review

The all-rounder that's the best off-roader gets fuel injection and anti-lock brakes to appeal to the sensible crowd. Has the fun factor been banished too?

Triumph has ticked nearly every box with the new Daytona. It is different from other 600's and a joy to ride.

Angular, aggressive and arguably the least conservative bike to come out of the Honda factory in a very long time, the CB1000R was one of only a handful of bikes that got me properly excited when it was launched towards the tail end of 2007.

Not a bad bike if you are looking for something a bit different that isn’t Japanese

Supreme top speed tourer that will impress with its performance and civility.

Ducati's 990cc MotoGP replica

Don't be fooled by the looks: the furthest this bike will go offroad is to the end of your driveway

Ask most riders what bike they think did the most to define the 1990s and they will probably say Ducati’s 916, Honda’s FireBlade or Suzuki’s GSX-R750. Which is fair enough, as those have always been the attention grabbers, but there is a bike that had a far more subtle influence during the same period – Suzuki’s Bandit 1200.

Neat, quick, and well-thought out update for a firm favourite

With £2k taken out of the Daytona 675's pricetag, is Triumph's Street Triple the bargain sportsbike of 2007?

The 500cc parallel-twin motor from the discontinued GPZ500 finds its way into a new Kwak trailie for '05. Should make a cracking first bike.

If you can’t beat them, get the rules changed so you can then build a bike with all the bits you need to dominate the racetrack out of the box. Ducati’s 1098R is pure WSB homologation magic...

While doodling a sketch for a potential drag race bike back in 1992, Ducati designer Miguel Angel Galuzzi unknowingly created the basic principle of a new streetbike. A year later Ducati released the Monster, so called because of an apparent dispute over its name.

If you’ve only really been into bikes for the past three years, your perception of BMW is probably exactly as the marketing types in Munich would like it.

World Superbikes was simply massive in this country in 1995. While GPs were dominated by Mick Doohan and turning into a predictable procession, WSB was tough, gnarly racing and incredible to watch.

When I’m asked what is the best race bike I’ve ever ridden, my answer is unquestionably the Honda RVF750. It had smooth power but was rapid, handled like a dream and was ultra stable into the bargain. The first time I rode one was practicing for the Suzuka 8 Hour in 1987 while I was contracted to HRC in 500 GPs.

Although most power-hungry bike journalists would have you believe that motorcycling is all about top speed and how quickly you can get there, the rest of us know it’s more about isolated moments of pure fun when it all comes together through a given section of road. And in oh-so many ways, Kawasaki’s new Ninja 250R delivers just that.

“Having seen both bikes in the flesh I tell you, you wouldn’t even look at the orange paint scheme once you have seen the white one. It’s stunning. But both bikes just ooze quality and style.

Ducati have added another fantastic bike to their already very good range. Replacing the S2R1000 the new 1100 has made use of the trellis frame and sub-frame from the 696 and the 1078cc air cooled DS engine from the existing range. Hypermotard heads mean 95bhp and 73ft lbs in a bike with a claimed dry weight of just 169kg.

Perhaps because KTM are best known for producing some of the best off-road competition machines of recent times, when the RC8 arrived a year ago many people expected KTM’s first attempt at a pure sports bike to be filling half of every superstock race grid by the end of the 2008 season.

One man’s beauty is another man’s toad, or some such proverb is often quoted when referring to a visually challenged offspring. Usually behind the proud parent’s backs.

It’s chucking it down. I can’t really see where I’m going as yet another errant Fiat Punto rental car appears out of the low cloud halfway across my side of the road. I’m soaked to the skin, I’m on an unfamiliar road high in the mountains and I’m not too sure of the way back to the hotel.

There are at least 1,843 good reasons why Yamaha have taken the trouble to develop the YZF-R125. That’s the number of CBR125Rs that Honda sold in the UK last year. Add to that all the CBRs flogged in Europe and in the two previous years, and it adds up to a convincing reason to build a serious challenger.

A peach from triumph, made peachier