OK, so first bike out was the street R.
Fair ride on these. Some corners and stop signs made for some nice higher speed jaunts, and some higher speed corners. The street R came to me with 0 miles on the clock. I must admit I felt a little bad the first time I red lined it, but I did get over it.
Very fun bike. I found it well sorted, and comfortable. I must say, however, that I found the throttle overly twitchy compared to my zx6, might be that mine is loose, dunno. The bike handles corners well, although again a little bit of a twitchy feel coming from the zx. It feels very light and nimble, flickable and fun. Easily all day comfortable for me which is a huge plus, and also the insurance quote I got on these is 1/2 of that for the zx.... same class as an sv650 round here afaik.
The most annoying thing to me about this particular bike was the gear box. Clunky as all can be, caused a few missed shifts just due to my ineptness at giving it enough push. It gave me a false neutral at a light and made me stall..... not cool! Also getting the thing into neutral is a big PITA.... up..... down....up.... down....up....down..... click FINALLY! let clutch out and lurch forward and stall...... ghey.
All in all for all its benefits I really like the bike.
The speedie was a surprise for me. I went in thinking that it couldn't be better than the street for me. I don't need the power, don't want to pay the extra insurance, and really was set to like it less. I did not. The speedie I was on had an arrow exhaust that burbuled and gurguled nonstop. It had me laughing in my helmet the whole ride. What character
Torquey almost to the point of being out of control... I spun the rear a little on some gravel accidentally....
The suspension is not as crisp and hard as the street, but it is enough for me, really a good in between of the FZ8 and the Street. Effortless torque, heavy enough to keep composed, but nimble enough to tear the corners up a little bit. Gearbox was smooth as silk, and accepted my ham footed kicking with glee.
Really the ride was all smiles for me. and if money were no object, I would take the speedie hands down.... awesome bike, so much character.
Annoying that it did not have a gear position indicator... I expected it to because the street does and the cluster looks identical, but really that is the only complaint I can muster. I'm sure the street R would outpace it, but the speedie has more character. I guess all the refinement of the street and well sorted suspension kind of takes away from the finicky character of its namesake.
Questions?
Fair ride on these. Some corners and stop signs made for some nice higher speed jaunts, and some higher speed corners. The street R came to me with 0 miles on the clock. I must admit I felt a little bad the first time I red lined it, but I did get over it.
Very fun bike. I found it well sorted, and comfortable. I must say, however, that I found the throttle overly twitchy compared to my zx6, might be that mine is loose, dunno. The bike handles corners well, although again a little bit of a twitchy feel coming from the zx. It feels very light and nimble, flickable and fun. Easily all day comfortable for me which is a huge plus, and also the insurance quote I got on these is 1/2 of that for the zx.... same class as an sv650 round here afaik.
The most annoying thing to me about this particular bike was the gear box. Clunky as all can be, caused a few missed shifts just due to my ineptness at giving it enough push. It gave me a false neutral at a light and made me stall..... not cool! Also getting the thing into neutral is a big PITA.... up..... down....up.... down....up....down..... click FINALLY! let clutch out and lurch forward and stall...... ghey.
All in all for all its benefits I really like the bike.
The speedie was a surprise for me. I went in thinking that it couldn't be better than the street for me. I don't need the power, don't want to pay the extra insurance, and really was set to like it less. I did not. The speedie I was on had an arrow exhaust that burbuled and gurguled nonstop. It had me laughing in my helmet the whole ride. What character
Torquey almost to the point of being out of control... I spun the rear a little on some gravel accidentally.... The suspension is not as crisp and hard as the street, but it is enough for me, really a good in between of the FZ8 and the Street. Effortless torque, heavy enough to keep composed, but nimble enough to tear the corners up a little bit. Gearbox was smooth as silk, and accepted my ham footed kicking with glee.
Really the ride was all smiles for me. and if money were no object, I would take the speedie hands down.... awesome bike, so much character.
Annoying that it did not have a gear position indicator... I expected it to because the street does and the cluster looks identical, but really that is the only complaint I can muster. I'm sure the street R would outpace it, but the speedie has more character. I guess all the refinement of the street and well sorted suspension kind of takes away from the finicky character of its namesake.
Questions?
