Ten years later, to the month, I walked into MotorCycle City in Farnbourough clutching my hour old test pass certificate. "One of those in green please". One week later I was the proud and very nervous owner of a Kawasaki ZX6R-G1. 

As well as my early chance encounter with Kawasaki, there were other reasons for going green. The other bikes on my short list at the time were: CBR600, FZR600, GSXR600, ZZR600 and the Thundercat. A bit faster here, a bit more comfy there, nicer build quality on this one... The ZX6 looked the best (IMHO), was the most manic (at the time), and sounded much better. 

My first ride was a relevation of sorts. I was amazed at how fast it turned compared to the GS500 I was used to. Even at running in revs it was making almost as much power as the GS, but making much less fuss about it. It was a kitten, really, it purred and bimbled softly. 

The riding position seemed to place you over the front wheel, but didn't cramp my legs or hurt my back. My wrists suffered somewhat in 30 limits, and I shifted the brake and clutch levers round the handle bars, which has made slow riding bearable. 

12 months after it was delivered, my ZX6R was stolen. 8 weeks later I had a new ZX6R-G2. Riding a new bike with OEM tyres and brakes and factory suspension settings was a shock; showing how the minor changes I'd made over the year had improved the bike. 

Firstly, the tyres. As a new rider they seemed fine; I had half an inch of unused rubber at each edge, and an amazingly quick steering bike. With 22,000 miles under my belt they were piss poor. Little grip in the wet, a very flat profile that means you are off the edge of them without even trying. Any stick in corners rewards you with a slow slide leading to an unpleasant flick as you straighten up. With the OEM D204s on, the ZX6R needs a hard shove to get it into a corner, and gives you no confidence once it's there. Plus the rear tyre was shagged in just over 3000 miles. 

New rubber had my G2 giving me intravenous adrenaline shots. Dunlop D207s are excellent, and perfectly matched to the bike. Much faster steering with less force needed to get it to turn, and solid predictable behaviour when lent over. Nice looking tread pattern as well. On wet roads they are again predicatable, giving plenty of feedback. Brigestone BT56s are also very good tyres. They need more of a push to get the bike over (still much, much better than the D204s), and the feel going into a corner is less sure. Once over there is just grip, grip, with some extra grip thrown in. Even when the roads are wet they are solid with just a little movement when you get on the power. 3 days after replacing the D204s with some sensible footwear I was scraping the right side peg on dry roundabouts. The left peg is probably going to stay unmarked until next summer, as public roads are far too crowded these days in the SE, and I'm not going to Wales (or a track day) in the winter. 

Next the brakes; vicious in 1998, wooden in 1999. Just changing to EBC HH pads makes a bucket load of difference. More feel and power with less effort. 

With a new bike to play with, I could tamper with the suspention with more, errrr, bravery, and not worry that any component was just shagged. Being a fat bugger I upped the preload front and rear, upped the front compression damping by 3 clickes, and 6 up on the back (4 on wet days). I left the rebound as standard at both ends cos it feels OK to me. This gives the least wallowing on chages in direction without bouncing me out of the saddle on B roads.

Having a second go at a new ZX6R also gave me a chance to look after it better from the start. The bracket that attaches the fairing at the front is badly worn by the cabling from the levers and clocks, but can be saved by just mentioning it when you pick it up, or on the first service. Putting a rear hugger on is a must for RTBs, but you've got to make sure that it will fit over the wider 180 section BT56s if you go for them as well. 

After all of that I think my ZX6R is just about perfect. It doesn't have the massive power of its bigger brother the ZX9, it can't lean quite as far as a GSXR, it's not a light as a R6, but:

Open the throttle above 8000 rpm and it 'kin moves. The air box howls and then, somewhere around 12,000 rpm, screams. 120 mph comes up very quickly, and 140 isn't far behind (that's as far as I've taken it). You can drop it into bumpy corners, and steer round surprise joggers, and then lean it more as the corner smooths out and tightens up. You can pull stoppies on every straight line brake (so much so that I had to retrain myself to brake earlier to leave some room for mistakes and cow shit). On a motorway you can cruise in comfort for 100 miles, and in minor discomfort for a further 70 (to reserve) at a steady 90mph if you want, but for a ZX6R motorways are just a means. You're better off getting a decent map and planning your route to take in as many A and B roads as possible, keeping the revs above 8000 per minute, and trusting the tyres and brakes to work. It can be hard work on unknown roads when the correct gear is not obvious, you can end up farting along or screaming at the limiter in first gear if you misread a road. Get it right however, and your face will ache from grinning. 

Apart from more power lower in the rev range, I cannot think of anything I could do to improve this bike. I could buy carbon body parts, or Nissin brakes, or a whole host of other bits of trickness, and they might even make the bike better. But the one thing holding the bike back is the rider, so I'm gonna spend some money on some advanced riding lessons, and a couple of track days instead.

One thing blunts my little section of biking heaven, and that's the cost. 220 quid for a set of tyres every 5000 miles (4 times a year for me), well gotta keep it shod. 180 quid (average) per service, every 4000 miles; it feels so much happier afterwards. 10 quid every two days for petrol; beats 15 quid train fare a day (plus two hours extra travelling), and beats sitting in traffic burning the stuff going nowhere. No, none of that bothers me much, what really pisses me off is the insurance. I've been quoted 2,500 quid for a years fully comp, and thats with big chain, ground anchor, approved alarm and off road parking (no garage unfortunately). Half the bikes value a year... Actualy I've been lucky, and got cheap insurance from Kawasaki for two years, but that runs out in April 2000. With any luck I'll have moved by then, and have a garage, in Orkney.