New bike tomorrow...

[CRM]

Pretty excited as I'm picking up my new toy tomorrow and entering back into the fold of adventure riders.

My recent history has been XL250Degree about 7 years ago after 20-something years not riding. This was used for trail riding and just getting back into bikes. After a couple of years having heaps of fun on that I decided I was ready for a step up to something more grunty so bought a road legal DRZ400E. I found it too harsh to enjoy on the road and a bit tall and heavy for hard-core trails so swapped it for what I hoped would be a road-legal ultra-lite traily (and I'd always wanted a trilas bike)- a Gasgas Pampera 250 two stroke. It was a lot of fun but had reliability issues (like stripping out the back valve stem half-way around my first trail ride and all sorts of problems getting the carb sorted out) and it's range on pre-mix was really limiting - so I sold that - basically deciding I needed a DR650 and get more into adventure riding than trail riding.

Meanwhile I met a friend who told me he had an XR600 he had bought but wasn't using. I had ride on that and I was hooked. I had that for 18 months or so, doing the mid-north adventure ride, lots of local riding plus a long ride as far as Timaru including the West Coast and Arthurs pass. As I had these long distance trips to make for my work I decided that I really needed a more suitable adventure/touring bike and bought a V-Strom 650.

I did about 6000km on the Wee and it never really did it for me. It went well enough but was lacking character and hurt my wrists and elbows. I also was disappointed by its lack of ability in gravel. It was just the wrong fit for me. So I decided that touring and adventure don't mix and swapped the VStrom for a VFR800 v-tec. I've been riding that for 9 months and done 18k on it - around NZ twice plus numerous trips around the North Island. It's a great bike and I've enjoyed every minute of it - but missing the simplicity. Everything seems expensive on a sports/tourer and 99% of the time I don't use or need all that performance.

So the other day I had a ride on a Transalp 650. Amazingly it seems to have all the ingredients I want - relative simplicity, smooth easy highway cruising, trail-bike handling and riding position. So hopefully I'll be a happy biker this time tomorrow riding it home

[Padmei]

Excellent choice my friend. Nothing as exciting as getting a new bike

[Taz]

Gas Gas two strokes don't have valve stems..... Unless you're talking tubes.

[thepom]

trannies....you gotta luv em.....the bikes I mean not the crossdressers.....interested in a tranny 600 coming up in feb........you ll love it ...a more than capable bike for everything.

[CRM]

Gas Gas two strokes don't have valve stems..... Unless you're talking tubes.

Yep tubes. I dropped the pressure too low and the rim lock didn't hold on the little beasty. I pushed it over to a farmer sitting in a deck chair and he put it on his ute for me and took me back to base - but his big hay-bale tie-down let go and broke off my side-stand. It wasn't a good day as it was running badly anyway

[GPS MAN]

What a way to start out

Good/better luck with the tranny...

[waynzz7]

Nice looking bike..Let us know how you find it...as I may be looking in a similar market next year...Cheers

[young1]

I like it, yes definitely let us know how it goes!

[CRM]

Nice looking bike..Let us know how you find it...as I may be looking in a similar market next year...Cheers

So far so good. Picked it up from Mission Bay about 6:30 this evening and as it was raining being very careful as it's currently shod in Michelin T63's. A couple of corners along there was a yellow sportsbike coming the other way - not even going that quick - and they lost it on the bend (by Kelly Tarltons) - ouch . They seemed to be with another rider who stopped to help so on I went very carefully...

Anyway i was impressed with the solid handling, good ride and surprised by the amount of torque at decent speeds - easy to overtake and keep up a really good pace on it (easy to pull up to 140 in quite a short passing distance). Seat seemed to be comfy enough for 160km with only a brief stop and my hands didn't get numb like they tend to on the the VFR. So all good news so far

One thing I did notice all geared up was that it felt taller than when I rode it the other day. When you put layers of waterproofs over jeans the legs tend to not bend so good - especially in humid weather... Can't wait to get out on a fine day and see how she goes on some more challenging terrain. I'll switch the tyres to Anakee 2's probably for doing long trips but before that I'll leave the T63's on and try some gravel and dirt and maybe sand to see how she feels. To me the overall feel is like a very civilised version of an XR600 - similar position but smoother engine and much more planted at speed due to the extra weight - but same sort of position (which I like).

All good so far

[Skinny_Birdman]

Awesome stuff CRM. I reckon they are a pretty nice do-all machine. I eyed up that one too.

interested in a tranny 600 coming up in feb........

Hmmmm, who's could that be?
Gotta be honest, the ergos and screen on the 600 are slightly better, but good low kms 600's with twin front discs (ie ones built in 1997-99) are like rocking horse plop. The seat is light years better on the 650.