Had the Monster 1200R out yesterday, always a blast and stupidly rapid on A and B roads, always fun. this morning I took The wife’s 690 Duke KTM out, about 150 odd kg and about 75bhp after remap etc. Damn, what a laugh! It’s so easy to hustle round the back roads, firing it out of tight corners and generally riding it like a bit of an idiot! Great brakes too! anyone else with a big bike also think that sometimes less is more? here’s the little beastie
Me and a mate both bought a couple of Honda Monkeys in October. Done over 1000 miles on them since. Whenever we go out on them, we don’t stop laughing, they’re brilliant fun.
There was a thread or posts on this recently but mixed opinions as to how we get a "fix". I really miss all my small 2-strokes and my 400SS. It's a different kind of enjoyment but sometimes it's better than the litre plus stuff.
That seems to be a big trend on our side of the channel as well. Loads of people scaling cc down to: 1/ stay alive 2/ keep their licence 3/ grin a lot more while stopping wasting their pants at every turn… It also seems related to age. 60-ish riders seem more affected by this new pandemic.
Unfortunately the problem with a middleweight is you can’t really justify moving up. My KTM 790 is all the bike I’ll ever need for my needs. Fast enough on A roads light and nimble enough on B-roads, certainly quick enough to keep up with my mate on either his s1000r or his v4 Tuono.
Get yourself a 250 2 stroke enduro and sling some supermoto wheels on it, just bought my lad a Aprilia SX50. It’s just so much fun to ride around town I’m not sure I shouldn’t ban him from riding it.
Might have done this 10 years ago N, but happy just to sling a Cagiva back together hopefully one day.
It'll be great. I had a lovely GSX-R400RR a couple of years back and it was brilliant. Should have hung onto it. I've downsized from litre bikes, gone back to a 748 but wouldn't hurt to be on something lighter again. NC30 and NC45 both have that "special" feeling.
I have recently adopted the small cc philosophy: traded my 1098s in for a 2021 Tuono 660. So far I'm not completely regretting it. The little Tuono is extremely agile, much faster than the Ducati in tight corners with me piloting. While the motor doesn't have a ton of top end, it pulls out of corners really well, and overtakes cars as well as the 1098. In a sense, I'm more of a hooligan now than before, but staying within more sensible limits. You just have to be willing to shift a lot. Topping out 4th gear at the end of a slip road entrance doesn't result in crazy speeds, and the extra buffeting from the halfish fairing means I'm riding slower on the motorway. Can't pass supercars anymore so I won't try. I definitely miss the 1098 looks and sound, no replacing that, but the Aprilia is a much better street machine (and my Daytona is a better track bike). Would be nice to have both though...
The 660 Aprilias are really interesting. A very different direction, but what you mention sounds similar to the Scrambler in terms of riding harder, slower… and it being fun. Seen a couple of RS660s and they look cool, your Tuono looks great. I’d like to see the Toerag in person. Enjoy!
I like the grunt of the big bike on the road. on track, 130 ish bhp and 160kgs would be the sort of thing I’d want
For me it's not really a CC thing, more a power and ethos thing. I've taken the R1 off the road, it was useable, despite what I've probably said in the past, certainly compared to all my Ducati's it was super smooth and easy to ride, however to get it to feel exciting obviously you need to be on it! The Thruxton is probably 85hp at the wheel but MASSIVE torque from about 1500revs, so it's just really fun as it pulls hard off corners. The whole attitude of it is more about riding up to a 'sensible' limit and then cruising when you want to cruise. Sportsbike riders literally blank me now though, it's pretty funny really how up our own ar*es some of us are.
