The search for a replacement begins
Ok, few of you know mt SV had an apointment with the bonet of a car back before easter that it decided to keep, now the body is practicly healed and I have some insurance money floating around that needs to be spent on another stress relief device before somthing sensible happens to it like paying a bit off the morgage
.
So this weekend just gone I made a point of getting out of Auckland (work stresses, but thats a whole nother story) and decided to visit some of friendly bike shops in the Tauranga region with both the pearents in tow (as felow bike testers and it is always good to have someone to bounce ideas off). Now not really having any idea what type of bike I wanted to replace the SV with, from Bayride we ended up taking out three bikes for a spin over the Kaimais, the 05 Triumpth 1050 Sprint, 06 Honda VFR800 , and a 04 Ducati Monster 1000.
The Sprint is a great bike but fairly quikly I realised it wasent the bike for me, the main reason I took it for a spin is that it has the same engine a the Speed Triple (that DMTND sold a 6pm the night before so I couldnt test it).
The VFR was amasing and I was really suprised by how it went, great handeling and the engine really sung when it got into the VETC. In time I had it you could just tell the bike could easily eat the miles away.
The Monster I really liked and was the pick of the three for me, I loved the V Twin engine and suprisingly didnt mind the more upright naked style , loads of tourqe (sp?) and would be great fun a leagal speeds. I did feel like the suspension in the rear was a little soft and refused to follw the imputs of the front, but I am fairly confident with some changes to the settings that could be improved upon.
From Bayride we moved on to MotoGB where we took for a spin down the Welcome Bay Rd there demo K8 Hayabusa, and the demo B-King, now I wanted to ride a Busa cause I thought it may have been a good replacement, and it was just a chance to see what the B-King was all about.
The Busa is a serios peice of bike, completly different to anything else I have riden, it handeled well and was rediciously fast but I found it heavy on the road and heavy in the corners and really didnt like it.
The B-King once again is stupid quick but found it a lot more enjoyable than the Busa, untill I looked at the speedo (which isint very big and almost looks like an afterthought) comming out of a few corners and realised that I was doing speeds that the police would not apreciate and when I slowed down to a speed that I might get away with for the next set they didnt seem anywhere near as much fun.
So, my testing so far has the Duc on top, but I am still not really sure what I want from a bike, and to honset I would probally be quite happy qetting another SV1000s (would probally upgrade the suspension and a few other cosmetic mods on the second one if I was to go down that track). Other bikes I have on my list to test, rightly or wrongly:
- Suzuki GSXR750, K6 on
- Triumph Speed Triple
- Kawasaki ZX10
- Suzuki TLS (be waiting the PM Morcs)
- KTM Super Duke (maybe)
I am open to any other suggestions (even stupid ones, we are still on KB after all), and am really after a bike that can handle a bit of anything, comuting, stress relief blasts, day tours, week long tours, and maybe the ocasional track day (although that is waht I have the bucket for now
).
I will keep this thread up dated as I test a few more rides, as you were.
For the record Qkkid was in my bed, not the other way round
Originally Posted by Yow Ling
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Oh bugger
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