the opportunity to select the riding modes we wanted before heading out. I went with All Terrain mode, which I found to be a brilliant option. I’ m not one for tech on my bikes, but it was simply a case of holding the mode button down for 3 seconds with the bike stationary and the TC and ABS is switched completely off, with full power retained. Perfect. Why other brands don’ t make it this easy is beyond me. The Bosch electronics allows for other Modes options such as Rain, Off-road and Street. There are five in total offering varying degrees and mixes of power, TC and ABS – all easily selectable, and most on the fly. Talking around the other journalists at the launch, it was interesting how varied their preferred choices were for the terrain we were riding – mainly grippy dirt / gravel with some rocky stuff. Some liked softer power and a little TC( three levels of intervention), some liked full ABS and some TC, some rear only ABS off and others, ABS completely off. There was a real mix of selections, but in the end we all covered the same distance in more or less the same time … so I’ m not sure what that all means, each to their own, I guess. The TC at all levels was a little old school to my mind. The power cut was a bit too abrupt compared to the softer cut available on other brands making it a smoother intrusion. My personal stance is I dislike any TC off-road, period. As the old legend himself, the late great Tim Gibbes, used to say,“ The throttle goes both ways” so that is how my brain is wired- I want to control what the rear wheel does – end of story. On the road I happily leave
KIWI RIDER 29