First Ride

Hey All

Thought I'd share my first ride of my new 1200 Pikes Peak.

A 75 mile commute in horrible wet conditions is not what I wanted for my first ride which took nearly 2 hours, due to roadworks, heavy traffic and cars who just refuse to move over to allow safe filtering, some drivers are so bloody selfish and I would have expected better from white van drivers. However the drive in my car would have been close to 3 hours this morning so I'm happy!

I've not ridden for a while and I have never really ridden in rain, so I took it fairly steady and got to work safe and sound.

Ok, here's the good bit, I invested in some Halvarssons Wolf Jacket, trousers and gloves. They are fantastic, I was completely toasty and I arrived as dry as a bone and doesn't even look like I was in heavy rain, textiles completely dry. Pleased I opted for practicality over the style of the Dainese, though the Halvarssons still look the part

The bike, what can I say I noticed on my first ever ride. Finding neutral is a pain but I know that's something that will be easier after a few miles. It feels light, surprisingly so for a bike that weighs nearly a quarter of a ton, I have never ridden anything this heavy or big and it was a total joy.

Obviously I'm running in, so no idea what it's like to open it up but I can say that even revving to 5k and short shifting, that it covers the ground astonishly quickly with very little effort.

I love the dash, no more counting gears and everything is clear and easy to use.

So to sum up, my commute to work even though in hideous conditions was a complete joy, I shaved close to an hour off my journey and I arrived safe, warm and without the usual arm pump that I experience on my 996 and I enjoyed my first experience of a touring bike

Just a shame that the bikes now filthy but at least I'm closer to it being run in, then the fun really starts

Ps. My helmet visor was covered in crap from the road and I just wondered, if I change to the big screen, will that offer better visibility to my visor, the tiny PP screen doesn't stop me getting a face full of dirty rain water?

 

I can mix it up between a selection of fast cars and bike and I don't have to do the drive everyday if I don't want too, so it's not as bad as it seems, though a 30 mile commute would be nice