1000cc class motorcycles score most of the glory when it comes to the bigger two-wheelers, but a growing middleweight movement is drawing attention to motorcycles that are lighter, nimbler and not quite as frighteningly powerful.

The likely soon to be released in Thailand, Yamaha FZ8-N goes back to basics with its no-frills feature list and minimal styling. Powered by a liquid cooled 4-stroke, DOHC, forward-inclined parallel 4-cylinder, 779cc engine that revs to an impressive 11,500rpm, the 212 kilogram Yamaha FZ8 is tuned for low and midrange torque and is well-suited to the aluminum frame.

The engine produces 104.80 horsepower @ 10,000rpm, with a maximum torque of 82.0Nm @ 8,000rpm, the fueling of the Yamaha FZ8 engine is perfect.

Honda deflected criticism of the VFR1200F's 18.5 liter fuel tank by claiming the new V4 engine is so fuel efficient it can last 300km on a single fill-up. And that sounds plenty to to getting on with.

But reality has been very different. In 6437 kilometers of obsessively measured fuel figures (by a owner) it averaged 16.58km on a liter, which means running onto the least bar of the digital fuel gauge at around 194 kilometers, and a theoretical range just shy of 258 kilometers. The furthest the owner has ever managed on a full fuel tank is 274 kilometers, and that really felt like pushing it. Still, I want to give Honda's claim a chance.

The simple challenge is to brim the Honda VFR1200F and head up to the north of Thailand at 110 to 115 kilometers a hour in top gear, sitting upright, and wait to see how fair it lasts. It's hardly the world's most exciting test, waiting with astonishing patience for the first of seven bars on the fuel gauge to budge. In the end it takes over an hour and 120 kilometers to disappear, which suggests an enormous range. But the second block lasts just 32 kilometers further, as do each of the rest. Reserve eventually flashes at 282 kilometers – into the unknown now.

You can't argue with a 2,300cc motorcycle. It is always right, no matter what you think or say. Bigger is better. Try to get a word in, and the Triumph Rocket III Roadster will simply crush you with its mind-blowing torque. Two 224Nm of torque to be precise. Enough to make almost anything else on two wheels look downright weak.

Bullying other motorcycles is the Triumph Rocket III Roadster's thing. Its 145 horsepower output is brutal and it carries its 367kg rolling mass with pride, as if it'd relish the chance to stop a MotoGP motorcycle dead in its track simply by getting in the way. That'd be sport for the monstrous Triumph Rocket III Roadster.

You can have a Triumph Rocket III Roadster in any color you like as long as it's shiny black or matt black. There's a bit of chrome, but Triumph has purposely blacked it out to reinforce its meanness, ant the effect works. An older Rocket III rolled up nearby one afternoon, and its silver suspension springs and other less night-like components gave it a much nicer, friendlier look. If the guy who climbed off it hadn't been so big, I might have teased him....

Suzuki's timing with the release of the first Suzuki 1200 Bandit (GSF1200) way back in 1996 couldn't have been commercially better. Faced with the disparate choice of a full-on sports machine or a mundane 'practical' motorcycle, riders were calling for a big-bore, budget utilitarian that could deliver a few thrills along the way. The Suzuki 1200 Bandit hit the spot perfectly and take-up for the motorcycle was immediately strong.

The Suzuki Bandit engine was a detuned version of the venerable oil and air-cooled, 1156cc, 16-valve four-cylinder powerhouse fitted to the Suzuki GSX-R1100. While the term 'detuned' usually means that power has been reduced to the point that the engine delivers a lukewarm response when compared to the original manifestation, this was not the case with the Suzuki 1200 Bandit. Sure, it was nowhere near as powerful as the donor engine, but it still offered 98 horsepower at 8,500rpm and torque was a respectable 90.7Nm at 4,500rpm. Coupled to a short wheelbase and relatively steep geometry, the Suzuki 1200 Bandit delivered fun in spades. So much so that it was quickly adopted by stunt riders the world over and the Suzuki 1200 Bandit still features strongly as the stunt rider's favorite at events across the globe.

Of course, the added attraction was the power lurking just under the surface for the interested engine tuner. Yes, a huge plus was the engine's untapped performance. In fact, just the placement of an aftermarket end-can gave 15 extra horsepower!

Who'd have thought that BMW's latest G650GS would have the potential to astonish? Well, it astonished me – a few times! The occasions are directly related. The first time was when accelerating out of second gear corner – the front wheel is lifted high on the throttle, and the BMW G650GS drives forward with ease and balance. The second was on my scales, and the weight, fully fueled, oiled, and cooling-liquid, was 192kg, what is not bad for a motorcycle like this.

The BMW G650GS is powered by a water-cooled, single-cylinder 4-stroke engine, four valves, two overhead camshafts, dry sump lubrication, 652cc engine with a 100mm x 83mm bore x stroke. The by Rotax developed engine produces a claimed 48 horsepower at 6,500rpm with a maximum torque of 60Nm at 5,000rpm. The engine uses the BMW twin-spark technology and has the BMW engine management system.

Not a replacement for the popular BMW F650GS, the BMW G650GS is worthy of its letters, as it feel and rides like a real BMW motorcycle, although clearly has the DNA of its parent BMW machines, which continue alongside.

I had the task of getting my leg over, and running the BMW G650GS in. Not as easy as you might think – I'm not so tall, and with the rear shock preload set for my weight, I can just get tippy-toes on the ground. This entry BMW adventure motorcycle has a seat height of 780mm which can be adjusted to either 750mm or 820mm depending on your size. The BMW G650GS's ground clearance is superb.

