sharpen your line - keep plenty of lean angle in hand, give yourself a bit of room to the outside of the turn

into turn three with lean angle there was obviously oil all over the back tyre and it tried to spit me off in a highside. I kind of let go of the handlebars and was lucky enough to fall off the side, instead of going up into the air, then tumbling at 130mph

, but what a buzz. Watching the video footage, I could see I needed to focus on leaning forward over the front of the bike and relax my arms and upper body. As my confidence grew with each lap so did my speed... until I panicked through a corner, opened

-R and Blade the tallest screens. The R1's wide seat was the most comfortable (but Rob thought it too hard), the ZX-10R's a close second, although angled more steeply forward. The Honda's seat must have been about okay as it drew no comment, while the GSX

and were also excellent at the slower, more angle corners such as Druids. With the Street Triple ground clearance is considerably less than on a sportsbike, but I was still able to get enough lean to touch the tips of my toes as well as my knee, which

with any bike that may have spent much of its life on a circuit. Be suspicious if anyone’s got the pegs down – it needs serious lean angle. It is a slightly awkward machine for low speed manoeuvres so check for damage from a low speed drop as well.HOW MUCH

, no questions. The handling is brilliant, razor sharp and more precise than a German instruction manual. It attacks corners, leans for ever and is just mental to ride. The engine appears to have no rev limit as it just howls and revs and revs and revs until