of this particular damnation – you just keep on walking . It ’ s the only thing to do . Pay the extra money . You don ’ t want to be explaining to people who will come and stare at your Panigale ( and they will ) that you were too cheap to spend the extra dollars for the one with all the fruit .
A COMFORTABLE ... RACE BIKE So what makes the Panigale S so special ? Why did this bike , of all the bikes I have had the pleasure of riding , turn me into a mewling psychopath ? It ’ s comfortable . I could ride it all day . Yes , it ’ s a race crouch , and , yes , it ’ s a superbike in every sense of the word , but somehow , Bologna has made it ergonomically viable for the road . There was actually very little weight on my hands , and my body still works well enough for the Panigale ’ s pegseat- ’ bars relationship to be very doable for me . That kinda gobsmacked me a bit . I rode Yamaha ’ s insanely able R1 around for a month and it brutalised me like a farmer catching an ox in the cabbages . The Panigale is , relatively speaking , a very comfortable race-bike . Yes , OK . It gives off heat like an overloaded stove . That 1103cc V4 Stradale engine is a vast lump of exotic metals – with an insanely convoluted exhaustsystem hanging off it . It radiates significant levels of heat – and glomping around in traffic is nigh-on unbearable . But even at 160-180 , it ’ s searing your delicate thigh-
54 KIWI RIDER