Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1237845
CURTISS P40 WARHAWK FINAL EDITION R I D E R E V I E W P66 ing front discs doubled up in two pairs and gripped by four-piston Aerotec radial calipers employing special sintered metal pads. The brakes have to stop a bike weigh- ing 545 pounds with oil and a full 3.75-gallon load of fuel, resulting in a 48/52 percent distribution front to rear. There's another pair of 230mm Beringer discs at the rear, gripped by a third four-piston radial caliper. But, why no ABS? "As a lame duck model, there was no point in making the investment needed to develop a system for the Warhawk," says Matt Cham- bers. "But we'll have a full ABS brake package on the Curtiss electric models by the time they start production." TESTING THE CURTISS WARHAWK Though production of the Curtiss Warhawk began in May 2018, so far nobody outside the company other than a customer has been allowed to ride one. My chance to become the first such person came in Northern California, along the glorious winding roads with their turns interspersed with fast open stretches running inland from Carmel towards Salinas, just a few miles from the Laguna Seca racetrack. It was there I discovered that, once again, any product of the Alabama factory has improbably good-handling by cruiser standards, and posi- tively urges you to ride it hard. As always, in such circumstances, I was all too easily led! As soon as you straddle the Warhawk, you realize it has a subtly different riding position than its Bomber cousin, slightly higher. The improbably comfy, plushly- padded but minimalist seat's 29.5-inch height is half an inch taller than before, and your feet are a little further back, in what is a true café racing stance which feels rational. The flat drag-style handle- bar dictates that you lean forward slightly to grab the grips, with your feet finding the relatively rear-set footrests easily without those new high rise exhausts grazing your inside leg measurement—though they do give off quite a bit of heat despite the cord wrap. Because the whole motorcycle is essentially no wider than the massive 240/45-VR18 Pirelli Night Dragon rear tire, despite its size, the Curtiss feels responsive and agile. That's partly thanks to the reduced gyroscopic effect of the BST carbon front wheel and downsized quartet of Beringer brakes helping speed up the steering so that you don't need to give the flat bar more than a light tug to make the Warhawk switch direction easily from side to side. Despite the long 62.52-inch wheelbase and that fat rear tire, the Warhawk is improbably light- steering, albeit lazily so thanks to the wheelbase and conservative steering geometry, with a 27.5° rake to the machine-hewn girder fork, and 106mm of trail. Even though you can't grip the spine frame between your knees, you feel pretty much at one with a bike that steers and handles pretty capably. It felt super-stable when braking downhill into a bend, as (Left) The aluminum swingarm with the cantilever RaceTech monoshock offers two-speed compression and rebound damping. (Below) Checking the fuel level has never been so easy!