[Scoobs]

Just test ridden one.

First impressions: Looks pretty darn cool to me. Trellis frame, air cooled 90 degree L twin, single sided swingarm, big Brembos up front. Massive diameter header pipes leading to twin underseat pipes. The Tank is tiny and the seat is high. I have a 32 inch inside leg measurement and was just about able to touch the floor on tippy toes.

From the saddle you look down on a neat LCD dash. Looks very smart. The bars are wide and with the mirrors folded out from the end of the hand guards, filtering is going to be very interesting. Mirrors are crap by the way.

Turn the key in the ignition and thumb the starter. The twin throbs into a lumpy 2K idle. A minute later and the revs drop a bit lower as the aircooled mill starts to heat up.

Clutch in, heavier than the R1 but not by much, and kick it into first. The gear lever is very snick snick. Hardly any movement required to change gear.

Few revs and out of the dealers car park and onto the main road. I have to filter through the traffic to get to the winding roads where this thing should come alive. Sod this. Folding the mirrors in. It's ridiculously wide.

Out on the road and away from the traffic now. You notice just how high you sit on the bike compared to a sports bike. It's a commanding position and the forward visibility is excellent. It's a very comfortable riding position. Upright, slid right forward on the saddle, elbows out. Zero weight on the wrists. Damn this is plush. It a one piece rider and pillion seat and there's a ridge in the seat where it transitions to the pillion seat. It's not very comfortable there.

Right. Let's open this thing up.....wheelie! Ha ha. Excellent. There is grunt from 3k. It's a little lumpy down there, but smooths out nicely as the revs rise. It's not turbine smooth like an IL4, but relative to the low revs it is. This thing has got bags of get up and go. Torquing it out of a corner is brilliant.

And talking about corners, this thing lives for them. The first few bends are a bit cautious. Not overly familiar with the bike and I am sat really high in the air. That and the £1000 excess I have just signed up for if I bin the bugger.

Few more corners and this thing is unshakable. The Pirelli SuperCorsas doing a fine job. Bwarrrrrrrp, brake, lean...lean.....lean....bloody hell. It's on it's ear.

Looking at the bike in the dealers, with the long travel suspension, I thought it would feel a bit noodly. You know. High speed weaves and a feeling that the handlebars were connected to the front wheel with bungies...but NO.

Sure there was a bit of (well quite a bit of) suspension dive when you hit the brakes, but turn it and control mid corner were excellent. Certainly less jittery than the R1 on similar roads. The plush suspension taking it all in it's stride.

Further mention must go to the Brembos. Without doubt the best brake set up I have ever experienced. Awesome power, great initial bite, but easily modulated.

Triple figures were hard work on the neck under acceleration. One you got hunkered down though it wasn't too bad. 0 - 90 is were the fun is though. I was easily keeping up with my mate on his 749S on the B roads and the big wide bars made getting it into a corner a piece of the proverbial. The steering was light, but not flighty.

So would I get one? Yep. Probably. After the R1 I thought an aircooled thou would be a bit of a disappointment. Let me tell you now. It ain't. There is enough of everything, with an excess of low down, out of corner torque and epic brakes. After riding IL4s with massively high rev ceilings, I thought I was going to keep hitting the limiter and running out of revs. I hit the limiter once and it was quite soft. It doesn't kill everything but you know you've reached it.

So; awesome brakes; great gobs of low down torque; more than enough grunt; great seating position; corners (woot); looks IMO - poor show on the mirrors. Truly useless. And the worlds worst indicator switch. You don't know if it has worked when you use it until you see the little green light on the dash, and cancelling the thing is impossible unless you are concentrating 100% and are positive with the thing.

GRIN.