A potent, but manageable,
weapon for the clubman
RR350
With the RR350 it feels like something else
has changed, too. I liked this bike before,
but only so much as it was a rev-hound and
you would ride it more like a 250F than a
350/450F. This year something’s different –
one of the techs hinted something along the
lines of a change of ratios, although with him
being Italian with limited English (and me
vice-versa) we were struggling to understand
each other. Whatever, the feeling is it holds
its gears longer, and third gear especially
seemed longer and the engine torquier,
so you weren’t screaming the engine and
shifting frantically – it’s shifted much closer to
the laid-back character of the RR390. But not
too close, it still feels like a race bike.
The new handling dynamic is a tough one to
evaluate without having the 2019s to hand
for comparison (if only…). However, I can say
that the handling was good and I noticed
I was starting to appreciate I was steering
more with my feet – weighting the pegs –
than with handlebars and body position. It
could be the power of the tech talk at the
presentation was creating autosuggestion
but it felt like the weight was indeed mass-
centralised, and with the narrower frame you
felt you had a real feel for the bike through
those pegs (which incidentally have a neatly
chamfered leading edge so as to not snag in
ruts).
All up the 2020 RR350 felt like a big step-
up on the 2019 model. A potent, but
manageable, weapon for the clubman.
KIWI RIDER 41