Righto. That’ll do me then.
Pulling out of pitlane onto the track and I can
feel eyes on me. The growl from the Arrow
exhaust rudely announces the bike’s arrival in
a chatter of heavily silenced R6s. Not everyone
got to ride the Jon Daniels Racing Team bike. I
can almost hear the chatter... “How come the
‘Kiwi’ is on the race bike?”. Better not bugger
it up then. For the first four corners all I can
think is it feels wildly different to anything I’ve
ridden in recent years. It’s light, stiff and very
direct. Far more so than a shop floor R1, which
seems flabby by comparison. No, this is a
completely different beast.
102 KIWI RIDER
By turn three I’m thinking I’ll just wait for the
tyres to warm up for a lap or so, but then the
warning bells go off in my head as I realise the
race slicks have been on warmers and will stop
gripping some time in the next lap if I don’t get
a hurry on and keep the heat in them. It’s the
most odd feeling to get on a bike you’ve never
ridden and then figure out you need to ride it
hard just to keep the tyres gripping. Any ‘racer’
worth their salt would have known that.
At this point the bike is feeling alien. Tall,
stiff, ungainly. It’s not exactly a pleasant
sensation, and cracking the throttle open and
pushing hard into corners within half a lap is