The Longest Test: Visordown Long-termers Review
Six very different bikes with one thing in common – an identical 2,500 miles to cover through France in less than five days. Visordown takes our long-term test fleet out of the comfort zone to find out more about the bikes we thought we knew so well…
Blessed with all manner of bikes to ride during the summer months, it’s very easy to get a bit complacent. With Rob using his GSX-R1000 mainly as a commuter, James’ taking the XR1200 on long motorway stints en route to various commentary booths and Ben threading the GTR through rush hour London, it hardly gives the bikes a chance to shine, the opportunity to truly shout about their strengths.
Similarly, Niall’s prolific track day tutelage only ever sees the R6 in its very best light while the hugely versatile R1200GS spends most of its time being hammered through leafy Surrey lanes and zoned up and down the A3 into and out of London. And then there’s Barry’s Bonny. A bike much teased by all in the office as a classic designer’s choice of form over function, a real posing tool for the city, we were all sure that our esteemed Art Director would breakdown long before the Triumph did.
There are so many questions that remain unanswered in a typical magazine multi-bike test. Naturally, here at Visordown we do our utmost to put in the miles, find out as much as we can about the bikes and conclude our opinions in a fair and balanced way. But having a quick fling with a bike for a couple of weeks can never compare to a long-term affair. Like any relationship, there are highs and lows; times you can’t live without it, times when you wish it would fit in a little more with what you want to do and times when the grass seems so much greener, you wonder if you made the right choice in the first place.
We decided that the only way to mix things up enough to get all the answers was to take a blast down to the south of France, a vast country with an equally vast range of roads and riding scenarios.
With a tight schedule and a whole country to explore, each and every bike was put to the test. In fact, as the title suggests, this became the longest test, in every conceivable way…
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