It's been bought as for the very first time in my whole life I have an OH who actually wants to, and it transpires, really loves travelling on the back of a bike.
Until a few weeks ago , she was a complete motorbike virgin, albeit she's spent the last 20-30 years of her life in and around what any petrolhead would say are very nice (and fast) cars, she loves a bit of an adventure , and not always obeying all the rules, so TBH I',m not too surprised that she likes bikes as much.
Although I’ve been on bikes since a was a very small boy, none of my three boys have ever really clicked with them, so how good a bike is two-up has until now never ever figured in any of my buying decisions. Prior to deciding buy the MTS, I borrowed my brothers BMW K1300S to test things out, see whether going on the back was something she really wanted to do more than once or twice and hence warrant buying a “two-up” bike.
She loved being on the back from the very first time, so decision was made that I’d buy a suitable bike, and I decided on a MultiStrada without ever having ridden one, as they have definitely been designed with a pillion also in mind, still ( so test reports say) ride like a sportsbike, and well, I think they are the prettiest of this sort of bike.
I was looking at getting a recent (DVT engine with the added benefit of Cruise Control) one, but this relatively old (2012) 1200S came up locally at what I thought was a fair price so I just bought it.
It’s the “ Touring” model so came from the factory with full 3-box hard luggage, centre stand, and heated grips, and as it is the “S” it has the electronically adjustable Ohlins “skyhook” suspension that I decided was a must- I’d previously had it on my last MT-10, and I loved it.
The ability to adjust it on the move when you hit a different road with the click of a few buttons on the bars is worth having IMO, and I thought not having to get the spanners out to adjust the suspension would be particularly desirable on a bike where I might be regularly riding both one and two up.
So, what’s it like?
It’s a two-owner bike with 7k miles from new and has obviously been taken care of- not quite immaculate, but not far off, and not a mark or scratch on it. Completely standard apart from a Leo-Vince de-cat/mid-pipe silencer (that really doesn’t silence at all IMO so that is going), and aside from the amount of noise it makes when you use the performance, I love it.
Have put 500 miles on it this week, almost all of them two-up, including a 200 mile round trip to Brighton to see one of my boys and its been great;- quite vibrate-y compared to the K13, but hey it’s a big twin eh, and it’s not tiresome. It’s doesn’t have the ballistic top-end of that bike, but 130+ comes up very easily two-up, and realistically, that is plenty fast enough .
I love the riding position , engine, and it's dead comfy, but the aspect that’s impressed me the most is the handling- it feels so, so light and quick-steering compared to the K13, and crucially, putting someone on the back really doesn’t seem to change that, it's still so flickable, but completely stable too, at any speed so far.
And ( looks aside of course), I'm even really liking having a topbox- I must be getting old I guess!
What am I going to change then?
Number one on the list is find a standard Cat-box (I didn’t get it with the bike), and get that back on.
The noise doesn’t worry her on the back at all ( in fact she loves how loud it is) , and with earplugs in the noise doesn’t bother me either, but I occasionally might drift above speed limits and just do not like attracting attention to myself - how the fuck people ride around with really loud exhausts on the road beats me.
I will also probably fit a quick shifter it doesn’t bother me it not having one, but I’ve got used to having one over recent years, and like them so why not.
Aside from that, I just plan to keep throwing petrol and tyres at it, as soon as things get back to whatever the new normal is, it will be crossing the channel and seeing some other countries, and doubtless a trip around the Highlands too at some point
)
