davidimurray

While back up visiting the family today I got the chance to go out for a ride with my brother-in-law. Started the day heading into the welsh mountains, him on his B-king and me on my sisters FZ6 Fazer.

It took me about 30 miles before I started to get into the fazer. The sit up and beg position doesn't lend itself to rapid riding and the need to always be running at at least 9000RPM to get any power makes for an interesting change for my SV650S. Once over 10K the fazer goes well, but the steering is so light that it didn't really inspire confidence. It just seemed to be one of those bikes that you can ride, but it never really excites.

Then it was time for the swap, gulp. As I swung my leg over the B-king I must admit that my heart was racing. Could anything this big and unwieldy, with so much power be any good? The first surprise was that as you sit down, you sit quite far forward over the tank and that enromous tank and plastics just dissapear out of view. The position is quite sit up and beg, but there is enough lean forward to make you feel like you are gonna be hooning! The wide bars help add to this effect.

As we set off from the layby, my first surprise was how light the bike felt, I could easily have been on a naked 600! The throttle response is beautifully linear, despite there being so much power (yes I was on full power mode!), it was amazingly controllable. As we made our way towards the good roads the second suprise started to dawn on me - the handling was amazing, very light and flickable. I kept finding myself taking tighter lines than planned as it is no big fat lardy lump but an extremely agile piece of kit. Then it was out to the open road.

What can I say but wow! What a confidence inspiring bike. Within 2 miles I was riding better and more confidently than after 50 miles on the fazer. As you approach a bend you simply tell it where you want to go and it just sticks like glue. Then there is the power, oh my god. I never got out of 3rd and 3 figures were seen without being anywhere near the top of third (70 was easy in 1st!). Overtaking is so easy - look, twist then hang on for absolute dear life as the numbers on the speedo flash past faster than a slot machine. You truly do need gorrila arms to hang on with. You cannot describe in words how quick the bike is - my brother in law had the fazer pinned to the red line all the time while trying to keep up, the B-king barely made it over 5000rpm!!

Whatever you think of the looks, don't judge the b-king until you've tried it. I would never have considered one before riding it. But for sheer fun it is amazing. I spent 30 miles constantly smiling from ear to ear, in between the cries of 'bloody hell' and 'oh my god' as I unleashed that raw power.

All I need to do now is save up for one!!