Crack open the throttle at about 60mph in top, and the Cyclone responded like a hot Zed always did.
Momentarily nothing much happened, as the smoothbores spluttered at low revs. Then at just below five grand the motor breathed deeply, the four-into-one pipe started screaming, and the wide bars tugged at my shoulders as the big air-cooled four leapt away.
Seconds later I was holding on tighter still, wind tugging at my helmet and the engine pulling hard at well over the ton. A curve loomed up, and the bulky, heavy bike wallowed slightly as I backed off the gas, brushed the brake lever and cranked round before blasting off again...
Back in 1993, a couple of bursts of acceleration were all the Daytona Cyclone 1100 took to bring vividly to mind the days –a decade and more ago, even then – when the fast motorbike was a big air-cooled Kawasaki with a tuned motor, trick chassis and loud exhaust.
The Cyclone was a special based on Kawasaki’s Zephyr 1100 retro roadster, built by west London dealer Daytona Motorcycles. If the dull standard Zephyr recalled the way mainstream motorcycling used to be,
