Out onto the motorway and if I wasn’t convinced already, progress though the gears had me assured that this was the first 600 ever that didn’t leave me feeling lacking in terms of drive or power. Brought up in an age of real heavy metal and the theory that size really does count, I have never been a particular fan of the middleweights. But for the first time I have to say that I didn’t feel that I needed any more than this, not quite as much outright grunt as a Gixxer 750 but not far off.

Past the restrictive peages of the Cote D’Azur and back towards Italy, and the road opens out for one 3kms straight where, if you come out of the corner before at 160kph plus, you can normally take to the absolute max. As luck would have it, we didn’t quite get that fully free run and 255kph was all she was showing, but the way the 636 pulls away from the R6 at 7,000 is mesmerizing.

As I said before, though, the key to the Kwak is homogeneity, and this was revealed the minute we turned off the motorway and onto the fast 3rd gear sweepers of the climb to St Paul and the bottom of the Alpes Maritimes.

It’s not that the 636 is quick steering, so much as instinctual; like the CBR6 it finds its own line and holds it, perhaps even more neutrally than the ten. I was impressed by 2004’s bike, though not enough to give it the absolute nod over the Honda, but this year it’s progressed from simply a good handling bike to a great one. Gone is the rear suspension harshness, characteristic of all previous Kwak 6’s having been replaced by a much more sublime, GSXR6-ish style unit, while the whole riding position and attitude just encourages weight right where you want it – over the front, as such reducing dive and weight transference under braking. It literally drops in to turns like a bird of prey, with all the downforce it needs to assure grip from either end and the agility to get through any given radius however much it tightens up – believe me, you will bottle it long before the bike does.

Movement fore and aft is minimal; the wheels just keep beautifully in contact with the tarmac as the suspension intended. At the same time, the Kwak maintains the physical proportions to ensure that it is still the most comfortable of the two, and can be ridden in either idiom with equal success – corner speed or sideways in, sideways out.

The only thing I don’t really like about the whole package is the brakes – still not in the CBR’s league for precision and control.

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