bones on country roads, and the twin 320mm
front Brembos haul up momentum miraculously.
I could find no hint of flex, or suspension wobble
and believe to do so would require vastly more
effort than I was willing to offer. The slightly more
upright riding position and bars make it very
52 KIWI RIDER
attractive for highway and road use, but it is
ball-zingingly fast in every gear. I lived in fear
of my licence. I’d be cruising, barely above stall
speed in second, at 75k’s on the way to the dairy.
I inadvertently broke the law every morning on
entering the motorway, looking down to see
130k’s ticking past with barely a twist of the
wrist, in third. The bike is designed for track-work
and European highways. You yearn for them.
But oh, what a gloriously capable machine!
I learnt what ‘Ms Scherzinger’ liked, and
offered my meager talents to the god
of her lean angles and thrust. (And here
I will give up the vile sexist analogies ‘cos
they’ll only get me hated, and/or fired)
I could not leave this bike alone. It was there,
omnipresent, even when sitting in a
darkened movie theatre showing me
the heroism of the horrors at Dunkirk.
It nagged through Kenneth Branagh
liplessly breathing the word, “home” in
a longing ‘manly’ way. It was the same
feeling as carrying the winning ticket
to the Lotto prize, as yet uncashed,
in my pocket. Outside was
the living metallic
embodiment of my
motorcycling fantasies,
just waiting for me to come
out and play. Nagged? Yes
she nagged me, my petulant
selfish lover. And I liked it. Lots.
Why? What makes it the
object of such fantasy? Simply
put, there is nothing I would
change. It is mesmerisingly
able and slick, down
shifting without the use of
the clutch is revelatory, the
engine revs to the perfect pitch
for soundless engagement, and can be done
faster than thought - from 5th to 2nd in a corner
- microseconds before torturing the tarmac-
ripping rear in a fascinating belting whirr of
arm-stretching joy. I admit, in some sections
of long country roads, with perfect visibility,
I also stretched the limits of the law, briefly.