Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Where to begin?!

Distance covered:

I took it for 140 mile shakedown on Saturday, around 30 miles yesterday, and then today I meant to be out for an hour or so to check after some adjustments and 160 miles and a visit to Helmet City in Cheddar later, I finally got home again! And then, a short errand to check something off marketplace after dinner, so around 350 miles since taking ownership on Friday evening.

Naked bike thing:

First 140 miles was a little bit torturous, so by this morning I’d already fitted the Puig mini screen I’d bought for the GN125 way back. Instant benefit, and I haven’t even got the setup perfect.

Although a large front fairing would be great, I quite like the aesthetics of the workhorse type bike. Ripe for stickers and mods.

The kickstand seems kind of flexed and bent. Possibly a PO wasn’t kind to it. I have another on order from a breakers, and will mig a reinforcement brace to it to try avoid the same happening twice.

Geometry:

Swept back risers came off immediately. Drag bars from the get-go and I’m not unhappy with body position, helps to tuck and stick my belly on the tank. No loss of slow speed control.

However, after so much comfort on the DR, it feels very heavy and cramped in the body. I find myself aware of my bent knees, and my posture, but to be fair to the bike I am riding for a few hours at a time with minimal breaks.

Power:

People complain it’s a boring bike, that it’s a dull ride, etc. Yes, I can agree with that and all the references to diesel cars that just go and go without much excitement. It just kind of turns on and works and doesn’t apologise for itself.

But! It isn’t that boring. There isn’t the same sense of achievement as with the DR, where anything on a thumper feels fast and fun. There is, however, an incredibly sedate and manageable power delivery below 6k. In town it ticks over in any gear. You can accelerate relatively hard without much worry, and you can crawl at 2k on the rev counter in traffic and just potter along.

Then, at 6-7k the bike wakes up, and from 7-10.5k it really gives out some power. First few times it was a little surprising, you go wide open throttle from around 4k and nothing happens then at 7k it pulls you as fast as the road allows, and by the time you shift at 10k you’re already way over the speed limit.

Conrols:

I’ve had some issues with dodgy shifts over the weekend. I had tried to resolve it by re-tensioning the clutch lever and tightening the shift linkage bolt. Seems to have helped. Today I found a couple accidental neutrals and only one nasty “is it isn’t it” no-mans-land between gears when trying to aggressively clutchless shift up from the lights.

It feels much more clunky than I would expect, but it has sat without much use at all for a year or two. Maybe these things need to bed in again, or have enough time to actually present as a fault to be rectified.

Speed:

Well, the guy I bought it from was shocked when I told him I hit 100mph on the bike. The one he kept struggles to reach 90. The aggressive shifting and trying to avoid the mis-shifts is really killing my ability to keep the revs high and get the most from the engine. It will dance around 100 on the clocks but would need some serious beans to get much over it.

When accelerating and using the clutch lever, there is a really noticeable delay. When clutchless works it gives a great pull forward but adds that risk of the bike hanging and me frantically kicking the lever to try get the gear to engage again. I blame technique, though this was never an issue on the DR.

Suspension:

Soft, not soft enough to absorb all the bumps. Not hard enough to butt-clench every slight imperfection.

Mods:

Mods so far are the windscreen and the PO’s crash bars and rear rack. I hate top boxes with a passion (aesthetically speaking) but I will try to source a used one for convenience.

Mods to come: led indicators, aux lights on the crash bars, maybe some custom bags, etc.

Oh shit moments:

Well, the brakes work fine. Definitely possible to stop sooner. Found it is incredibly easy to lock the rear wheel with a quick downshift and get a bit of a skid.

Maybe it’s all the time on the DR, but when I skidded or drifted the rear it felt just kind of slide-y. No big panic just ride it out and remember to be more gentle approaching the next set of lights!

I turned onto a B road, which was awful, thought it was flat and felt the rear hop over a massive lump and land a foot further out than planned. Not sure if fun or not.

Overall:

Not scary to ride, manageable underpowered engine, really quite okay. It’s still fun, you can still push it a little, and it still leans low on the corners. But, it’s no gixxer. It just does what it does and does it some more.