John McGuinness “up, down and round the houses” during Honda testing

The recent official BSB test at Navarra also presented an opportunity to Honda Racing UK’s road racing riders – John McGuinness and Dean Harrison – to get out on-track ahead of the upcoming season.

The official Honda UK team was in Spain for a week, testing with its BSB riders Tommy Bridewell and Andrew Irwin, as well as with the aforementioned McGuinness and Harrison and reigning British Supersport Champion Jack Kennedy.

McGuinness was pleased to get so much riding in while in Spain, having tested at Monteblanco before heading to the official Navarra BSB test.

“I’ve spent six days riding in the last seven which is just so, so great – we’re lucky boys to get the opportunity to do so many miles, and miles make smiles,” McGuinness said after the Navarra test.

“To get everyone back together and to be working so well is great because, let's face it, it’s a lot of time living in each other's pockets! But everyone is getting on great and working hard.”

The 23-time TT winner said he had numerous parts on the Honda to test, as well as new tyres from Metzeler.

“We’ve been up, down and round the houses with settings and testing bits and bobs,” he said.

“I’ve done a lot of tyre testing too, and it is great to see that Metzeler are putting so much into it and not standing still, because these options that we have tried this weekend have been very good and the new product is strong.

“For me, the bike is great, the bike is competitive and this time last year we hadn’t had much time on the bike so we are in a really good place.

“There’s no magic wand for me, I just want to keep riding.”

Harrison: "The week as a whole has been really good"

As last year, Honda’s biggest hope for winning on the roads in 2025 is Dean Harrison, who will also contest the British Supersport Championship full-time this year.

The Laxey-based rider split his time between the Supersport, Superstock, and Superbike Hondas while in Spain, and, like McGuinness, was enthused by his Metzeler tyre testing.

“The week as a whole has been really good, we’ve constantly been developing everything and tested so many different bits and pieces and everything is just getting better and better which is really positive,” said Harrison.

“We had four days at Monteblanco but we lost a day to the weather in the end, so I started the week on the Superstock bike then jumped on the Supersport bike in Monteblanco.

“Then here at Navarra, I spent a day on the Superbike, which has been really positive and we’ve got things in a decent window, before getting onto my 600 again today.

“We have chipped away all day and gone quicker and quicker even though the weather is getting hotter and hotter and we now have some good direction to work on for Donington.

“We’ve also been busy doing some Metzeler tyre testing which has gone well and the new compound that we have is definitely a big improvement. “