specs

Top Gear's James May and Autocar Magazine's Colin Goodwin team up with Yamaha and Harley-Davidson in a quest for the alternative to scary sports bikes.

Going touring? You need a big bike, panniers and a top box. Or do you? From full-on sports tool to fully laden mile eater, via adventure tourer and slick all-rounder, the choice is yours. Team Visordown packs its bags and heads south.

I know the R6 well not only 'cos I raced one for three seasons in World Supersport but also because we used 'em as marshals' bikes on our track days.

The bold, brash and huge 1200 GS Adventure takes on its dad - the tough, slugging film star 1150 GS Adventure in the wilds of Wales.

Focused track weapon with race derived Öhlins suspension.

Big Headlines for the K11 with 9kg in weight lost, Big Piston Forks and Mono block calipers.

Fancy an ER-6 but find it a bit too small? The Versys offers relief. Kawasaki's lanky new 'any road' tool

Triumph's Tiger sheds the big trailie looks, sharpens its claws and goes for a more road-inspired image. Is this the right direction for Hinckley's big cat?

There are some things that even nostalgia can’t fix: double-denim, the mullet, Hondamatic. No matter which way you look at it, there was no excuse for any of them.

Controversial aesthetics, but brute force overrules ignorance.

Reliving a past they never had on machinery they didn't own first time round, Alex, Jon and Jim indulge in a spot of nostalgic old school cool. Let's go retro...

The Ducati 999 was just a stop-gap between the legendary 916 and the stunning new 1098. So for the first time ever, here are the two stablemates ridden head to head...

Kawasaki's ZX-6R has a reputation of being a serious track tool, wild to the point of instability. The 2007 model is both heavier and less powerful. Is this progress or a backward step for the 6R?

In 1984 if you wanted to go faster, you needed more cylinders. Honda’s CBX1000 and Kawasaki’s Z1300 are 12 pistons of sheer muscle.

Ill conceived Italian mismatch or a bloody good secondhand buy - Jon Urry gets intimate with the Multistrada

  Triumph’s Tiger 800XC is aimed at the more adventure-minded bikers out there. The ones that, while they’re filtering through traffic on their daily commute, are actually imagining handling out water to local kids at a remote stop in Africa. It’s a fantasy that’s helped BMW sell thousands of dual-purpose bikes.