THE RIDE Barring a bumpy road, the Papio is a surprisingly comfortable ride. As a fairly average 180cm guy( taller than my Dad anyway …), the feeling that I’ d jumped on a mate’ s pit bike never quite went away, but nor did it linger front of mind for all of the experience. There’ s enough room for adult knees and an unexpectedly upright back. It’ s not a toy, exactly, but the tight handling did make it feel like riding a motorised stress ball. City streets are this bike’ s natural habitat. Squeezing through narrow lanes, dodging potholes the size of the wheels, and slotting into‘ parking’ spaces that bigger machines get squeamish at- this is where the Papio earns its keep. It’ s light enough to push around with one hand and small enough that you can pick up the rear to slot into the aforementioned spaces with ease. Handling is unsurprisingly nimble, bordering on twitchy. The short wheelbase and relatively wide handlebars mean you can flick the Papio around corners and through traffic with all the eagerness of a caffeinated squirrel. This is where genuine joy can stem from this motorcycle. It is so much fun to twist this bike into sharper and sharper turns at higher and higher speeds, until you can feel the front tyre skip along the tarmac, at which point you’ ll probably ease off
and ride home in silence, suitably chastened. If you got a few of these together, they’ d be a rort at a local kart track. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, this bike would be an excellent learner machine. There’ s hardly enough grunt to get hurt( though I’ m sure you’ ll try), with handling characteristics bordering on juvenile( in a good way). No need to fear looking silly eight-point-turning on a narrow street, a chimpanzee could U-turn this bike in a car boot. Braking is handled by a single disc with a 210mm dual-piston caliper at front and a 190mm disc with a single-piston rear. There’ s the mandatory dual channel ABS for a bit of a safety margin. You won’ t be pulling stoppies on it, but the stoppers in general are perfectly sufficient for a bike this light and this.. not fast. The rear brake on its own is pretty unremarkable, but as is my mantra, if you had to pick a side for the budget to be spent on, you’ d most certainly pick the front. The lever feel is reassuringly firm, and the bike certainly scrubs off speed with more enthusiasm than it builds it.
STYLING What can be approached with enthusiasm about the XO Papio is its look. I understand there is a bit of polarisation about this online, with some taking a disliking to the sportsbike stylings. For the life of me I cannot understand why. This is a positively gorgeous motorcycle.
KIWI RIDER 29