Last time I was waxing lyrical about the quality of the vibration-beating rubber damping systems that are to be found all over what was Kawasaki’s flagship motorcycle.
To be fair most Japanese motorcycle manufacturers considered tackling vibration to be key to providing the end user with a comfortable and, above all, reliable product. The British manufacturers had cracked ‘affordable’ and even reasonably brisk bikes, but if those from the Land of the Rising Sun wanted to sell in volume, they needed an edge. Most British bikes marked their territory with lightly used oil and had electrics that could only be relied on to be fallible. Most electrics came from Lucas, whose poor quality was legendary, spawning that infamous truism, ‘Electric by Lucas, the Prince of Darkness’.
For most folks, their bike was not just their passion but their sole form of transportation so, however great their bike looked and sounded, if it made them late for work as
