Rea close to full fitness for Misano

Jonathan Rea is confident he will be back to full fitness in time for the next World Superbike round at Misano after injuring his neck and shoulder in the United States.

Rea hurt himself in a dramatic high-side during Superpole at Miller Motorsports Park, an accident that forced him to skip the Suzuki 300km endurance race.

Nonetheless, the Northern Irishman was back on the Ten Kate Honda for a two-day test at Assen, where he pronounced that he is feeling healthy again.

"My neck is like brand new now, after I did a stint in a hyperbaric chamber at home," he said. "The shoulder is taking a little longer to clear up but I'm sure it'll be fine for next week in Italy. It didn't affect my riding at Assen where we tried a lot of things to eliminate the chatter that we had in America. At least we now know what doesn't work!"

Returning to the circuit where he was a double winner earlier this season, Rea used the test to prepare for the second-half of the year, starting with Misano - the scene of his maiden WSBK victory last year.

"I was able quite easily and quickly to lap at the same pace I had in the two race wins at Assen - in fact, I did so many laps at that pace, it ended up feeling quite slow! I'm looking forward to going to Misano now and starting with a few of the problems that we had last year already solved."

Team-mate Max Neukirchner tested alongside Rea too, the German desperate to turn his flagging season around as he strives to get more comfortable on the bike.

"I did 91 laps on the first day and 90 on the second, so I feel like I know Assen quite well now! We definitely found so ething to get the suspension working a little bit differently and I tried the swingarm that Jonathan uses. However, we went back to my normal swingarm and found a better way forward with that.

"At the end of the test, I was going faster that my times in race two at Assen in April and we were able to get rid of some of the chatter. It's not quite there yet but we definitely went in the right direction by putting a little more weight at the rear.

"I hope we can start the weekend at Misano in a better position when we will do a bit more work on the front forks."