This bike belongs to Tony MacBride who asked me if I'd like to test it for Motorcycle Racer Magazine. A fun day turned out to be quite an emotional one when Tony explained to me that the bike used to belong the late Gus Scott, a close friend of mine that was sadly killed at the Isle of Man TT in 2005. Gus is very much missed by us all.
During the '06 Honda Fireblade launch in Qatar, we were treated to a spin out on a couple of very special Hondas. Sebastien Charpentier's title-winning Ten Kate CBR600RR was an absolute joy to ride and made me realise just how far removed my own club bike was from the best in the world.
This bike made me feel invincible - something I had to be wary of as the embarrassment of dropping a bike like this would have been unbearable!
Chris Vermeulen's Ten Kate Honda Fireblade that he took to second in the World Superbike Championship. A bike with more power than I've ever experienced, it seemed almost rude not to wheelie it out of every corner…
The bike that Stuart Easton rode until injury cut short his 2007 season. Immaculately prepared by Nick Morgan's MSS team, the Kawasaki was surprisingly slow compared to the competition at the time - top ten results were testimony to the skills of Easton and his crew.
A bike now resigned to the history books, I felt truly honoured to ride the last of the ZX-7RR Hawk Kawasaki race bikes. A sublime chassis that evolved through years of development, the Kawasaki was a joy to ride round Mallory Park.
Testing isn't always that glamorous, you know… Looking forward to riding Scott Smart's Vivaldi Suzuki soon turned into damage limitation at a rain swept Croft circuit. We turned it round though and changed it from a straightforward test to a guide to riding in the wet with advice from a top Superbike team. Every cloud and all that…
Hamming it up over Cadwell Park's infamous mountain aboard Pere Riba's MSS Kawasaki. I loved this bike, felt at home on it straight away and had to be flagged in before I ran out of petrol!
Quite possibly the most incredible experience I've had on someone else's motorcycle. Despite the cramped riding position of JR's 2003 Rizla Suzuki, my first time on a British Superbike was sensational. My lap times may have warranted calendars rather than stopwatches, but that bike made feel very, very special.
