EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
It’s interesting to note the response from
other riders about the FTR1200S, there
is no equivocation, no middle ground,
people either thought it looked great or
they hated it. I was probably the exception,
I grew to like it very much indeed.
It made me question my personal choice of
ownership and I haven’t done that in a very
long time, I took it very seriously indeed. And
that is because of its sheer bloody willingness
in the ride; it pulled on and on towards
every corner and curl, with fingertip control
and oomph-inducing stopping power.
At the nose the 120 70 R19 front tyre is
ringed centrally by twin 320mm discs with
T5 rotors and four-pot Brembos gripping
the pavement, and with a 150 70 R18 rear
52 KIWI RIDER
tyre, pulled up by a single two-pot disc.
They work. Top speed will be somewhere
north of 180km/h; I wasn’t going to find out
on public roads, but there’s a magnificent
amount of motorbiking thrill getting there.
Astern the swing arm is a rigid steel
construction that pivots through the crankcase
– it’s dependable and trust-making. FTR
models all use 43mm inverted forks with
150mm of travel, but the S model offers
adjustment for preload compression and
damping. And in the interests of keeping it
compact, the rear suspension monoshock is
visible and mounted to the right hand side.
The 1200S has ABS, cornering optimised ABS,
and traction control, wheelie control and
three ride modes (Rain, Standard and Sport).
I was very taken with the TFT display but the