KIWI RIDER NOVEMBER 2017 VOL.1 | Page 54

And then, just as my tenure with Nicole was approaching a measure of rationality, I met Nicole’s younger sister. Not quite as cosmetically pretty, but 25bhp more playful. And that is at the limits of my capacity to describe. God above. The Aprilia RSV4 1000RR Racing is basically a World SuperBike incarnate. I’m told you can even be given the very latest WSB map settings on a stick, just in case you wished to learn to fly. There are three major settings on the 1000 race bike. And lots more, just as on the Tuono. The lowest is SPORT, then TRACK, and then RACE. I never got near Race. Normal roads have cars, nearby goats, wet, trucks, 4 wheel-drives, potholes, fences, unexpected gravel, and limits. And so do I, and I reached mine fairly early. This is the epitome of motorcycling; as fast and as fierce as I dared to go, and there seemed 10 times more than that on offer. I enjoyed the experience hugely, the privilege of being aboard one of the greatest motorcycles of the twenty-first century (so far), was awesome. But I hit my wall. I am not a 58kg twenty-year-old with cojones of steel, sinews of carbon fibre, and reflexes of the pico-second variety. Nor am I leather-clad, riding smooth grippy surfaces with tyres matched to heat, everyone going the same direction and wired as hell. But by the lord Harry, I loved it! Inevitably, these fierce mounts had to go back to their owners, I was happy to return them unmarked, they taught me as much as I was able to learn, and I am sincerely grateful for the experience. But as much as it pains me, they were out of my league. Well, my comfort zone perhaps, but if I learnt that lesson, that is useful and it remains something very special indeed. Weird biker angels can come visit anytime!  Stunning capability; quick-shifter operation; awesome brakes Almost too much to take in *(My sincere apologies to Ms Scherzinger, oh, and Lewis H.) www.ntbracing.co.nz ntbracing@mac.com