PICTURES:JONNY 'SUPER SHARPSHOOTER' GAWLER
If Carlsberg did sportsbike tests, it’d be shite compared to this one. Fast Bikes’ Sportsbike of the Year jamboree has gathered authority and respect throughout the world’s motorcycle industry over the years, with many considering SBOTY as the most important, most informative and most entertaining around. If you’re unfamiliar with this test, we assemble the ten freshest and sharpest sportsbikes in the world, dress them in Bridgestone controlrubber to ensure fairness and equality throughout, and undertake two days’worth of unrivalled, arduous testing at one of the world’s finest circuits.
This year’svenue was a third visit on the trot to Portimao on the Algarve, the most spectacular circuit this side of Austin to emerge in the last ten years. 2016’s SBOTY test also sees the start of a new wave of bastardised bikes courtesy of much-maligned Euro4 emission regs. These power-sapping, noise-reducing rules have caused havoc with manufacturers–both financiinformative aally and dynamically –but like it or not, this is the face of things to come. Entry criteria means automatic invites for these fresh 2016 models, so Kawasaki’s ZX-10R and the Ducati 959 Panigale made the ferry. Both impressed in isolation at their respective debuts, but against aphalanx of Euro3 machines they’re going to have their work cut out.