Hmmmm, this was a bike I really, I mean REALLY wanted to like.
I've had a bit of a twin thing goin' on for a while having owned an HRC kitted VTR1000F and a 916SP. I loved the ol' Duc' and tolerated all it's "charming" eccentricities for those few glorious km's on the right bit of road. My only complaint was the comparative lack of outright grunt compared to the IL4 litre bikes.
The RC8 was going to answer my prayers for a twin that could compete on an equal footing with the IL4's. Not to mention it looks fuggin' HAWT!
So with the words of the bike-monger at TSS ringing in my ears "adjustable everything" and "take it easy,it's derestricted and goes hard!", I was in orange heaven.....for about 1km.
First up the fuelling sucked. Ridng through Lower Hutt the thing was just an embarassment: nothing...nothing...woa, we're away!
Then I actually stopped to check the steering damper, as even on minimum the front wheel felt like it was mired in treacle. Maybe KTM's are actually made in Oz 'cos every corner ended up looking like an Aussie 50c piece. Maybe the steering head bearings were overtightened but either way it just wasn't right.
Forgetting all that I couldn't wait to get to the motorway and stretch it's legs. So over the Melling bridge and give it some welly.....and wait...and wait....talk about underwhelming. The thing must be geared for some stoopid top end but it's absolutely neutered the poor thing. The "power" is linear but there's just not a lot of it. I was actually sitting in 4th to cruise at 100kph just to get some reasonable progress happening if a gap in the traffic opened up. Gawd, every one of the cheapo Jappa thou's would kill it in a roll on test.
I went up over Haywards and part way along the Pie-cock Hill road but just got the shits with the shitty vague steering and waiting for a power hit that would never come. I turned around in quite a despondent mood only to find that my knuckles hit on the mirrors at full lock. Great.
Gawd I wanted to like this thing but found myself hating it.
The dash was another annoyance, being rectangular and mounted on it's end rather than it's side, meaning the tacho is compressed and takes some serious inspection to figure out what it's telling you. Lots of other information displayed though....not that I could read much of it, certainly not at a glance.
Another minor annoyance was the finish on the inside of the fairing. The dash is nestled in amongst a blaze of orange plastic that hovers at the bottom edge of your vision. This brightness was a constant distraction in the short time I rode it, but maybe you'd learn to ignore it.
On the plus side the brakes were good but nothing hugely improved over the EBC pads and braided lines I run on my old blue spot R1 conventional brakes. And despite an angular looking seat it's actually reasonably comfortable.
All in all it was good to ride the RC8 as it reminded me that the latest is not necessarily the greatest. If the RC8 is supposedly a legitimate competitior to the current big bore blasters then in my opinion it's fallen well short of the mark...but they'll still love it down at the cafe.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by gammaguy
Bookmarks