YYEEEEEAAAHHH!!!
I have discovered, through experience, that this is the sound you make when you red-line a 636.
How do I know this you ask? Well it so happens that I have had the distinct pleasure of having the loan of a 2005 Kawasaki 636 for a week, and quite naturally I took it out for a good thrash to see what all the fuss was about.
To put this into context you must understand I normally ride a 2005 Kawasaki Vulcan VN800 cruiser. 55HP into 250Kg wet. Low, phat and slower on the uptake than your average sprot bike, but still a fast comfortable machine and nimble for all that weight. I’m sure this will all seem like old news to those of you who own bikes of this calibre but I so enjoyed the experience that I thought I’d share it with you all to give the perspective of one new to the world of the sprot.
Initially I was stuck to riding the 636 around suburban streets going to and from work, and to be honest, I wasn’t impressed.I didn’t like the sound, action and feel of the thing. It sounded whiny and synthetic, always sounded like it was over-revving and needed to be shifted up a couple of gears. It didn’t have the smooth crisp organic rumble of my regular bike, but I figured its appeal was lost on these congested streets and anyway it would probably take a day or two to adapt to the new mindset of riding a sports bike.
Come the weekend I decided to take her out for the usual loop through Clevedon through to Maraeitai Beach and back through Whitford to home.
This is where the screaming came in…
I didn’t spend a hell of a lot of time ogling the tacho so I don’t exactly know what the rev point was, but get her over 6k or so and it all starts happening, and just keeps on happening. The sensation of all that horsepower unleashed into acceleration is quite positively addictive. “The last 2000rpm is where the majick is” - so sayeth Allun.
“When you crack the throttle on a bike like this and hold it wide open you very quickly find yourself going very quickly” – so sayeth SlashWylde.
I especially enjoyed the feeling of being one with the machine, crouched low over the tank and just seeing the road unfurl ahead of me. I’ll probably get some bad rep points for this but it kinda reminded me of boyhood dreams of riding Star Wars “Speeder Bikes”.
Interestingly it was very easy to ride the bike at speed in a straight line, but trying to corner was quite a different experience to that of cornering on a cruiser. The shorter wheelbase and lower front fork angle (Rake/Trail 25 degrees/106 mm for the 636 vs. 32 degrees/122 mm for the VN800) makes for a more unstable geometry. Which of course is how sports bikes are designed in order to make the more manoeuvrable. The practical upshot of this was that cornering it initially felt like cornering one of those silly little push-scooters all the kiddies were falling off a few summers ago – wobble wobble.
After a bit of practice the cornering came smoother and more naturally and I experimented with leaning over the edge of the bike and shifting my weight a little. The amazing thing is how little you actually have to do to nudge the bike in the direction you want to go. The 636 responds nicely to very subtle cues from the riders body and still feels very smooth and stable at low speeds when pulling up to a stop. At first it felt a bit weird to be so high up in the saddle haring along at speed, it and made leaning a more daunting prospect but I quickly grew to enjoy it.
All of this put together really rammed home to me the need to learn how to corner a sports bike and have the courage to lean before tackling open road corners at speed. At the risk of being lynched by my cruiser-riding comrades, I’d say it takes more skill to effectively and safely corner a sprot bike at speed too. Then of course there is the testicle-defining experience of ‘getting your knee down’ which is a whole other skill-set and experience level, one I was not about to attempt on a brand new $15,500 bike loaned to me for a few days…hmmmnnn maybe next week.
One of the most interesting things about riding this bike is how it changed my personality. After a few days I found myself accellerating harder in traffic, zipping through little gaps I wouldn't normally on the VN, and overtaking with ease on the open road. But more specifically I found myself getting more aggressive on the road and generally being a fractious little bastard. Off the bike whilst at work I was still hyped up even hours later and would charge around the factory getting stuff done. Normally I'm very relaxed after a ride on the VN, this being in direct proportion to the duration of the ride, to the point where a long ride will leave me positively stoned!
The most nerve-wracking part of the whole experience was when it came time to part ways with this glorious machine and return it to its owner. I was deathly afraid that I was falling in love with the beast and was being drawn over to the dark side. Indeed when it came time to hand over the keys I had to prise my fingers open with my free hand in order to release them from my death-grip. When I climbed back aboard my trusty steed and rode home it was quite a weird sensation. The bars were too far apart and there was this huge expanse of air in front of me where a tank had once been.
It didn’t take long to become re-acquainted with my beloved though, and she wasn’t too miffed at my indiscretions with that ‘other’ woman. To draw an analogy, riding my VN is like a night of slow sensuous lovemaking with a voluptuous woman you’ve been with for some time. Riding the 636 is like one hot night of freaky raunchy sex with the slim tight sexy red-head you just met at the club. All in all this was a fantastic experience and though I’m still a cruiser rider at heart I would be quite happy to have one of these beasts or at least a smaller stable-mate in my garage.
For all the bike specs and a comparison with the VN800 go here:
http://www.motorbikes.be/en/compare/5100/4839/
Happy trails,
-SW
Destroy Everything! Destroy Everything! Destroy Everything! Obliterate what makes us weak!
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Originally Posted by SlashWylde
Just another example of why you should stay off the P, kids! Or the mushrooms, or whatever the feck yer on....
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