tank and a US-30 on the pillion seat take care of the clothes and electronics . A Quadlock mount and wireless charger take care of the phone / GPS … except that Suzuki ’ s flagship sportster doesn ’ t come with a USB port . So a bit of cable routing has Quadlock ’ s 12v to USB adaptor to keep everything powered . Other than that , I just set the tyre pressures , filled the tank with 95RON gas , and got on the road .
even then there ’ s no fuss , just the light saying it ’ s up to something . It ’ s fast , seriously fast . Sixth gear is all that ’ s needed to overtake most things . A gear or two lower will overtake anything . Full revs and full throttle in third gear and it feels like something from a sci-fi movie , and I ’ ll end up overtaking myself somewhere beyond the event horizon of a black hole , stretched to infinity . Riding in the rain comes with some other advantages , particularly seeing how the aerodynamics work . I can feel the fairing forcing the wind out and around my hands , giving them still air , helping keep the rain off . Unfortunately , rain beads up the screen , then flows out to the edges and drops … right onto the wrist of my gloves where my waterproofs finish . There ’ s plenty of wind protection from the fairing , but the dripping water is annoying . Did nobody ride this bike in the rain when they were testing it ? By the time I pull up in Franz I ’ m cold . Not cold to the core , but cold enough . My heated gloves , which had been keeping my hands toasty for much of the trip , are waterlogged and struggling to heat the wet fabric . I ’ d strapped
DAY ONE Reefton to Te Anau 768km Rain started to beat on the roof at 6:30am . A shower , two cups of coffee later and I ’ m loading the luggage and topping up the gas for the hit down to Franz Joseph , hoping that the forecast is wrong and I ’ ll just be a little damp . By Greymouth it ’ s very wet and my hopes of a dry run are dashed . On the plus side , it was a great opportunity to play with the different traction control settings and power modes . After an hour or so I come to the conclusion that the Hayabusa ’ s stock Bridgestone S22 tyres are good . Very good . They ’ re super grippy even in the wet , taking concerted effort to get the traction control flickering on the dash - and
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