Real world rides, real world riders

188mph... 189mph... hang on, I’ve had a thought...

What I should point out was that I was thinking this while riding the bike at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground for a feature in a soon-to-be issue of MSL.

Bruntingthorpe is a good, old-fashioned proving ground where, for a fee, you can fire motorcycles, cars, lorries and just about anything with an internal combustion engine (and if you have one an external combustion engine too, I suppose) along the two mile long, very wide runway before riding quickly around some corners of varying grip to get to the start of the straight and do it all over again.

If there was ever a way to make engine testing at very high speeds safe, then this is it. No worrying about other traffic, road furniture, horses or stray dogs. You get out there and you redline the bikes over and over in every gear until you are satisfied.

So there I was on the Kawasaki. Out on my third or fourth run. Tucked in and winding on the state-of-the-art superbike for all it’s worth.

I actually blurted out a small expletive as the bike pulled a little power wheelie while I changed gear from fourth to fifth at a speedo-indicated 143mph. I was giggling to myself all the way to the 189mph maximum the speedo went to as the bike just kept on pulling.

But Bruntingthorpe is a strange place exactly because it’s so long and so wide. For a fair few seconds nudging the thin end of 200mph doesn’t feel that fast because you’re so far away from things that would ruin your day – such as the aforementioned traffic, road furniture, horses or stray dogs. Because of this, I had time to think while the Japanese engine howled away underneath me.

I should say out at this point in the column that this is no adverse comment on the Kawasaki superbike which is just mind-blowing in this sort of world.

Small, tight and more clever than a room full of Stephen Frys, it easily impressed me (you can read our Bruce’s more in-depth assessment of the big green one from page 10) but when we as a motorcycle world can make a bike for under £12,000 that will outstrip a GP500 bike of just 15 years ago, knock on 200mph in standard trim and come with a two-year warranty, then I do wonder where we’re going next.
As regular MSL readers will know, I have a real penchant for two-strokes – primarily 250cc and 500cc two-strokes – and I like them because of the way they make their power.

To get the most out of a peaky two-stroke motor you’ve got to really pay attention. Get it wrong and you’re going nowhere fast as the motor burbles and splutters away and the ring-ding rev counter that was happy darting from 8-1200rpm through the gears waddles up from the lower parts of a rev range while you sit there stabbing for a lower gear, looking embarrassed.

The point is that these bikes and engines were never really about outright power and topping the double ton. What they offered was a real enjoyment of riding.

Yes, the Kawasaki is amazing fun to ride and I’m certainly not going to moan about either the amount of power it makes or the way it makes it, but right now a bike that can do all the things that a current top-of-the-tree superbike can and still sit in the garage with its immobiliser armed, then start first press of the button after a week or two idle, just seems like the absolute peak of motorcycledom to me.

As a motorcycle universe will we now change tack and look at getting more from smaller engines, or will we start pushing 210mph from the very top-end machines?
How about giving us a bike that can do all of the above but still return 60mpg most of the time?

As ever it’ll be the bike manufacturers giving us bikes that we want to buy. Look at the Ducati Diavel, that ticks all the consumer boxes and then some. We wanted it and it’s now here.

With the current trend of high petrol prices and environmental concerns, it’s a common ideal to want better mpg, so if that’s where we’re heading next (and can keep the fun and amazing advances of bikes like the ZX10-R) then we could be in for a very exciting time indeed.

Both in terms of personal experience and technological advancement. Bags a go at Brunters when it comes out... 

Tony