Just been out for a ride.
Cons.
Straight off the bat, ouch! It's a cramped leg position for sure and I thought immediately, this isn't the keeper I thought it would be!
Anyway, decided to go for a longer ride and see how things panned out. I Sat on an A road with a 50mph average speed check, this was mainly to check the fuelling, more on that later, but also because its fairly typical of my commute. I noticed the pain in my leg muscles wore off fairly quicky, but could feel the tension there, almost like i'd been cycling?
Turned off and went down to a traffic light controlled roundabout and caught the red. When they changed I stalled it on pull away!
Poxy thing wouldn't start. Had to hold everyone up whilst I got to the side of the road where I found it fires up in neutral but not in gear with the clutch pulled in!
Dunno if that's right or a fault with it?
On my way through town and noticed the ache in my knee is creeping back ina nd its dawned on me, its not the angle my leg is at, its the pivoting of my foot when the leg is bent that causes the problem. I'm going to get cycling again which I think will help or even cure that? Even pain free, I'm not sure its a riding position I like though? Maybe I'd get used to it?
Last downside is its quite buzzy. I rode down to a local marina and when sitting at lowish revs it actually numbed my fingers and they were literally buzzing when I was off the bike trying to use my phone?! On the ride back up the road I put it in 2nd and it pulled itself along on idle, admirably too!A concern is that buzziness will become very prevalent on my commute? I'll know next week...
Pros.
First thing I noticed was this thing turns beautifully!! Its like no other bike I've ever owned! Its even better at dropping into corners than the Hyyper!! I don't know if its the geometry or the BT023s, but man that is one lovely steering bike, so smooth, predictable and stable!
Secondly, the fuelling is faultless!! I mean seriously faultless. From idle in any gear, you can whack it open or feed in a millimetre of throttle and it'll respond perfectly. No glitches. No jerkiness.No hesitation. Just pure throttle response!
Power wise, all I can say is I wish i'd visited a larger capacity IL4 years ago. Its torquey, surprisingly so, and it just keep building power until you feel like you're riding an Exocet missle. Respect to you guys who have the cahoonas to thrash a litre bikes about. I certainly don't need that much power but the way it makes it along with the way it steers, makes this a hell of a bike.
Summary.
Do I like it? Yes. It grew on me with every mile. Is it a keeper? Of course!
Probably not in reality, unless I got used to the riding position? So far I'm very pleased with my purchase and was gutted to have to come home and get back to work.
I'm obviously hoping that wont be the case, and I do have a pair of Buell footpegs in the loft-of-plenty that will lower the peg height by best part of an inch, assuming the gear and brake levers can be lowered to match. So, some hope there.
