Riding in the snow – on a ZX-10R

MCN’s Trevor Franklin almost became the first person in the UK to dump a ZX-10R when he was faced with the challenge of riding 38 miles on the precious bike in Wednesday’s thick snow.

The first fully functioning ZX-10R in the country had to be nursed from his Lincolnshire home to MCN’s Peterborough HQ to take part in the world’s first group test we’re conducting for the issue out on Wednesday, February 4.

At one point he ended up sliding up on to a pavement and on to someone’s lawn because he did not dare hit the brakes.

Franklin said: ” It was a nightmare. I hardly touched the throttle all the way. I was riding on compacted snow and where the snow looked like it had melted, it hadn’t… it had turned to sheet ice.

” I was tickling along at about 17mph with irate drivers shaking their fists at me. But I didn’t care. My mission was to get the bike to MCN in one piece and I was sticking with it – neutral throttle all the way. ”

As the roads improved later in the week Franklin and fellow MCN testers have been able to get out and ride the awesome new Kawasaki in the way it was intended – and up against Honda’s 2004 FireBlade and Suzuki’s benchmark GSX-R1000. Our world first group test of the three key superbikes will include dyno runs and full performance test comparisons.

Were you caught in the snow on a bike this week? Tell us your stories. Either post on our Discussion & Chat news board (see link, right) or email mcn.online@emap.com

See the bikes at the MCN London Motorcycle Show and much more besides. It opens on Saturday (January 31).