Well I rode my 5 bikes earlier today, what a hoot!
These are the bikes I rode and my impressions:
Husky 701 Motard: A fun bike, very responsive throttle but I suspect with euro 4 the engine is quite detuned, not as mental as I would have liked, did see 160 on the speedo down the straight though.
Kawasaki ZX1000, the bug eyed naked bike, very smooth but I just can't get to like 4 cyl bikes, you have to rev the tits off them to get to the power, maybe I am just being pedantic, but I never liked them. The bike goes well and handles well too, just not for me. It is also quite small and me being tall, it was a little cramped in the cockpit.
Truimph Rocket 3 : I have always wanted to ride one of these just to feel the power, but I was very disappointed with the handling, it goes like stink on the straights but you better be hard on the clamps as the corners are not it's strong point, I scraped the footpegs a few times.....it seems to have a standard turning circle and anything more than that it shows you a finger, with all that straight line power it was quite unnerving when a corner reared it's ugly head! Maybe I am not a cruiser type of guy!
BMW S1000XR: This is a very nice bike, rev it past 8k and it goes like hell, handles very well too and I was leaning off much better. Once again the 4 cyl thing put me off a bit, but this bike is so good, I could almost look past that. I felt at home on it and it fit my lanky frame perfectly. Nice bike.
Then I made a huge mistake, I rode the KTM 1290 Superduke GT. I was blown away by this bike, the motor is hugely powerful and the torque is to die for, in such a lovely V-twin way, open the throttle and it will show most bikes a clean set of heels, and it just falls into corners, I actually got my knee down! All I can say is WOW!!!!! Does not matter what gear you are in, just whack the throttle open and it wants to pull your arms off, and don't bother slowing for corners, it is fantastic. I am seeing one of these in my future. The grin factor is huge, it is mental, but does not want to kill you all the time. And the sound! I need one!
The new Kyalami circuit is also fantastic, newly resurfaced and the changes are for the better in my opinion. I have probably done 40 or more trackdays at the circuit in the last 5 years or so, and the changes are mostly after the main straight, the back of the circuit still remains largely the same, lovely job Tobie Venter did with the track. It was really a pleasure riding there.
And oh, as for the 80km/h procession, Michelin Superbike school instructors were marshaling the event and if they see you can ride, they went quite a bit faster for a few corners, then slow down to let the slowpokes catch up and gun it again, they are all fast guys and they also don't enjoy crawling around the track, I did not keep track of the speeds much but got my knee down, that should say something!
All in all a really fun day.
Ice Cream Man, I hope you enjoyed your supermodel!
Topic: SA Bike Festival by Kyalami komende naweek (Read 11063 times)
