Take everything with a grain of salt, so to speak...
Magazine tests are rarely "real world" indicators of a bike's performance. There are some rags that do some articles on real world performance but for the most part...
1. Most use a "correction factor" that calculates what the bike "could" have done if conditions were "perfect" for a run. The actual run is corrected for temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, altitude, etc... You almost never see these conditions in real life.
2. Bikes are usually accompanied to the tests by an army of factory mechanics that make sure everything is tuned to perfection on the bike. Everything is triple checked before the bike makes a pass and there are little tricks they use like pulling the brake pads away from the rotor to reduce friction, increasing front tire pressure, reducing rear tire pressure, etc that you wouldn't do on the street.
3. Often, the bike that is sent to the mag for testing is carefully selected from the assembly line at the factory. There can be as much as a 5-6% difference in horsepower/torque from identical bikes coming directly off the line due to tolerance stacking of the internals, minor manufacturing differences, etc... That means if the average bike puts out 155 rwhp then a "loose" one could have only 151 and a "tight" one could have as much as 159. The factory will test a whole bunch off the line and send the best. While not actually "ringers" your bike may not be getting that much power.
4. Riders in the tests are chosen for their experience and ability. They've been at it for a long time and usually know how to bring the best out of a bike. They usually don't weigh as much as the average Joe either. Dropping 5 pounds is like gaining 1hp.
5. The test riders don't have to worry about red-lighting, waiting for the other guy to stage, distractions, etc. Timer starts when they are good and ready and the wheel breaks the beam.
All in all the test reports may be a decent indicator of how bike stack up against one another but are pretty lousy for showing what a bike will do in the real world.