The Sym Joyride 200i Evo, isn't cheap, but it justifies that price tag. The Sym Joyride 200i Evo is nice and narrow and well balanced at low speed ideal for traffic busting. You can see a few maxi scooters in Bangkok traffic, most are grey imported Japanese scooters and some are officially imported 500cc maxi-scooters with a half-million price tag. The Sym Joyride 200i Evo will be the first maxi-scooter under 250cc officially available in Thailand.

The Sym Joyride 200i Evo comes with all the latest technical gadgets, 4-valve, electroplated ceramic cylinder, highly efficient liquid-cooling, 171.2cc engine capacity and a state-of-the art electronic fuel injection system. The Joyride 200i Evo easily meets the Euro III and Thai exhaust emissions regulations, actually with the specially shaped combustion chamber and ceramic cylinder coating the engine could pass much higher exhaust emission standards. The near perfect fuel combustion is also something that you see in the fuel efficiency of the scoot.

Thailand should be a perfect market for maxi-scooters, which is why it's so surprising that Sym has taken so long to enter the maxi-scooter market. They've sold enough 125cc scooters live the Fiddle II, Cello, Jet4 125, Tini, and Radar-X over the years, but none of them bigger than 125cc. You'd think that for an industry leader like this, with access to such a massive market, marketing a maxi-scooter would be an obvious move.

There's an art to good bargaining, and wading straight in with an insulting offer isn't part of it. As with everything knowledge is power. The best bargaining starts long before you're seen the motorcycle. Gather as much information over the phone as you can: a motorcycle's history, recent work, faults, how it rides, how easily it starts. Find out the market price, even down to fuel economics and build year, and take the figures with you when you go to see the potential interesting motorcycle.

If you're viewing a used motorcycle you're interested in and you're not familiar with the model, take someone who is an expert, to spot the things you may not otherwise notice.

Make a list

Take your time. Look round the motorcycle. Check it is as the seller has told you, and find anything that you can beat the price down with; scratches, dents, perished hoses, worn bearings and other stuff. List the faults you've found, and back them up with a figure for how much they'll cost to fix. Most sellers want to get it over with, so let them know you've got cash on you and have brought a pickup truck.

The Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird was a display of might. Honda wanted the high speed crown, and in 1996 the Blackbird delivered it. 142 horsepower and 116Nm torque were stunning figures for the day, so too the genuine 282km/h top speed. It was even considered to be quite sporty. Of course, a lot has happened since then and the biggest of the CBRs has a lot less to offer a speed junkie in today's market.

For starters it's barely quicker than a modern 600 until you get to seriously dangerous speeds. The respectable power is neutralized by the 11 stone it carries over and above a Honda CBR600RR. The Honda Blackbird still feels quick because of all that weight but in reality it won't win any drag races. When it can't live with younger machines of the same like such as the Suzuki Hayabusa, let alone a modern sportsbike. Time waits for no one.

However, for once the ravages of time have actually done a machine a favor, and now the Honda Blackbird almost perfectly fits the bill of a long distance tourer. The fuel injection engine fuels pretty well considering some of Honda's fuel-injection efforts and the delivery couldn't be much smoother. It has a creamy quality, perfect for wafting along for hours on Thai motorways... Plus you get a 23 liter fuel tank.

The Suzuki Hayabusa GSX1300R was introduced to the world in 1999, it was incredible fast. Whoosh. And then it's gone. What an extraordinary motorcycle the Suzuki Hayabusa was. What an extraordinary experience. Yes, at the time you had other fast motorcycles – way faster than your brain can usefully deal with. Ride one of the road at anything close to its potential and the flow of information into your brain is so rapid you have to start breaking it down into chunks and ignoring some of it. And then you just have to hope you don't ignore a really important chunk, like the nose of that car poking out in the driveway...

But with a Suzuki Hayabusa the rider is basically one great big data processing plant, with great swathes of information being rammed into his prefrontal lobes at a rate the poor primate's grey matter was never designed to cope with. It's all a bit disorientating: they call it speed blindness. Ride far enough fast enough, and when you stop the world around you moves in slow motion.

Suzuki have done almost everything right with the Hayabusa GSX1300R. It's phenomenally good at its job, which is to make more acceleration than the English language has words to describe. In a world devoid of speed limits (yes, even Thailand is getting speed camera's) it makes lots and lots of sense. Especially if you're in a hurry all the time. The Suzuki Hayabusa engine is long stroke and big bored, giving stacks of torque but not relying on high revs to make it. The leap off the bottom end is truly stunning; the smallest tweak of the throttle tube makes your smile, deliciously, sadistically and every time.

The first of the Kawasaki VN series, the 750cc Vulcan, was introduced in 1985. This marked a radical departure fro Kawasaki, ho until that time had used existing roadster engines in their successful range of cruiser style motorcycles.

The Kawasaki Vulcan has an all new, liquid-cooled V-twin power plant and as joined two years later by the VN1500, at that time, the largest capacity road motorcycle ever produced. The Kawasaki Vulcan 750 was well received, albeit troubled by engine problems throughout its life, and was over shadowed by the larger sibling, so much that the smaller of the two slipped off the sales list by the turn of the next decade. The VN1500 soldiered on and grew into the VN1600, a motorcycle still available today in most countries, again joined in the line up in 1993 by the revised VN750. Three years later, and this motorcycle in turn grew in bore size by 3.1mm to become the Kawasaki VN800.