Who's a lucky boy then

This is me on a day with a grin factor of 10 out of 10. Yamaha gave me a day to trial their new V Max and I never stopped smiling.

It started on a damp morning after praying the night before that it would stay dry just 1 more day, but it rained over night to leave the roads wet and slippy so riding a 200 bhp bike worth £17,000 on wet roads made the old arse twitch, but ride it I did.

Off the forecourt I rode after a brief talk through the buttons with Martin owner of Alf England’s Motor Cycles who made this all possible for me with Yamaha (now to be forever known as Santa).

Out on to the main road through Bedworth town centre and surprised that what looks like a big bike handles very well, through slow town traffic now left on to the by pass slip road feed in the power, god this thing’s got grunt in 4th 30 mph open the throttle and it pulls like a train, short straight around the island now nice long straight lets see what this can do in 3rd about 40 mph twist the wrist and shiiit!

Back wheel spins up so much power not enough grip on the damp road again the thought of 17 grand goes through the mind lets not give in back bent, well not this early into the day.

Prayer to Mother Nature please dry out, I will be a good boy for the rest of the year.

She must have been listening because it brightens up and the roads start to dry and with that you can start to get the feel for the bike.

It handles like my R1 drop it into the corners as it behaves with the grace of a sports bike half its size, alright on the track it would not be as quick but on the road I could not fault it.

And as for the power my arms ached from holding on and my mouth from holding on to a silly grin for so long.

But its not all wham bang thank you mam I need a bike that you can go take out for a bimble on a sunny day so I backed it off and eased it down the Fosse way.

Still smiling, tick that one off the list too. Parked it up for a coffee and spent this time to drink in the looks its big it’s bold and it shouts I’m a bad ass – I love it.

The build quality is top‘s right down to the fixings nothing looks plastic every detail looks like its had thought poured all over it in bucket loads.

But it not all good all that power comes at a price, it drinks fuel, I don’t mind that but give it a petrol tank capacity to suite, I spent a lot of the day going from garage to garage drip feeding it fuel.

Oh and the wife said the rear pegs are too high.

Got back to Alf England’s at 4:00 in time for some of the staff to sling a leg over all to come back with smiles and excited talk of the awesome power.

What a day for a mere mortal, you people who test these bikes for a living don’t know how lucky you are.

And the answer to the question that every one kept asking me all day –“ is it worth all that money” the R1 up for sale and so is the wife ! Again many thanks to Yamaha and Alf Englands.