Lining up talented test riders is a challenge for all motorsports publications. The riders need to be not only highly skilled and adaptable to all sorts of machines, they also need the verbal acuity to express what they’ve just experienced from the seat of an unknown motorcycle into readable, entertaining print. Cafe Racer has been very fortunate over the years to have a handful of testers on call who fit those criteria and then some. Most recently, we managed to enlist one of the most gifted motorcycle racers of a generation when AMA and World Superbike favorite Eric Bostrom agreed to meet us for a few days of new bike tests. Based in Southern California, Bostrom had worked with us on the Discovery Cafe Racer TV series a few years back. He was more than ready to strap on his helmet and charge through the Calabasas canyons earlier this month and the images we gathered thanks to ace shooter Kevin Wing are nothing short of incredible. To let a rider of Bostrom’s abilities loose on ordinary streetbikes is to realize just how different top-level pro roadracers are from the rest of us mere mortals. His ability to out lean, our brake and smoothly accelerate drew small crowds of onlookers wherever we went. Look for his opinions on a host of new bikes including Kawasaki’s much-anticipated W800 retro to Harley’s new FXDR in upcoming issues.