This V-twin from Honda seems to be what the first VTR never could be - a proper sports bike with decent handling and plenty of power. Having said that, the SP1 is heavy, weighing in at around 200 kilos when the competing four cylinder bikes are aiming below 175 kg, but porkiness hasn't done the Ducati 916 much harm. Seems V-twins are destined to be a bit overweight on account of their heavy motors.

A ride on our pot-holed UK roads is a bit of a shock as the suspension is set up on the firm side of bloody hard. The upside of bouncing about on the saddle like George Formby is excellent feedback and better control when driving hard out of bends on iffy surfaces.

Backing the damping off softens things up a tadge but the bike soon starts slipping and sliding around when the rebound gets too low and the back-end starts losing contact with terra firma on the bumpy stuff.

The engine is good, and gives a reasonable hit of low down grunt but the decent power seems to sit between 7000 rpm and the 10,000 redline. At these revs the motor is very smooth and quick to respond and after a day's thrash chasing John's Ducati SPS all over southern England it's clear that the Honda has the ability to stay with the Duke and would run rings round a standard 916.

Strangely for a Honda, the gearshift is excellent and you won't find any false neutrals, just a box full of jolly nice gears. Having said that, second gear is getting a bit crunchy after only 4000 miles.

First gear is hugely tall and the bike is well over-geared for Blighty's back roads so a couple more teeth on the rear sprocket is a good idea, and you can still use the standard chain - marginally shorter wheelbase is a bonus. Clutch is reasonable for a hydraulic one, but still doesn't have the feel of a cable setup.

Steering-wise, the SP1 doesn't respond so well to being steered with the bars GSXR style, you gotta woo it a bit more with some lean-it-over-like-a-916 as well as bar twiddling, but it's good enough for some serious scratching. Brakes are excellent, with loads of feel as well as stopping power.

The bike feels tight and compact but the fuel tank is a bit of a barge and kinda balloons over the narrow frame. Guess Honda have had to squeeze in as much fuel as they can as the old VTR always had a problem reaching the next petrol station. The front of the tank is so wide that you jam your wrists between the bars and the tank when manoeuvring, and the steering lock is consequently compromised. Makes mini-roundabouts and tight junctions a bit interesting. You develop a mental SP1 lock-limit so you don't hit the tank and wobble off into the undergrowth ... which is a laugh when you jump on another bike and confuse everyone by tarting about trying to turn using only half the available lock.

Super deluxe racer-style rev counter and digital speedo is a bit spesh and dead easy to read. And it performs a nice little jig every time you switch on. It's got a little mph digital gizmo which can be kph if you press the button for a few seconds. This clever button also changes the odometer into a trip meter or two or into a water temp gauge. It's not clever enough to change anything into a clock though, and I couldn't find a way of increasing the redline to more than 10,000 rpm.

I'm not sure I like digital speedos ... toodling down the bypass trying to look innocent, with an analogue speedo you kinda see you are doing around 80 ish and think, "Well that's OK, not much over 70", but the digital bugger sits there with a great big 94 glaring at you.

The standard twin silencers are huge stainless steel affairs and each one weighs slightly more than a GSXR750, but they're jolly quiet, which suits me as I live in London and at 6 am in a typical London residential street you can wake most of your neighbours zipping up your jacket let alone firing up a V-twin with a 120db race pipe - poor sods would all be back in their basements with tin hats on and that funny rhubarb jam with bits of wood in it to make it look like strawberries ...

Nope, I like quiet pipes ... a pleasant briar of ready-rubbed Sailor's Shag and a decent game of cricket, what?

A word about the tyres. I've heard of SP1s arriving with Dunlop 207GPs on, but mine came with Metzeler MEZ3s.... (temporary suspension of tyre comments here on account of K.R.Jones blagging activities). In short, bin 'em and fit something sticky with good feedback ... rather like the cream slice I've just eaten.

The SP1's trademark must be the large orifice at the front, the entrance for the ram air intake which, according to the Honda spin department, helps the bike push out lots of go at the top end ... but more importantly it looks well hard. Rather scarily, the intake tract carries on right through the headstock, so the air has a completely straight path to the injectors. Hope the Big H have welded lots of webby bits in there to stop the whole plot collapsing when it gets a bit too windy.

Now, for the more anorak orientated of you, a bit about damping (for back roads): the bike has good damping for smooth roads but over the bumps and potholes the suspension is somewhat unyielding, giving a bumpy ride and compromising grip on really rough roads. Heavy braking over bumps can also bottom out the forks. Short of changing the springs and shim stacks there's not a lot you can do about it. The rear shock is trickier - Maxton say the shock is sealed and can't be re-valved, so you'll have to check out alternatives.

The suspension has oodles of rebound damping at the front. Standard settings for the forks are 6 clicks out rebound (15 max) and 11 clicks out compression (23 max). After some experimentation we've wound the rebound out 9 and the compression out 16. We reduced spring preload by a couple of notches but the sag is too great so back to standard. Forks have been dropped through the yokes a tadge; the bars are prevented from major downward slippage by circlips in the fork legs. Dropping everything onto these gives another 4mm or so.

