Beautiful, fast, exclusive and, for most people, expensive. That’s probably the easiest way to sum up the re-engineered Norton V4SV. But it’s also more than that, it’s a complicated beast too - and I mean that in more ways than one. While it is equipped with all the technology and features you’d want and expect from a high-powered sports bike, it’s also got some that I could really do without. While a reverse-facing camera is commonplace in the four-wheeled world, I’ve never heard a two-wheeled rider bemoaning a particular make and model because of its absence. I’d much rather leave that on the cutting room floor and slot on some better-performing tyres. Just saying…
And the new V4SV is complicated on another level too, I’m not sure if it actually knows what it wants to be. I know Norton has coined the ‘definitive British superbike’ tag line, then go on to state that it’s a road bike with track ability, but then they give it a suspension set-up that Fred Flintstone would consider a little firm. Topping it all off, they hogtie the whole thing with mediocre rubber, that part makes no sense to me. It’s close, annoyingly close to being the finished article, but for me there is still some work to be done. While it may look like the most perfectly polished diamond from afar, it just needs a polish to the riding experience to match that outward gleam.
