I sta!ed this review with
its welcoming feel – and I
reiterate that here – it just
whispers, “Let’s Go!” to
your soul, and you succumb
t s easy to wa lyrical about levels of
technology or get stuck in masses of
teutonic numbers on ower to weight ratios
but let s ust say this the
weighs
kg and delivers
h . hat s
light - and fierce. antastically, deliciously,
confidence-ins iring and thrillingly so.
started this review with its welcoming feel
and reiterate that here it ust whis ers,
et s o to your soul, and you succumb.
ut it this way the day before writing this
was due to o out to a friend s house, for
a cu of tea. He lives
kilometres from
me and it s a nice wee aunt on a leasant
day. ut, decide to go around the to of
the harbour, the long way. fter crossing
the Harbour ridge went north and found
some winding roads ast aremoremo to
get me to my destination... but with more
corners. mm, corners.
arrived late.
small detour of
kilometres made me
miss afternoon tea, but was in time for the
hors d oeuvre. ust did not want to get off
the bike. ventually, my decre itude caught
u with me yes, the egs are lower but they
are still near s ortsbike in altitude, and the
cram in my hi s necessitated arrival at my
mate s house. f course, grinning your head
off and a ologising at the same time is a
weird combo, and made for raised eyebrows
on the host and his wife. ut as former rally
cham s, they o ed their heads round the
corner, took one look at the ticking bike, and
understood my demeanour com letely.
hen you ride a lot of different bikes, one
s ends uite some time aboard trying to
find out H something rankles, or doesn t
work well, or could be im roved. ften
these niggles are immediately a arent, but
at other times they only show u when we
are ushing a bit. found recious few. ut
has done something terrific here with
the
, it s not ust a smaller version
of the race bike, it is a masterwork all of its
own. ets get into some of the whys.
he bike is a si -s eed, transverse inline
in ected four, with twin overhead cams and
four valves er cylinder. ood. k.
KIWI RIDER 33