Put a blindfold on and swing a leg over the Ninja ZX-10R and you'll swear you're sitting on a ZX-6R.

That's how incredibly compact the 10R is.

In fact, the front cowl has a smaller frontal area than the 600.

And any wind that tries to resist the 10R's relentless forward acceleration gets sucked into the central Ram Air duct, making the bike quicker still.

Add a few wind-tunnel designed tricks like integrated turn signals and a flush surface LED tail light and the result is a machine that moves through the air as easily as it moves past the competition.

I must admit I was very nervous when I first picked up the 10R, as the press had said what an aggressive bike this was.

"You can leave darkies on the tarmac at 140mph" one bike mag said.

"It's hard to keep the nose on the road.... etc" I found it to be just the opposite, yes it's an incredibly powerful machine crammed into 600cc dimesions, but this wonderful bike is pretty easy to ride on our everyday roads and even has city manners around the congested streets of Southampton.

OK, if you pull back that throttle you will be thrown into mind altering acceleration that will literally take your breath away.

The Ninja is much more of an involved ride than the Blade, or R1 and a lot less forgiving to bad or lazy riding, but this means the rewards are much greater once you've got it sussed.

The thrill of this bike is astounding and a permi-grin is almost guaranteed as the handling is that of a Sports 600 and there will be times that you think the clocks are broken as they always seem to reading a 3 figure number on the digital dash.

Yes you can lose you licence quicker than a sock on wash-day but what a cracker of a bike to do it on.

Braking is aided by a slipper clutch which will stop that back wheel from locking up, it boasts wavy discs front and back with radial callipers that bite like a rabid dog.

The seat is sofa comfy and despite its size there is loads of room behind the bars to shift about and hang off like a speeding monkey.

If you are trying out the GSX-R1000, the Blade or R1 get yourself a test ride on one of these too before you part with your hard earned cash.

But be prepared to concentrate as this bike won't tolerate slackers.

This beast is all about speed, do you have what it takes to tame it?