The day one reality of pouring rain, scary winds between swaying trucks through Transmission Gully, and the potential forced Wellywood stay after a week of ferry delays and cancellations, makes a cosy, warm and dry car seem an attractive option, even if the new stablemate lodged between your soggy thighs is keenly surging towards the ferry wharf happily in‘ Rain’ mode. Harden up, springs to mind. My wait for Beaker( Muppet fans will spot the resemblance) had been lengthy. I’ d tested the original V85TT, liked it, nearly bought it, but felt it lacked just a little, shall we say,‘ urgency’. Then late in 2023, I checked out the new model bikes revealed at Milan’ s annual EICMA bike show, and spotted the new-look and updated, yet still thankfully air-cooled, V85TT. After checking out the revamped specs I ordered one. Unfortunately, following my excitement, it took nearly a full year for the new model shipment to arrive in little ol’ NZ. By that stage, according to my family, I was about as unbearable to be with as a bikini model with a hairy back. With much bribery and corruption, I managed to score the first of the new model V85s out of the crate in the country, so on pick-up( the day after I returned from a Phillip Island MotoGP trip), I hoped like hell the bike looked as good as the pic’ s, and the on-bike experience matched the brochure-speak … as the funds had already been parted with.
WHAT’ S DIFFERENT? The new V85s now feature Variable-Valve-Timing( VVT) for a horsepower gain and a sizeable boost in torque, a new on-the-go-adjustable windscreen, easy rear suspension pre-load adjust knob, lighter alloy replaces some heavier metal bits, new larger display( same as the V100 and Stelvio), some other tweaks here and there, plus the necessary‘ bold new graphics’. Five minutes down the road and I knew the horsepower, and, more importantly, the notable torque increase from way-down in the rev
36 KIWI RIDER