Honda hrv

It used to be easy to identify Kawasaki riders. Men who rode machines like the scary early versions of the ZX-10 – you could see them on Saturday evenings standing outside pubs clutching a pint of vodka with ice: men with a wild look in their eyes and with hair suggesting that they had recently snogged a Van de Graaf generator. For these were men who had lost touch with not only reality and their wives, but their barbers. But not any more. The chap in the posters for the J125 may have a blonde hanging on his leather-clad arm, but he is, gulp, wearing a tie. I mean, the last time I saw a tie at a bike launch was the Ariel Square Four in 1931. But then, the J125 isn’t aimed at riders who live on the edge. It’s aimed at riders who live on the edge of town and want to get to work faster and cheaper than being stuck in a car for 25 hours a day. And for Kawasaki, it’s also aimed at challenging the dominance of the hugely successful Honda PCX125, the second … [Read more...] about Kawasaki J125 reviewed: Scooter to challenge the market leader

Way back in 1972, Kawasaki released one of those bikes that became a genuine game-changer. The Z1 was the first Japanese four-cylinder motorcycle to employ a double-overhead-camshaft system. It was brought out to challenge Honda’s dominance of the sports bike category – and it did exactly that, blowing its rival, namely the excellent CB750, away. The 948cc Z1 broke the world FIM and AMA records for 24-hour endurance and set a new average speed record of 109.64mph over 2,631 miles at Daytona. A Yoshimura-tuned version also set a lap record of 160.288mph. The production bike featured electric start, full instrumentation, 82bhp and a top speed of 130mph. It was smooth, stable and handled excellently. Not only did it have great performance, but it looked super cool, too. Readers of a certain weekly motorcycle paper voted it Machine of the Year, each year from 1973 to 1976. So when Kawasaki brought out a heavily Z1-influenced remake of its excellent Z900, called the Z900RS … [Read more...] about Instant classic: Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe reviewed

Well, it’s that time of year again when I reflect on all the amazing machinery I have had the privilege of riding over the past 12 months. So, deck the halls, strike the harp and follow me in merry measure as I look back at my favourite bikes of 2018. Adventure: Suzuki V-Strom 1000 XT As my long-term loaner, the Strom has been in my garage for most of the year. It’s seen other adventure bikes come and go, seemingly with bigger and bigger engines each time, as other manufacturers push on to 1200cc and above. For me, though, the Suzuki is the perfect size – plenty of grunt, light weight, nimble, comfortable to ride all day and with tech features which belie it’s £10k price tag. Commuter: Piaggio MP3 500 I was in Paris for the launch of this magnifique three-wheeled super-scooter. The French capital is the, er, capital, of scooter use in the Western world – both two and three wheels – and this latest MP3 looks set to put an Italian on the Gallic … [Read more...] about That was the year that was… 2018

When I was growing up in a field in Tyrone with only a stick to play with, a 500 was a big bike. Maybe it was because Dad raced Norton 500s when he wasn’t working in his bike repair business in the front of our Nissen hut while we lived down the back and looked out of the window, which was cheaper than a TV. There wouldn’t have been much point in a TV anyway, since we didn’t have electricity. When I got my own first bike, it was, appropriately enough, another 500 – an Enfield Bullet that I rode from Delhi to Belfast in 1998, with Paddy Minne on another, for my first bike adventure book, Way to Go. Paddy and I felt like kings of the road as we trundled through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary – until the day in Austria we met a Belgian couple returning from a tour of Eastern Europe on their Honda Gold Wing. They were model Belgians – he sported a walrus moustache and a beer gut, and she worked in a chocolate factory. Previously I … [Read more...] about Size isn’t everything: Kawasaki Z400 reviewed