Just finished a 2500 mile 8 day thrash in the traffic free Pyrenees solo but full luggage. Rear tyre now illegal but front has reasonable tread life. A lot of the mountain roads have great surfaces and no straights and at times the riding group thought they were on a one way system due to lack of oncoming traffic so speeds were progressive and tyre life short. The engine is perfect in this type of territory with the DVT smoothing out tight hairpins and then grunting the bike forwards.....noticed by the BMW and Triumph riders. The turn in and agility of the bike is a significant improvement on the old model as it can be thrown into tight turns and it holds the line predictably. Just fantastic handling. Not sure how the tyre profile contributed to turn in but feedback is excellent. The bike does move about on long sweepers at high speeds and gets flighty; plus bumps and surface imperfections cause frame shake......again , is this the tyres or suspension set up? I did take it to over 200 kph on a motorway to test the stability and it was OK. Subjectively there does seem less grunt at medium revs compared to the 11 degree engine, but over 6000 rpm it goes ballistic. Ridden in isolation the engine is fine. When I used 98 petrol it returned 47 mpg using 2nd and 3rd in the twisties and 42 mpg with 95 ron. Tank range was not a problem even in remote areas. When the dash is switched to km the trips and mpg read outs do not default back to zero with ignition off..... The seat was comfortable with 9 hour riding days typical ( 200/270 miles ). The front brake has great modulation with emergency stopping power present when Alonso's father came around a hairpin on our side of the road. Gearbox is predictable as long as a firmish action is used otherwise false neutrals can be found. I do think the new frame geometry aids all day comfort other than the seat is low , for my 31" inseam, and causes knee cramp after a few hours........a higher seat is needed or some ability to raise the current seat. I think I finished the trip enjoying many aspects of this new bike but the shear verve of the agility of the handling and flexible grunt of the engine stand out.......as a side issue the perfect balance and ease of tight 'U' turns puts this bike as the easiest to manoeuvre at slow speed of all the bikes I have owned ( Triang 3 wheeler excepted). Go touring on your DVT and smile all day long. By the way the panniers stayed bone dry despite horrendous thunderstorms.
Good read. That's the first report I have read comparing the handling of new to old and glad to hear its a bit more agile in the tighter stuff. Any photos?
Thumbs up for them report and the positive feedback. Just what I wanted to hear as my trip to Italy is about four weeks away. Going to see where my new baby was born . I'll be two up fully loaded and will hopefully give as good a report on the bike for two up riding credentials
What tyres you going to put on it, pretty poor mileage really on the rear, Please put on PR4's and then look forward to your report on them and the handling improvement or not
I think the existing multi is nimble, certainly no issues on hairpins and tip in effortless (for a big bike) cant wait to ride new one soon then!
July build was mentioned but may miss the august break. Tbh no biggier if I dont get until sept, I am not riding much for the next two months anyway
It's an old Touratech one that I thought I would try. It helps but I will wait to see what develops with screens. Puig do a bigger deflector but I have yet to find a source.
They do but it is from Touratech and is on the Touratech web site, it is not height adjustable. the issue for me is that it makes the screen too high and you (or I) end up looking through the screen rather than over it. A better bet is the Wunderlich deflector that is height adjustable
