Last evening my new Italian ladyfriend and I adjourned ourselves over the Rimutakas for the first time, accompanied by the inimitable Mrs H and her trusty Bandit.
28 degrees in Upper Hutt, 31 in Featherston and 30 in Martinborough, where we parked up for some dinner, before heading off for a bit of a tootle around the backroads through Gladstone (27 degrees) before returning through the Hutt Valley (19 degrees) to home (17.5 degrees). Weather data courtesy of Aprilia.
What a great night for riding. Sensational even. It was flat calm in the Rapa, with the heady smells of a summer's evening hanging warmly in the air. Patches of cooler air lying languidly in road cuttings. The light of the setting sun caressing the golden hills, fields of windrowed hay awaiting the baler, happy sheep, god in his heaven and an Aprilia Shiver beneath me. Contented I was.
Pootling along taking all of this in, I realised that I was probably travelling at speeds comparable to or slightly in excess of those when I think I am hurrying the FJR. What a difference 80kg makes.
The Aprilia's V-twin provides a completely involving riding experience. It is very happy at 4,000rpm. Indeed at that point in 4th gear, it is consuming 3.4 litres/100km (that's 30km/l or 83mpg). To digress momentarily about fuel consumption, for the 170km travelled last night from filling at Rimutex to finally being parked up on our deck in Ngaio, the Shiver averaged 4.4 litres/100km (23km/l or 64mpg) at an average speed of 70kmh. That includes a couple of no mucking around traverses of the Rimutakas (being mindful of the running-in rev limiter setting of 6,000rpm). One of my pre-purchase reservations was the 15 litre tank size, but based on this data (realising that the engine is still new and that this may improve a bit), a range of about 300km isn't too shabby.
Anyway, back to that engine...
Even Mrs H admires the Italian accent that burbles alluringly from the ray-gun exhausts. I find that all engines talk to me, but this one particularly so. And it likes to play. I'm looking forward to the rev limiter being reset beyond 6,000rpm when the computer is remapped at the first service. At that time the Rimutakas should be a first and second gear hill, which may have an impact on fuel consumption, but what the heck. I used third gear a bit last night largely to keep away from the limiter.
First gear on the Aprilia is quite tall. Indeed a bit of deft clutch work is needed when moving away from the lights in a stream of traffic. But for the first time I have bike where first gear is a useable option as an actual riding gear. I used it a few times on the Hill last night to climb out of a few of the tighter corners coming up from Featherston.
The gearbox is an absolute honey. Knife through butter in an effortless but decisive way.
The brakes are still settling in, and getting better each ride.
Top recorded speed last evening was 136kmh (6,000rpm in 6th).
Halfway to first service! Fingers crossed for a fine weekend.
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Originally Posted by Hitcher
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