Hi James,,

What you have touched upon in your letter is an issue that not just us, but automotive journalists across the globe struggle with on a daily basis. In order to do justice to our loyal readers and provide a comprehensive report on the bikes we are testing, we have assess its capabilities thoroughly, of which a crucial aspect is performance. This means that everyone from the editorial team here in India, to our UK based international contributors such as Roland Brown (who wrote the Bonneville T100 review that you alluded to) have to put a few toes over the line from time to time. We would much prefer it if all the high-end manufacturers hosted track tests so that we wouldn’t be put in this situation, alas, this is not the case.

We do, of course, take the utmost care to make sure that we minimise risk when in these situations, and try to keep such infractions to a bare minimum. However, we are bound by the nature of our work, as are our fellow comrades who test vehicles for a living across the world.