RSV 4 R (MY2010)

This is the quality my riders reached for first whenever they tried to explain the bike. One press on the bar and it's already rotating, none of the lazy pause while a heavy liter machine gathers itself. It sets a line the instant you ask and holds it clean, and across a full field of testers nothing else in the class matched how quickly it changed direction. Corner entry isn't one trait among many here. It's the thing the whole machine is built around.

What ties it together for me is how honestly the paddock breeding shows up on ordinary road. Drop into the seat and the circuit mindset is already waiting, no warm-up needed to coax it out. Running every rider through it at Motorland Aragón, the blend of sporting intent, chassis, and engine character pulled clean approval from all of them, not one dissenting mark. That kind of agreement is rare in my testing, and it tells me the pieces work as a single machine instead of a fast bike bolted together from separate ideas.

The stopping power itself gives me nothing to complain about. I can leave the lever late, haul it down deep, and the hardware answers every time. What I have to stay on top of is the back end. More of my group flagged the tail going nervous under a hard trail-brake than anything else on the sheet, four of fifteen. Load it into a corner and the rear wants to wander, and calming it down means committing to tire compound and shock settings. With geometry this pointed, that's a trait you manage for good, never one you tune out.

The V4's character for me is patience. It won't dump everything the moment I crack the throttle. It gathers as the revs climb, so the payoff goes to the rider who holds a taller gear instead of snatching the next one. Three of my testers picked that progressive delivery out on their own. It runs right through the temperament of the whole bike, a curve that ramps up rather than pouncing, and that's what keeps this much output feeling like it's on your side.

Everything about living with this bike tells you where its head is. I'm fine in the saddle for a short blast, but stretch that to a full day and the riding stance quits being sporty and turns into labor, and my taller testers logged it as a firm ceiling rather than personal taste. The clutch keeps me guessing too, since the lever reports almost nothing about where the bite actually sits. Heat is the next thing you notice: the pipe rides low and near your shin, so a hot afternoon in stop-and-go warms up in a hurry. Push the pace on the highway and the bodywork offers little cover, with a taller screen only shaving the worst gust off. A steady buzz runs through the bike at every rpm as well, and how much it bothers you swings hard from one rider to the next, so put in some real miles before you commit.

For daily reality the thing I keep landing on is what's missing rather than what's there: no traction control. It simply isn't fitted, and on a motor this eager and this pointed, that absence rewrites what you're taking on. The second grip drops off, holding the rear in line falls to your throttle hand and your read of the surface, with nothing sitting behind you. Plenty of rivals would shoulder part of that. This one puts the whole job in your lap and expects a rider ready to take it.