WORDS: BOOTHY
IMAGES: GAWLER
In summer 2019 we took sportsbike testing to a whole new level. If you thought Fast Bikes magazine’s annual SBOTY (Sports Bike of the Year) test was as good as it gets when it comes to testing bikes, you’d have been right – up until issue 355 of FB mag, where we launched the first part of our inaugural Ultimate Sports Bike (USB) test (if you missed it, you can get hold of a copy from our website; click the ‘Subscribe’ tab and look for ‘Back Issues’). We had an epic time putting together an epic test, where we assessed every conceivable quality of all eight of our test bikes, from practicality to performance, on the track and on the road; we even got all scientific on the job and collated a ton of data from the dyno and our test runs at Bruntingthorpe proving ground. It was a battle royale of the best sportsbikes available in 2019, including a Kawasaki ZX-6R, a Yamaha YZF-R1M, a Honda Fireblade SP, a Kawasaki ZX-10RR and a Suzuki GSX-R1000R, but as impressive as each of the aforementioned bikes were, in their own way, the podium positions in USB part 1 were taken up by the fast and loose Ducati Panigale V4S, Aprilia’s winged wonder weapon the RSV4 1100 Factory, and the Bavarian bahnstomer BMW S1000RR M-Sport.