HYPER ACTIVE
This is shaping up to be the year of the hyper-naked bike. KTM's revamped 1290 Super Duke Rand Kawasaki's Z H2 have already joined the fray, while Ducati's Streetfighter V 4 and MV Agusta's Brutale 1000 are set to test riders' neck muscles with their wind-blown riding positions and 200bhp-plus outputs.
The battle for unfaired street supremacy is sure to be vicious. It'll be the Beast against the Brute; the aero-winged Duke confronting the supercharged Zed. And the newcomers are going to have to bring something special to mount a serious challenge to the hyper-naked prizefighter that has held a strong claim to dominance of the division ever since the Tuono V 4R thundered on to the scene in 2011.
That original, category-defining Tuono V 4R is at the back of my mind as I apply a gentle squeeze to the front brake lever of its latest descendant, on a narrow Midlands B-road. The V4 llOO Factory responds by shedding speed with fierce, yet wonderfully controllable power, then going down a gear to second with a cough from its quick-shifter's auto-blipper, before tipping into a tight right-hand turn in response to minimal pressure on its near-flat one-piece
