It always feels light,
and drops into the turn
seemingly with the
speed of thought
ut on the sinuous corners of the road to
outh Head the bike really came alive, and
as my confidence and knowledge grew
melded with the bike, both mentally and
hysically. adore the uickshifting on
the , it is a work of genius and o erates
cleaner and swifter than almost any other
manufacturer. lutchless shifting u
and down makes for fantastic cornering
entrances and e its, with full gri getting
down, and owering out of those corners
can be almost se ual.
suggests the to s eed of the
motorcycle is
km h, but somewhere
north of that would seem uite achievable.
iding the in tra c and round town is
also a bree e. ith that low down tor ue,
threading tra c lanes and commuting city
streets is dece tively sim le. t always feels
light, and dro s into the turn seemingly with
the s eed of thought. he steering geometry
36 KIWI RIDER
in tight arking laces, however, is... cra .
ut the bike is so light that back and forths
to turn and go, are sim licity itself.
here is one niggle though, and it may
be that ust don t understand the why s
of it ro erly. ut on this bike everything
is tucked away, it has clean lines, elegant
sim licity, tight angles and is com osed like
an automotive artwork.
s legendary
finish is as always e ce tional and two
things bug me. he chain guard is this imsy
lastic thing that frankly seems there only
for the lines of its silhouette, but the worst
is the lacement and look of the front brake
reservoir, that oats above the front bar like
some artless s are arts de t afterthought.
oes it have to be that high u and look like
it came out of a imca
he other slight oddity are the asymmetric
headlights, but again e ciency overrode
anything more than cosmetic concern.