Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan is pleased with the new chassis and suspension parts he has spent the last three days evaluating at Phillip Island in readiness for the first World Superbike round next month, saying the bike is moving forward.

The team took a host of parts to the Australian track and were again faced with high track temperatures which caused the Fireblade to struggle last season but Rea knuckled down and put in various race distance simulations. He was also able to put in single fast lap times - a good preparation for Superpole.

"We’ve had a good three days, completed a lot of laps and tested a whole heap of new parts. We’ve also done quite a few long runs and race simulations which, to be honest, was really good – for the simulation we did today, we even used the lights," said the Isle of Man resident.

"The full race-run allows us to see exactly where we are, even though the disadvantage of testing on your own is that you’ve got no-one to measure yourself against. But the whole team is working really well and I’m really enjoying riding the bike again. Step-by-step we’re making things better and, although when you test this many parts you can end up going round in circles, I think we’ve got a bike with a good base setting to go into the 2012 season with."