When i was nought but a callow youth and would have to walk to school with the dread that only monday morning can truly evoke, I would spy this bloke on his way to work. This bloke had a black kawasaki, naked, which kind of growled as it approached and snarled as it left. It had gold embossed lettering and, to me at least, it looked like it would rip me a new bunghole if it caught me looking at it. That was when i started liking bikes.

After my accident i dallied with two wheels in the forms of a 125 spacy, a gilera 180 runner and then a yx600 radian. They were all great for the place that they played in getting me back to what i love - riding bikes and talking crap. okay so they didn't help much with the talking crap part as I already had that sussed!

they were not what i wanted though, and so fell lamentably but inexoribly from my favours only to be replaced by a vision in deep metallic red that was the ZR7 in Ron Parkinsons window.

A 750 nekkid? with Kawasaki written on the tank? Oh happy day!

So how much then Ron? £4950? Crikey. Oh well. Nevermind. But wait! The internet may help - and it did. Within a week i had negotiated with carnell, bikenet and a few others and eventually settled on £3500 from carnell.

Okay so when it arrived - a day late and missing a toolkit - the bloke nearly dropped it off the back of his wagon, but it was the best feeling ever. My first new bike and a kawasaki at that. Whent he bloke left i must have chuffed about eight unnecessary fags just for an excuse to stand out the front and gawp at it. It really did look good and i was more than a little bit chuffed i can tell ya.

the paint was very deep and the quality of the metallic was excellent with pin-sharp reflections. the handlebars were as shiny as you like and the engine black as josephs night with the superbly sculted side panels adding to the "Christmas has finally arrived feeling" that waiting an extra day for your new bike can cause. so i had a good look at the beast. yep it was all there. Ninja back lights with rear end in the air - low at the front with the headlight fixed to the forks at just the right height for "aggressive". Nice 160 on the back. FULL stainless four into one. In a nutshell this did not look like the "built to a price" " budget metal for the masses" that i was expecting.

A few phone calls to carnell resulted in a replaced toolkit and fifty sovs inconvenience money but, frankly, none of this could help the enormous disappointment i felt at not having the kliktronic yet and consequently not being able to ride it. She wanted me - i wanted her - but we'd both have to wait. Which was pish! Jump on an hand change to second - off the centre stand and away! for a few hundred yards anyway then it was time for tea and i had to come in and put it away. Play with it tomorrow yeah?

Long story short time. Got it klik-ed ( eventually) and took it out on the first of the tenthousand miles i covered on it in the year we were together. Run in? Run in? Okay then, 4000 revs it was. But it pulled very nicely - very nicely indeed thankyou very much 4 thou equated to over 65 in top which is nice when, like i was at the time, you're finding your foot. the bike had good torque and pulled nicely from 2000 to four thousand where the promise of more lay like a nuns knickers tantalisingly in my grasp. So then it came - the time that is - the time to blow the cobwebs from it's kaks and really gee it larldy ( i had to put that in although i have no idea ?). So wind it passed the magic 4000 rpm for the first real time and was i disappointed? Was i?

Well, yes, i suppose i was really. It didn't pull any harder and sounded like it was going to blow up! In truth, as i later came to realise, was that it hit a good torque level and then seemed to stay there right to the red line. At first i was puzzled by this. Where was the ferocity? then I realised, like a diamond bullet through my skull in brando style, that predictable pull and controllable power was what this bike was all about.

It was EASY to drive in the true sense of the word. It would be a good choice for a novice or for the experienced rider who didnt want any surprises but who still wanted to hustle when he felt like it. THATS why the journos have never liked it, i thought, coz it doesn't explode so much as "ooze" it's way to 130 mph ( the book may tell you slower than that but hey, im a fatboy and it did that with me on it so TTHHHTTHT to them). It really is a good bike because it can tear along- but if it is then it'll let you know with a lot of noise and vibration - or seemlessly roll on at 60 forever and ever amen if thats what you want.

Whilst we're on about the noise, the "blowing up " sensation mentioned earlier turned out to be - and it took a camcorder starpped to the tank to tell me this - the strangely beautiful sound of a kawasaki four howling at the horizon - magic. Okay, so the handling/roadholding is vaguer than a gsxr600 but it's still good and makes you earn your wings more. This is abike that rewards input instead of doing everything for you and maybe thats the journos problem too?

All in all this is a good bike. It's a cheap bike - i saw a low mileage eighteen month old ZR7 in mcn bikemart, apparently immaculate, for £1600 !!!!!! Why hasnt everyone got one

People have spoken more toss about this bike than any other in my opinion and never has any bike deserved it less than the ZR7

Okay, so maybe the fairing was a mistake but come on, that bike looks the dogs doesnt it?