I took Jo’s bike out for a bit of a ragging today. She has been off on leave and my experience of Honda 4’s is they don’t like being sat around. So I nipped out on it. Warm day, dry roads and a buzzy high revving little bike brought out my inner hooligan.
I have discovered why I ride a big twin, because I am lazy and can’t be fagged to change gear and whilst the Hornet is perfectly docile at low revs it is a little hoodlum past about 9500 revs. So once I decided to go up and down the box and keep the revs up I had a good time. On original pipes she howls so the noise she would make a lovely noise on Acros or similar.
Whilst the Hornet feels tiny, and country road bumps can be felt the bike is stable and goes where I pointed it, even in hooligan mode. What a cracking little bike, calmly sitting at 30, in fourth, through villages and then turning into a howling little dervish happily biting into 3 figures and bringing me back to work with a ridiculous grin on my face. I didn’t go out long enough to really scrub the tyres in, but I think I will do so soon. If Jo lets me abuse her bike again.