2009

Harley’s touring range, the most important bikes in the company’s vast and baffling line-up, have been given a thorough going-over for 2009. Big-mile ability and charm? Believe

Honda’s mostly-under-the-skin revised CBR600RR has one very significant addition for 2009 - an ABS braking system. But can ABS really sit comfortably on a supersport bike?

It may only look like a small update, but there’s a lot more under the skin of the new ZX-6R. With a new look comes a more refined attitude

The budget twin designed to look like a traditional Japanese theatre mask gets a useful update and manages to be more than the sum of its parts

The Yamaha R1 promises to be a genuine breakthrough, making use of a crossplane crankshaft developed in MotoGP to deliver smooth, even power. Will this radical new technology put the R1 ahead of Honda’s awesome current-generation Fireblade?

Perfect for slicing through sleepy country towns and getting stern lectures from not-so-sleepy country coppers. This fiery twin has got what it takes to entertain

Six very different bikes with one thing in common – an identical 2,500 miles to cover through France in less than five days. Visordown takes our long-term test fleet out of the comfort zone to find out more about the bikes we thought we knew so well…

Genuine MotoGP technology lies inside the latest manifestation of the wonderful R1. It’s not flawless but it’s verging on the fantastic

Not many bikes manage to change people’s perceptions of an entire factory. But BMW engineered a seismic shift in attitude with this big-inch brute, the machine that put the tonic into Teutonic. Believe

Few bikes have ever come as close to living up to the ‘Factory’ tag as this Noale nut-job. Expensive, hard to ride slowly, unruly on the road but totally in its element on a track – it’s just got to be the best bike of the year

The littlest, cutest Yam has reawakened youth to the idea of misspending it riding motorcycles, which has got to be a good thing. We should all know better, but just can’t help ourselves

Niall Mackenzie spends some quality time with the Yamaha R6, here's his review

A posing bike for the poser, Barry Tavner tries to capture the 'cool' on the Triumph Bonneville

Just when I thought I was getting close to reaching cerebral maturity, the 2009 GSX-R1000 showed me that I still had a long way to go.