Chris Vermeulen is looking forward to becoming better acquainted with the Kawasaki World Superbike team after his debut test was hampered by poor weather conditions.

Travelling to the Autopolis circuit in Japan to sample the ZX-10R for the first time, cold temperatures limited the Australian to only limited running over the two days.

Nonetheless, with Vermeulen also suffering from flu, he used the outing as a chance to adapt back to Superbike machinery having spent four seasons spent with Suzuki in MotoGP.

"The weather was so cold on the first day that we didn't do any laps," he said. "Nobody went out to do a lap on day one because it got a maximum of one degree and it was freezing cold! The second day was a bit better. I got out about 1pm and at least it was sunny. The air temperature got up to about six or seven, the track temperature got up to about 14 degrees."

"I was just riding to get the bars, footpegs and seat in the right place. Just general things like that, all the early stuff you try to get done. We played around with some small set-up things as well. On the chassis side the bike felt well balanced and did everything fairly well for a first ride in the conditions we had. It was pretty much just a basic test. I guess I did somewhere between 30 and 40 laps, between one and four o'clock."

Vermeulen will return to Europe for another test, scheduled next week at the Cartagena circuit in Spain.