Well I rode up to New Plymouth on thursday evening. Usual mixed bag weather wise - great to Hawea and while I was in Macca's enjoying a chicken salad (yes they were shocked as well) the thunder cell that had bee floating off the starboard flank along the coast turn into me... Hail, rain, thunder and heaps of flashes and bangs. Rather exciting but it was getting late so on we went. Not a single bed to be found in NP. (garden festival) but a very nice lady at the Belt Road campground found me a room... (thank you - fantastic service) and a place to park the bike.
Anyway - at Kiwi Suspension Services at 8:30. Met the clever Mr Taylor and Dennis and had a coffee before being dropped into town by Mrs Taylor. After the month I've had a whole day simply wandering about and doing bugger all was BLISS. Slowly went through the museum, read a bike mag cover to cover under a shade tree and scoffed coffee... wonderful...
Picked up again by the wonderful Mrs T and back to KSS to watch in amazement as Robert put the shock in and out getting it 'just so'... He was explaining it all too me but a lot of it when whoosh over my head (sorry) but it started making sense on the way home.
Job done and RT took it for a test fang and then my turn to do likewise. I may as well have just parked around the bend as I could feel the difference just riding across the car park. Stunning transformation and I mean stunning... I'm still shaking my head in wonderment.
After a long day it was back on the bike and head off home to Kapiti.
Observations...
Handling aside - the reduction in handlebar vibes was worth it alone. NO dead fingers or cramps on the way home - I'm staggered....
The handling? I kid you not its an utterly different bike. UTTERLY. Before it could accelerate like a bandit and change direction but not seemingly do both at the same time leading to a few interesting 'moments'. Now it just goes where I want it to go and holds the line - it feels like a sporty bike and not some kind of barge. The trip home was completed in a dream state scarcely believing what i was riding - this was the bike I had wanted... Sensational.... The handling is now just rock solid!
So - new shock on the rear and forks modified. The cost when added to the purchase price still puts me under my budget for a bike to replace the Guzzi and it is now just sensational. I just cannot believe how much i enjoyed the ride home (well the sticky fog Levin to Otaki was horrible).
The folks at KSS really looked after me and IMHO it was worth every cent..
More later - got to catch up on work and family...
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Originally Posted by Jane Omorogbe from UK MSN on the KTM990SM
Someone famous once had some advice to the effect that one should buy the best front tyre you can afford, and something round and black for the back. Clever chap, whoever he was. I've become tolerably blasι over the years about the back end of motorcycles wandering around a bit, but I do get concerned when the front steps out a bit. Probably because I've found that by the time I've registered the fact it's usually too late to avoid the consequences.
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