There are better long-haul touring bikes.
But not one of them bangs like this. Not one.
Overwhelming, astonishing, redefining acceleration –
pretty much everywhere in the rev-range
It has luggage; it’s faster than
an ex-wife’s vengeance;
Cannot be mistaken for a Hayabusa
It has luggage; It’s green;
lean angle gauge is distracting...
It’s suitably comfortable for touring and the
screen works and so on and so forth.
But while all of this tech-stuff is beaut and
right and wonderfully engineered by Kawasaki,
when you bang that throttle open and what
feels like the power of a million suns starts to
dance… well, that right there is what the H2SX
is really all about.
There are better long-haul touring bikes.
But not one of them bangs like this. Not one.
Overwhelming, astonishing, redefining
acceleration – pretty much everywhere in the
rev-range. It’s normal when you’re normal, but
it’s an order of magnitude crazier than you can
imagine when you call upon it.
It steers precisely, but you do need to ride
it. It’s not a sportsbike and it doesn’t handle
like one – thank Christ. It handles like the
big, long, pannier-equipped, touring weapon
it’s designed to be. It takes a little rider
involvement, physically, to get it to dance
in corners, but I love that kind of stability
106 KIWI RIDER
in something this powerful. The adjustable
suspension is more than up to your harsh
demands.
Stylistically, it’s got a bit of the nasty alien
busted-crab about it, and the panniers don’t
do it any favours in terms of aesthetics. All
those stick-outy bits probably do serve some
kind of brilliant aerodynamic purpose, and
they do give the H2 range its especial and
unique appearance.
I actually quite liked its appearance. And I
thought the panniers lent it an air of almost
puckish insouciance. Like it’s saying “Yeah,
I can carry your stuff and your girl for you,
but it’s all going to happen at twice the speed
of sound, but let’s look at the panniers and
pretend for a second like I’m a normal
touring bike.”
There is little about the H2SX that can be
deemed ‘normal’. That whistling, nuclear
boost-plant buried in its guts makes sure of
that every time you get absent-minded.