I'LL ADMIT that I was unsure about the practicality of using a Japanese cruiser for daily transport. They seemed to be used more for fair weather riding and I was concerned that the finish wasn't up to our country's rather aggressive conditions.

How wrong I was. My Sue has put her bikes through some extreme testing over (well let's just say more years than I care to remember) and they have proved to be excellent.

She likes the style of the cruiser anyway, but it's the lower seat height that really attracts her to the genre. Don't get the idea that she's vertically challenged though, Sue comes into the "average" bracket.

She had been riding a Yamaha Virago 535 for a few years and was happy to carry on using it. A bigger engine would have been nice for the miles she racked up every week, but it was doing fine and was standing up to all-year use extremely well.

That was until the day she walked round to the bike park where she left it and found a car had driven over the Yam transforming it into a write-off.

We needed a new bike in a hurry, but we weren't going to rush into a purchase and did our research.

A bigger engine was needed and I wanted a shaft drive for all those miles she does.

In the end we compromised and she picked out a couple of used Kawasaki VN800s to look at.

The one we decided on was a low-mileage bargain that had been pampered.

When we saw the much- loved bike we didn't have the heart to tell the owner that it would be living outdoors, under a cover if lucky, and used through everything nature and man could throw at it.

Sue took to the 800cc water cooled V-Twin immediately, with a happy grin courtesy of the extra ccs.

The VN has been working hard for a living for almost three years now and my concerns for the finish and chain drive have proved groundless.

Any bike that is used through winter should be winterised so the VN has been liberally covered and only cleaned when the last of the salt has gone from the roads. The results have proved surprising - elbow grease and various cleaning products have brought it back to almost as good as new.

But even in the summer it isn't pampered and polished. It's a working bike.

The parts that haven't done well are the aftermarket radiator cover - that to be fair, is more for show - and the chain guard. Chain and sprockets have been changed, but just through fair wear and tear. A Scottoiler has made a big difference.

The bike came with original tyres that had been worn square so new boots back and front dramatically improved the handling.

Town roads, back roads and motorway are the every day habitat of the Kwak, it eats up the miles with ease and has a comforting turn of speed.

It can comfortably cope with the demands of touring and even though the tank- mounted dash rules out a tank bag there's room on the pillion for a pack.

For this year Kawasaki has brought the price down from £5,645 to £4,999.