City, country and motorways
A diary of 700 miles on city streets, country B-roads, fast A-roads and motorways, in rain and shine, day and night
200 motorway miles Say “Ninja H2 SX SE” and think supercharged 200bhp – but a surreal level of performance isn’t foremost among the SE’S surprises (its delivery is). Surprise #1 Is the SE’S suspension poise. Dilapidated roads demand ride quality; pot-hole UK helped popularise long suspension-travel tall-rounders like the Ducati Multistrada and BMW GS. But the SE’S conventional, short-travel, non-semiactive KYB suspension is damping royalty; the best production bike setup I’ve ever experienced. It’s hovering down the M1 with a taut, imperious air, dismissing bumps as trivia and waving away roadnoise chatter. It’s so smooth I’m oddly refreshed. The SE makes me realise how fatiguing other bikes are on long runs. Surprise #2 The Ninja’s chassis dynamic is perfect. The heavy steering that plagues many big Kwaks — wearing out glove palms before tyres — is absent. The SE turns with total neutrality; the accuracy of a sportsbike with sports-touring confidence.
Surprise #3 No steering damper. The only – only! – negative I detect is at irresponsible speeds, or accelerating over certain bump sequences, the SE gets a bit lively.
50 town miles Begone, traffic. Instant, overwhelming performance makes squirty overtakes beyond easy — the bike is just bionic, leaping gaps in nanoseconds. With chuckable steering, mint throttle control (Surprise #4: no snatch I can feel), light clutch, and a beautiful riding position – the ideal sports-touring compromise with justso bars, low pegs and a wide, tall screen – the SE fits town with no problem. Maybe after three hours I could use a softer seat.
300 A-road miles The thing about the SE’S 200bhp is it’s developed by a retuned motor. It could be making 300bhp, it feels so unstressed, even compared with a ZZR14 or litre sportsbike (which both sound and feel like they’re trying). This does speed nonchalantly. It’s hard to understand how illegal it can be when it feels so natural.
150 night miles For such a tiny blue LED, the headlight shines a long way ahead (it needs to). Cornering lights work but I wish they could be graduated instead of on or off — and switched for permanently on. Heated grips are toasty but hard to tell the setting. The dash is cool; multiple displays plus a night inversion mode (love the lean-ometer). Tank range is 150 miles not trying; 180 normal. Wish it was a few more.
Home again Arrive feeling un-exhausted; after all day, I don’t want to stop. Last time that happened was riding to Peterborough from Scotland in the mid-1990s on a ZZ-R1100; at 3am I went straight past my front door and carried on because the bike was so magnificent. The Ninja H2 SX SE is the same level of awesome. Bike of the year? Bike of the decade, more like.