MCN puts Harley-Davidson XR1200 racing bike to the test

MCN Senior Road Tester, Adam Child has just finished riding at Oulton Park putting one of the Harley-Davidson XR1200 race bikes through its paces in preparation for the first round being held as a support race to BSB on May Day Bank Holiday weekend.

There are 25 bikes are confirmed for the first round with the likes of Jeremy McWilliams, Sean Emmett, Mike Edwards and last years RC8 cup champion, Dave Wood.

MCN tester Child is riding the press bike supplied by Harris Performance at the first round, his initial thoughts on the bike are:

“It stops and handles far better than any Harley-Davidson ever should and it may not have the outright power but it’s still really fun to ride.

“Surprisingly, it is agile thanks to the wide bars despite being such a heavy bike due to the wide bars, you can really throw it around through the chicane.

“The undulations of Oulton Park are causing a few stability problems but we’re hopeful that with help from Ian from Harris and fellow rider, Dijon Compton former BSB rider, we can dial the problems out with more testing this afternoon.”