Josh Brookes has completed his first shakedown test on the all-new Norton SG6 at Jurby on the Isle of Man and says he made good progress over the two days.

The 2015 MCE British Superbike champion is making a return to the TT after a two-year absence, and will ride for Norton in both the Superbike and Senior TTs, alongside countryman David Johnson.

The Australian did not experience any major problems with the bike and has started to make some setup changes, starting with the rear suspension. Tyre wear was positive for Brookes and he was pleased with the chassis, which appeared to be working well with the tyres, even in colder conditions.

In 2013 at the Isle of Man TT, Brookes was the fastest newcomer and finished an impressive seventh in the Senior race in 2014. This weekend the Bringelly rider is competing in the second round of the BSB series for the Anvil Hire TAG Yamaha team at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit.

“It was really good. I was anticipating needing to make perhaps a lot of changes and there being some strange things about a bike that has been built in the UK,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“There were not any break downs or stoppages and didn’t have to come in because something was loose or falling off, it was literally just running out and making some changes to the suspension to get a bit more confidence and do some more laps and come in make some more changes - just normal racetrack-expected adjustments.

“The rear shock in the end still had room to improve quite a lot. It seemed to me really stiff so the team have gone away from the test and will make alterations to the internal settings so that then we are back in the range where we can adjust.

“Apart from that, everything else seemed to be working well. I was quite confident with the front. The tyre wear looked quite good, as it was quite cold, so I was expecting to see more tyre degradation than you would normally expect on warmer days.

“But the tyres held up good so that indicates the chassis is working well and the suspension is not too far away. For rider comfort and to gain a little stability we need it to be a bit softer in the rear so it doesn’t reflect off the bumps.”