The swerve

You’re riding along, a car pulls out and there’s no room to stop. Better grab the bars and heave hard

EVERY RIDER KNOWS the sickening feeling of their stomach shooting up their oesophagus when a piece of clear road abruptly transforms into a driver’s-side front door. Without time or room to stop, the only solution is frantic avoiding action. Our tidy quadrangle of cones might look harmless, but the sharp yank of the ’bars needed to force a last-minute 30mph swerve feels like a genuine heart-stopper on every run. The three bikes with wide handlebars fare best, their extra leverage helping to

throw the bike off course, while the two bikes with clip-ons are less keen to budge. Both riders find the low-slung ZX-10R is the hardest work and needs by far the most physical input, reflected in a time that’s more than a second slower than both riders’ attempts on the Yamaha MT-07. While the Yamaha didn’t set the outright fastest time (that was the BMW), it did give the best average of both Martin and Paul’s runs, making it the winner of this test. It’s the most intuitively easy to throw about, and lends both riders the most confidence

by virtue of its minimal weight, unintimidating stature, decent leverage at the ’bars and stumpy wheelbase. The S1000R finishes a close runner-up for the same reasons – it steers from a natural, central place and doesn’t cause any fuss during any part of the exercise. The same can’t be said of the Africa Twin, whose 21-inch ferris front wheel and lofty ride height makes the side-to-side flick feel even more dramatic than it already is. But despite this it still manages – just – to pip the Thruxton R on our average times.