Kawasaki H2 SX SE
Summer’s glamour for Kawasaki’s H2 SX SE is drawing to a close, so how does life as working transport suit the hypersports tourer?
LAST MONTH I left the H2 SX SE while I went on holiday. When I came back, it wouldn’t crank. I charged the battery for three days but it was deceased. I told Kawasaki. A spokesman effectively said, “Ah, tracker fitted? They all do that sir.” And they do. Leave the H2 SX for a few days, the internet says and it needs trickle charging. When the new battery arrived, I accidentally deliberately failed to re-attach the tracker.
Reason was I had a ride to Heathrow coming up, and I wanted the Kawasaki to start when I emerged from Arrivals four days later. Of course, those still awake will spot the irony: what would you rather have; a flat battery or a stolen, untraceable bike? Thankfully, the scum said to be active at Heathrow missed it. Maybe it was the Oxford chain and the only cover anywhere in the bike park that foiled them.
But before the flight I also had to visit Warwick, then Wales, in the wet, for another two jobs, which required a change of bike kit. So, logistically, I had to pack two sets of riding gear plus clothes for six days in the H2 SX’S panniers and Givi top box, with an Ogio airport bag bungeed on the back.
For an £18,242 supercharged hyperbike, the H2 SX makes a hell of a wet-weather luggage mule, transporting silly loads at silly speeds over silly distances. Handling is bum-heavy, with the Ogio bag waving around like a pillion pendulum, but with correctly inflated Metzeler M7 RRS (they’d both lost a few psi; I set them at 38/40) the Kawasaki still corners with fluid grace. Weight matters not a jot to the gargantuan motor: the H2 sublimates distance over time without passing go, whatever the cargo. Or weather. SIMON HARGREAVES