THE LITTLE THINGS

By TUG MCCLUTCHIN - IMAGE CREDIT MOTOTHING

SOMETIMES, WHEN YOUR JOB includes testing motorcycles, you are forced to ride bikes you would never normally choose to ride. Before you start writing nasty emails about me to the editor (again), i’m not complaining. it’s all fun, for the most part. they’re bikes, after all. occasionally they turn out to be exactly what you expect, but more often than not, they open your eyes, even just a little.

Of late I’ve ridden a number of small bikes for this magazine, Harley’s new X350 and X500, and the Ninja ZX4R and ZX4RR. They all taught me something. But I’ll need to go back in time a little to explain.

Some of you more “experienced” readers may have first obtained your licenses before we had the 250cc limit for learners, back in the days where you could ride anything you liked when you first became a licensed rider. Then the capacity limit came in, limiting us to 250cc bikes as novices. Then the authorities realised that having a 250cc limit meant youngsters were ending up on 250cc two strokes like Suzuki’s RGV and Aprilia’s lovely RS, and they decided that having that much fun needed to be outlawed, obviously.

And so arrived the LAMS regulations, for better and for worse. The intricacies of that system is a column for another day.

Whether you learnt to ride in the 250cc limit era like I did, or the LAMS era, we all shared one common urge that those before us largely avoided. We couldn’t wait to get on a bigger bike.

For me it was an epic struggle. I grew up on dirt bikes, and I was racing bikes on the tar before I applied for a learner’s permit. I think I was 20 when I collected my L Plate from what was then called the RTA. It was certainly a little weird being confined to a 250cc bike when you were already holding a race license and riding a Suzuki GSXR750 in anger on the racetrack. Strange days.

I’d been racing on the dirt since I was 9, so learning to ride a bike wasn’t an issue, and I already had a car license. I was just late to the party getting my bike license for the road, partly because I didn’t have a lot of money to spend, just like most young blokes racing bikes in those days. All my money went into racing and chasing girls.

So, my first road bike was cheap. It was an old second-hand Yamaha XT200 trail bike that I bought from Parry’s Kawasaki in Pennant Hills. And even though Super Motards weren’t really a thing in those days, I kind of turned it into one and threw a set of road tyres on it. There wasn’t anything sticky back then that would fit, unlike now, so it scored a Metzeler ME33 made for a cruiser on the standard front wheel and a Dunlop Arrowmax on the 18 inch rear. That Dunlop was the hardest tyre I have ever ridden on, and even after about 7,000km it barely showed any wear, no matter how poorly I treated it.

The XT was rudimentary, but great fun everywhere except the highway. It did awesome wheelies, and was still fun on dirt roads and tracks even with the street rubber.

Once my time in purgatory on the little bike was done and I was allowed a bigger bike, I was doing a little better work-wise and bought myself a new Kawasaki ZZR600. It was a lovely machine, and was followed by a Ducati 600SS, and then a 900SS and a ZZR1100. From there I think the only street bike I’ve ever owned that was under 1,000cc was a TRX850 and an old Z750 I bought as a parts bin special and rebuilt for shits and giggles.

Many of us migrate towards the bigger bikes, because why the hell not? What’s not to like? They’re fast, don’t need to be revved like loons, and they’re fast. Did I mention they’re also fast? I like fast.

My current road bike is an 1100 air-cooled Multistrada. Perhaps not the fastest thing in the world, but fast enough, with lazy power, and sweet Ohlins bouncy bits to make it handle nicely. It also carried lots of luggage which is important for some of the riding I do.

And then the Editor emails me and tells me to go to Queensland and ride the new Ninja ZX4RR around