This should give us a reasonable starting off point for further tweaking after extensive road testing. It's certainly freed off the fork action considerably and allows us to keep our dentures in when bouncing through England's green and pleasant pot-holes.

There is a temptation to change spring rates which would give that super-plush ride we all yearn for, but will it completely bugger up the handling? Prob with these modern upside-down fork thingies is that travel is much reduced compared with steam-age rubber forks. On the SP1, the progressive springies are too soft to start with and use too much travel up static, so not much left for active on-road bouncing about. Ohlins springs are linear in compression and a tadge stiffer, so give more compliance in use.

The standard rear shock has rebound set at 0.75 turns out (3 max) and compression at 9 clicks out (19 max). We've wound rebound out to 1.25 turns and compression to 15 clicks, plus ratcheting spring preload to 2 from minimum - standard setting is 4 notches up. There is still no appreciable sag at the back end so it's not perfect, but as good as we can get it at present without replacing the shock. At least all the damping adjusters have a real affect and offer a wide range - unlike some, even if everything does rather stay on rock hard whatever little bits you twiddle..

Da doo Ron Ron at Maxton says that it's not worth re-springing the standard shock as the damping rates won't match, and you can't change the rates 'coz the unit is sealed at the factory so ya can't get in to re-valve it.

Unable to resist spending lots of money, Dave unfolded his wallet at the bike show and treated his SP to a nice shiny titanium Akrapovic full system ... that's £1000 to you, sir. Sounds nice though, all deep and rumbly and saves a few tons over the standard stuff.

Bit noisy, though. Tony's patent noise-o-meter showed 103 db at 5000 rpm, so no playtime at any tracks with a 100 db limit. However, Tony's other patent noise system the add-on baffle could help here, although it does tend to sap power somewhat ...

Other goodies disported on David's bike included some fancy Christmas-tree Harris rearsets in a lurid gold finish and an Ohlins rear shock.

Now we've moaned a fair bit about the SP1's suspension as it gets tied in all sorts of strange sailor's knots when the going gets a bit bumpy. Whatever you do, the rear shock is just not good enough. The Ohlins unit certainly seems to have better damping, and a rapid scurry down a well known bumpy road proved that the shock gives better control, keeping the rear wheel more in contact with the road. It's also marginally more comfortable, but for the true road warrior this is of course not at all relevant .... now where's my pile cream ...

Somewhere on the Feedback page you'll see a comment from Tom on fitting a Penske shock - his SP1 was modded by Winning Performance and he reckons it's the dog's wibbly bits. Hmmm, now who else owns an SP1 ..?

The Harris goldette rearsets aren't half bad, pretty comfortable and the levers seem to be a bit shorter, falling more readily to foot, so to speak. Not sure about the colour though - ally would look better.

Not sure about solid pegs either, unless they're jacked up near your arse somewhere. Don't want those hitting the ground when you're scything past Armco at 130mph. At least fold-up pegs give you some warning that your ear is getting too close to the deck without unsticking the rear tyre.

Front forks have been revalved and sprung with Ohlins kit by Harris Performance. The action is certainly improved, with more progression and better control, but they still knock your fillings out.

David has raised the forks through the yokes, with the idea of quickening the steering. Now the SP1 has a flighty front end at the best of times, so not too sure about this mod - it's liable to make the front even more twitchy without really making much difference to the turn-in.

As if to confirm this, David has fitted an Ohlins steering damper. Now call me an old fart, but this seems all a bit contradictory - drop the front to quicken the steering and then fit a horrible steering damper (OK, the Ohlins is very nice, but all dampers are basically horrible) to dampen out feedback and make the steering slow again ....?

Riding the bike shows that just too much has been done without really any thought as to what David was trying to achieve. So much has been changed it's hard to know just where to start to get the bike working properly. Present thoughts are to junk the steering damper, return the front forks to the original position and fit a decent front tyre (currently a Dunlop 207 GP ... yeeugh!) Then work on getting the damping and spring rates sorted. Course, he could always just go and get a CBR600 ....

The SP2, looking good in white and a steely grey - and no black frame!

Bigger throttle bodies, revised injectors and some engine tweaks give another 4 bhp.

The frame has been strengthened, with larger headstock, tougher engine mounts and the butchest swingarm ever, which is actually lighter than last year's to help shift more weight to the front of the bike. Honda reckon it'll turn a bit better than the old bike, although first track tests don't seem to confirm this - it's still a bit of a bugger to turn quickly in tight bends.

Back end feel is improved a bit and it seems the rider can now feel what the tyre is doing, and the revised injectors (now 12 port instead of 4) and mapping have improved the awful snatchy low-down power delivery.

The big problemo is the price - over £10,000 complete with sticker kit and WSB paddock pass, plus signed pic of the lanky Texan - whereas the SP1 is kicking around the £7000 mark in dealers' showrooms. What price a rather nice white on grey colour scheme?