Winding through the twisty forest section
of the Napier-Taupo highway near Te Haroto,
the Duke felt light and nimble dipping into
the sweeping bends, the WP suspension
working perfectly. As each corner opened
up, I wound the twistgrip open. With the
front wheel getting light, I could feel the
electronics package working to balance the
power and keep both wheels on the ground.
The acceleration was astounding, immediate
and unrelenting, surging the Duke forward.
With a grin a mile wide I made it to Napier,
fuelled up, and began looking for a place
to have lunch. Wanting to enjoy more
of the Duke, I smashed a pretty dodgy
servo’ pie and got back on the road.
I chose to avoid Hastings and Waipukurau,
instead opting for the slightly less busy SH50,
meaning I could keep the speed up a bit.
108 KIWI RIDER
I found the Duke loves to rev. Keep the revs
up above 4000rpm and there’s power on
demand with the engine humming along.
There is a definite surge in power around
the 6000rpm mark reminiscent of a two-
stroke coming on song. It will hum along at
100km/h in 4th quite happily, although the
same speed in 5th feels a bit lethargic, and
6th is just a cruising gear at this speed.
From there, the rest of the trip down SH2
to Wellington was a bit of a blur if I’m honest,
the lasting memories are of the Duke making
overtaking a simple, clinical procedure, with
the only reason to downshift being to hear the
engine sing from that Akrapovic exhaust.
Every opportunity to accelerate brought a
massive, dopey grin to my face, and I
completed the rest of the trip in
gorgeous sunshine, in Sport mode.