I canvassed a few riders to see what they thought starting with eleven times TT winner, John McGuinness. “Anybody who gets on a good Superbike thinks they are just going to set the world on fire, but it is difficult; to ride a Superbike you need to understand how it works and how the tyres work and change your riding style accordingly. Maybe the Superstock bike is better as you seem to stop the bike, turn them, set them up on the fat part of the tyre and blast them out of the corner,” he said, “On the Supersport bike you are carrying loads of corner speed like you would do on a 250, so looking at it that way a Superstock bike is probably better for progression. Superstock bikes now are 170hp out the box, just another 20hp and that is Superbike power. We are only lapping a few seconds slower on the stock bikes and we are on roads tyres, and road suspension. They aren't far away from a Superbike. Let's go big, Superstock!”
Ian Hutchinson who has been racing in both Supersport and Superstock this year took a similar view to his road race rival McGuinness. “Initially as a Superstock rider for the last couple of years I thought 1000cc bike would get you more track knowledge basically from the engine size for the Superbike class. Unfortunately the Superstock class doesn't get much attention from the BSB teams. They see it as low budget class, which it is meant to be, low budget, low cost to be at British championship rounds. It is not really proving to be stepping stone to Superbikes. With Supersport you've got a hell of a job swapping from a Sport bike to a Superbike as they are totally different in carrying corner speed. It is a totally different way of riding but that is where they seem to look for Superbike riders. I don't really know what they look at to see it but I think Superstocks gives you more of a breeding ground for moving onto Superbikes,” concluded Hutchy.
