[Mr Gazza]

Nathan pulled away on the grey bike and I eased the throttle... Nothing happened! Ah yes, the arming procedure. I needed to pull the front brake and press the kill/arm button. Several attempts eventually got me a green light on the dash. You have to give the button a very firm push.

Over the bumpy farm yard and down the bumpy track to the lane we go. Slow speed handling is impeccable and the weight counts for nothing on the roll.
Nathan guns it up the lane and I follow with a big helping of throttle, glancing at the speedo makes me think I’m in kph? But no!

On the way home I gave the 900 the big un going up that hill but failed miserably to achieve the same velocity. It delivers incredibly easy speed. I think they claim a 0-60 time of 2.6 seconds.

Hoping for a smoother road we head out of the village at a rate and I try and shuffle to make myself more comfortable. The seat pitches me forwards, putting weight on my wrists; my knees make contact with a hard edge of some sort. This is actually the frame rails and strikes me as a bit weird on such an up market bike? It’s not quite as comfy as the Zero.

Nathan is setting an Energetic pace and it’s not many bends down the road that I feel I’m a bit quick half way round and I shut the throttle. This is like slamming the back brake on and unsettles me for a micro second until I get the measure of the powerful engine braking effect. There’s really no need to use the brakes at all. I think I used the front a couple of times to bring it to a halt at junctions but didn’t touch the rear.

This fierce engine brake takes a bit of getting used to. I contemplate having a play with the modes and cutting the re-gen back a notch, but there’s a lot too much going on ahead and I chicken out of playing with buttons. I regret not stopping and reducing the re-gen. I did get the measure of it, but it does take skill to ride like this as throttle off is as powerful as throttle on, so it demands concentration and a gentle touch.
Both bikes have the function of lighting the brake light when deceleration inertia triggers the light to flash regardless of whether the brakes or motor are applying that force. I found it quite handy to see Nathans brake light flash and gauge my throttle position. A new skill being honed as I ride. It must shred those Rosso Threes though!

It’s quite a harsh ride and the Öhlins could do with a bit of playing with, but there seems to be adjustable everything on them, so I think it could be set up much sweeter. I am a flyweight after all. That said, the handling and steering are impeccable. It turns in smoothly with no unnerving drop in. It can be flicked round a pothole as lithely as my Monster while holding a line like a limpet round the bends. It’s stable at warp snot in a straight line too.

It’s not a nice relaxing comfortable ride like the Zero. In fact it’s very engaging indeed, a rider’s machine you might say. Much more sports orientated, with the Italian Stallion champing at the bit. I would say this is more of a petrolhead’s bike actually. The straight cut reduction gears and chain drive give it a much more mechanical feel and sound than the uber smooth Zero.
I found the transmission quite frightening when I first slowed down to 30 for a limit. It gives out a loud screech similar to standing on a cat’s tail at dead on 30. One mph either side is okay though? Very strange.

I couldn’t help noticing that the mirrors are great for checking my shoulders and thought that for the price tag a little more thought could have gone into those.. How hard can it be?