Niken

[Count Steer]

Hmmm. £11.5k you say?

*thinks*

[weeksy]

2021-09-24_10-45-04 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

This turned up today with @2xtwins and he sent me out for a play while he had coffee and chats with @Welsh Muffin

First impressions from sitting on it are the same as from looking at it... it's HUGE on the front. But once you're on the move the bike doesn't feel it's weight. It's comfortable, easy, smooth and a lovely riding position.
However you can't get past the fact it's absolutely bizarre to ride. Everything feels.... well, different. Not necessarily in a bad way, but in a completely alien way.

Turning, handling, well, it's actually really easy to do, you sort of just ease the bars a tiny bit and it goes left or right. Once you get up to speed it rides and turns a little lazier, which i guess is down to the weight/dynamics of it. But it never feels hard work. It's a very easy thing to ride.

Power, well as you'd imagine is very familiar, it's a CP3 engine and i've got one in the garage i ride often. Although i think a re-flash will liven the Niken up a treat. But it doesn't feel slow or sluggish.... Not quite as feisty as mine, but yeah nice enough.

The button layout, well that's a bit crazy, there's sodding loads of them, absolutely everywhere ! Working out which ones do what, is a bit of a fun game. But i got the heated grips on and they were toasty.

Where it really confuses me is on the B roads with gravel. I know these roads well and i know whether i want an inside or outside line to get round the gravelly bits, but with the Nike you straddle the gravel with your fronts, but that puts the rear right in the worst place, which is right smack in the gravel. Maybe some wouldn't find that as weird as i do, but it highlights any stones, sticks, mess, etc as your rear is hitting each and every bit.

Overtaking, well again, it almost seems like you're overtaking in a car, but a very fast one.... However it seems to me because of the width, they take a little more forward planning and i didn't feel i was nearly as assertive as i'd usually be on the overtakes. Although this could be becasue of being on a mates bike instead of my own.

All in all, i'm sitting here not wanting one... but still quite intrigued by it... it was certainly an adventure of a ride !

[dern]

Where it really confuses me is on the B roads with gravel. I know these roads well and i know whether i want an inside or outside line to get round the gravelly bits, but with the Nike you straddle the gravel with your fronts, but that puts the rear right in the worst place, which is right smack in the gravel.

A guy I used to work with let me have a go in his reliant robin many years ago. Hit every pot hole, couldn't figure out a way to reliably avoid them

[Dodgy69]

I would imagine like everything else, you would get use to it if you owned one. I'd would also imagine you would instinctively get to know where the front wheels are going for potholes, rocks avoidance.

[Rockburner]

Hmmm. £11.5k you say?

*thinks*

You can still drop them.
(iirc they don't have the ability to lock the front solid, like the Piaggio MP3 has).

[Count Steer]

Hmmm. £11.5k you say?

*thinks*

You can still drop them.
(iirc they don't have the ability to lock the front solid, like the Piaggio MP3 has).

Yup. I asked 'up-thread' and they don't lock. But still....neither did my LT.

[Numnut]

Just having an innocent look through autotrader and came across this...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-detai ... 7295584192

This one's done 660 miles and it's up for £8k. Seems very cheap, and a good deal for someone!

[weeksy]

Just having an innocent look through autotrader and came across this...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-detai ... 7295584192

This one's done 660 miles and it's up for £8k. Seems very cheap, and a good deal for someone!

That's tremendously cheap.

[Dodgy69]

They are knocking them out cheap for some reason.

[Skub]

They are knocking them out cheap for some reason.

End of the model line,maybe?