Lou Girardin
12th November 2006, 16:41
I've had one of these to run in for the last week as it's going on the rental fleet.
I'd always thought they were a 'neither fish nor fowl' bike, too big to be a sports tourer, too small to compete with the Lead Wings, BMW LT's etc.
Boy was I wrong! I was able to commute almost as easily as on my Bandit, there was just the odd time where the sticky out mirrors required discretion, otherwise cagers just dived out of the way as this huge glowing barn door bore down on them.
On Saturday we joined a couple of Hoglets for a ride up to the Sawmill at Leigh, the ST got the pillions vote in the comfort stakes and she thought it was a lot smoother that the slightly frenetic Bandit. (Wait till she hops on that with it's new-found grunt) The odd time I explored serious lean angles didn't even get close to scraping bits of bike.
So today I went out solo up 16, Paparoa/ Oakleigh Rd and back through the Waipu Gorge. This 280 kg beast can samba in the twisty's far better then you'd imagine. The weight shows in transitions and under brakes, but the ABS lets you nail it down with a lot of confidence. And again, I didn't get close to scraping, Pixie said there was still a fair bit of clearance even when I'd thought I was close to the limit. A guy on a small sports bike got a demo on the Mangawhai road, the look on his face when we stopped at the SH1 intersection was priceless.
The V4 has a nice rumble under acceleration, then smooths out beautifully at cruise. The first refuel at Kaiwaka gave just under 50 mpg, no doubt it got a bit thirstier through the tight stuff, but still great economy two-up.
Back to the ABS. I'd tried it out on a short stretch of wet road one morning and gave up because I was risking a Liberace from a cager and didn't come close to locking it up. Then I tried it on a bit of empty dry road on my way home and only just got the ABS to trigger, it was like hitting a wall. It taught me that I rarely use all the braking abililty of a bike.
The power screen is interesting too. At the low setting it feels like the Bandit, lots of wind blast around shoulder level, raise it 30 or so mm and it goes quiet and feels like someone is pushing on the middle of your back. It actually puts a bit of weight on your wrists. Not uncomfortable, but definitely strange.
It's changed my mind a bit about the next bike. One of these is going to be a real possibility as our touring bike next year, but I still need a play bike too.
I'd always thought they were a 'neither fish nor fowl' bike, too big to be a sports tourer, too small to compete with the Lead Wings, BMW LT's etc.
Boy was I wrong! I was able to commute almost as easily as on my Bandit, there was just the odd time where the sticky out mirrors required discretion, otherwise cagers just dived out of the way as this huge glowing barn door bore down on them.
On Saturday we joined a couple of Hoglets for a ride up to the Sawmill at Leigh, the ST got the pillions vote in the comfort stakes and she thought it was a lot smoother that the slightly frenetic Bandit. (Wait till she hops on that with it's new-found grunt) The odd time I explored serious lean angles didn't even get close to scraping bits of bike.
So today I went out solo up 16, Paparoa/ Oakleigh Rd and back through the Waipu Gorge. This 280 kg beast can samba in the twisty's far better then you'd imagine. The weight shows in transitions and under brakes, but the ABS lets you nail it down with a lot of confidence. And again, I didn't get close to scraping, Pixie said there was still a fair bit of clearance even when I'd thought I was close to the limit. A guy on a small sports bike got a demo on the Mangawhai road, the look on his face when we stopped at the SH1 intersection was priceless.
The V4 has a nice rumble under acceleration, then smooths out beautifully at cruise. The first refuel at Kaiwaka gave just under 50 mpg, no doubt it got a bit thirstier through the tight stuff, but still great economy two-up.
Back to the ABS. I'd tried it out on a short stretch of wet road one morning and gave up because I was risking a Liberace from a cager and didn't come close to locking it up. Then I tried it on a bit of empty dry road on my way home and only just got the ABS to trigger, it was like hitting a wall. It taught me that I rarely use all the braking abililty of a bike.
The power screen is interesting too. At the low setting it feels like the Bandit, lots of wind blast around shoulder level, raise it 30 or so mm and it goes quiet and feels like someone is pushing on the middle of your back. It actually puts a bit of weight on your wrists. Not uncomfortable, but definitely strange.
It's changed my mind a bit about the next bike. One of these is going to be a real possibility as our touring bike next year, but I still need a play bike too.