Motorbike

Jim Bowen managed to completely spanner a ZX-10R the last time we put him on one. He has never been to the Qatar MotoGP circuit. So, who better to make a complete arse of himself...

An easy learner friendly machine, or a bike with about as much soul as a sandbag? Honda’s middleweight goes for function over style...

It’s just like the 1098 but smaller, right? Er no, actually it isn’t. Ducati has taken a completely new change of tack with its 848.

It’s Triumph best selling bike, a style icon, movie star and it’s still only 14 years old. Life is anything but dull with the Speed Triple as Jon Urry finds out on the roads of Lanzarote.

The Duke has been, and KTM intend it to continue, as the flagship of the smaller end of their range. And as such the engine and drive train is virtually the only thing that it has in common with the Enduro and the SMC. The rest is all different

If you can’t beat them, get the rules changed so you can then build a bike with all the bits you need to dominate the racetrack out of the box. Ducati’s 1098R is pure WSB homologation magic...

The original Ducati spoiler is more practical and arguably more exotic too. Plus the spec'd up 'R' version can be had on the used market for as little as £3,000. But beware, she has a few issues up her skirt.

Half elephant, half cyclops, but all-conquering when it came to the title of King of Speed in the late 1990s, the Hayabusa is still the yardstick for sheer velocity and a fantastic cult motorcycle.

These two bikes have a lot more in common than just the motor and are a much nearer to being able to live up to their name than any other street-moto or street-enduro machines currently on the market

Like Barbara Windsor, it hasn't been considered sexy for years. So what's kept the ZZ-R600 on Kawasaki's books all this time? It's the fastest, squashiest, flying sofa has ever seen, that's why...

Handsome is as handsome does. And if that's the case, many owners reckon the V-Strom is drop-dead gorgeous and offers plenty of smiles for the miles.

The menacingly handsome, retro-cool and capable ZRX series has been with us for a decade now, so how does it fare as a used buy? Bertie Simmonds finds out.

For sheer naked fun, nothing short of a frolic with Lucy Pinder can beat the Aprilia Tuono. Launched in 2003, it immediately won an army of fans

Like the original but on steroids, the Monster S4 grasped bare-biking from Bologna by the bars and took it into the new millennium. But are there any bugs? Used-bike fact hound Bertie Simmonds finds out.

Too big and pig-ugly is how the Honda Varadero been described but what's it really like to own?

Always a massive seller in Europe but an underrated under-achiever in the UK. Nevertheless, the TDM in all its forms is a secret waiting to be discovered by the second-hand buyer.

Ten years ago the Super Blackbird was celebrated as the fastest and most powerful thing on two wheels. Now, it's 'just' a very fast, big, sports tourer with an enviable reputation for quality.

Yep, it's true. Back in 1996, when Triumph first mooted a middleweight sportsbike - codenamed T806 - they looked at making a triple.

Born in 1998's naked middleweight boom, the Honda Hornet has evolved into a more capable, practical machine than the tiny-tanked original model.

Quiet, unassuming and unpopular the Sprint RS may have been as a new buy, it now has a loyal following and makes a bargain sports tourer.

A revelation when it first appeared: here was a proper British effort at a big sportsbike. Over the years while the competition has got wilder, the Daytona has stayed milder which makes the mature Daytona a very solid road bike

A quantum leap in performance over the mighty FireBlade, the Yamaha YZF-R1 set new standards for power and performance at its launch back in 1998. New and old models alike still sizzle today.

Yesterday's supersports screamers are still duking it out on the used battlefield. Under cover of sunshine, Bertie advances on middle England with a bunch of war veterans to find out who still cuts the mustard gas.

In 1995 Suzuki built the naked middleweight Bandit. Compared to Yamaha's Diversion it was a revelation: sure it was cheap, cheerful and built to a price, but it was also a hell of a lot of fun to ride.