Riding another bike is always a good way to put black on white the deficiencies of my every day ride. But this week it was special: a spanking new BMW HP4. It had 900 km on it and went through a proper break-in procedure since BMW limits them to 9000 rpm until the first service.
Now, I won't claim I went anywhere near the limits of this bike. To put it in astronomical terms, my skills have the size of a small moon, and this bike can handle Jupiter. The lightness of the steering, the feedback, the mid-range added punch thanks to the Slovenian friends at Akrapovic, not to mention the 10 lb savings, but most of all, that tricky semi-active suspension... That thing was amazing to start with, now they just improved it for the fun of it. I can't imagine normal human beings being able to extract the full potential of this bike.
So before the powers at be flush this post to the "It's not a Concours - other bikes" area, I'll explain myself. I drove the HP4 for a few hundred miles in Autobahn, local roads and city. It was fun and exhilarating. I also have accumulated some 5000 miles riding a K1600. I can tell you this: the C14 is the best combination of those two. It offers 90% of the comfort of the 6-cyl BMW for a bit more than half the price. That alone is enough to finish this post and be happy. But amazingly, it also offers some +60% of the HP4's sportiness. And that is more than what I can handle anyway. This Kawasaki consistently lights up my day in the mornings when I have to go to work. I approach her in the garage (she's not a looker, imo) but I already feel nice. I turn the engine on and with a Remus Hexacone is a T-Rex clearing its throat. And the drive to the office is a blast... I mean it
Merging effortlessly with traffic, lane splitting, accelerating hard off the light, taking a couple of left-right S-curves... It just performs. Counter steering could be a wee lighter and the seat could do without that slip forward, but all in all it's an amazing bike, and even more so for the money.
Kudos to Kawa.
