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The big Kawasaki took me to all the Euro hot spots: Le Mans, Spa, the Bol D’Or, Heston Services. It commuted through London’s rush hour, posed at Box Hill and blew out the cobwebs on summer evenings. And it redefined the TT for me. The mountain section of the course is the best adventure playground I’ve ever experienced. It was the first place I’d been that I could use all the power. A trip from Douglas to Ramsey took two hours, because I kept doubling back for one more go. It was hard work, but that big e-box (egg box?) frame and the wide radial tyres all made sense on the TT’s grippy tarmac. Not nimble, but stable and predictable. Well, stable and predictable until I tried something better. I innocently accepted a go on a friend’s new ZXR750. Only a seven fifty, I thought. Only a hundred horsepower, I told myself. And it was very nice, supple, but a bit revvy and without the ZX’s wave of grunt. While I’d been riding the 750, though, the ZX10 had undergone a transformation. Or my perceptions had. When I got off the Ten, it handled fine. When I got back on it after riding the ZXR, it was a bouncy old lorry. Survival of the fittest starts here. More... |
© 1998 Martin Gelder