H2 SX v Z1000SX

Britain’s current favourite sports tourer, the Z1000SX, is a very conventional motorcycle — albeit a carefully focused, polished one. It arrived fully formed, taking the slightly brutish Z1000 motor and re-inventing it as a smooth, sporty, practical allrounder designed to appeal to men of a certain age.

When you get right down to it, this is a very traditional kind of big sporty bike: rev-happy Japanese inline four; quick but not nervous handling; an acceptable balance of comfort and sportiness to the riding position; and the kind of full-faired styling that will never go out of fashion. It is a reassuringly familiar type of machine for anyone who learnt to ride in the Eighties and early Nineties.

What it doesn’t have is gadgets. It only got lean-angle-sensitive traction control in 2017 but it doesn’t have cruise control, or a TFT dash, or even a centrestand… But then, it doesn’t have the £18k+ price tag either. And it still has 140 eager horses ready to fire it forward whenever you’re ready.

Bizarrely, the Z1000SX sounds like more of a hooligan than the H2 SX: it has an airbox wail to raise the hairs on the back of your neck; the H2 SX is quite dignified and relatively discrete, apart from the occasional muted chirp from the supercharger.

The Zed’s drive from its naturally aspirated 1043cc inline four is beautifully linear — steady and easier to ride smoothly below 6000rpm, with a strong rush above it. In isolation it’s a very quick all-rounder… it’s just nowhere near as quick as the H2 SX, which packs almost 25% more torque and was built “to be the fastest sports tourer on the Autobahn”. It probably is, too.