CORE TEST
I understand that having a supermodel on your arm really does wonders for your street cred, just like turning up to a bike night on an all-singing, all-dancing, top of the range superbike. But what has the supermodel got that the girl next door doesn’t? Plastic tits, inch thick makeup and an insatiable appetite for co… nversation? Well maybe, but how much do such superficial qualities really improve your life? Take the R1M for example, with its sexy carbon fibre bodywork – does it turn the R1 into a featherweight racer? No. And you might argue that the lack of a quickshifter on the Blade and the Gixer can soon be remedied for a two or three hundred notes. As for electronic suspension, which the Blade, the R1, the ZX10 and the Duke all come with in their higher spec versions, well on our test, we really didn’t miss it.