Yet another new bike, yet another Himalayan

[Nidge]

the running in instructions are a bit of a concern i.e. max speed 36mph for first 300 miles, then 50mph up to 2000 miles!

I can see why those speeds might be a worry. Maybe try downhill....

[ogri]

More revs, less use of torque supposed to be better nowadays?

[Bigjawa]

More revs, less use of torque supposed to be better nowadays?

I'd have thought at 30mph in top on a 400 single, opening the throttle would have the chain jumping off the sprockets.

30 mph is bloody dangerous in any case. Out here you'd have pissed off youths in enormous tractors pushing you out of the way.

I wouldn't rev the balls out of it, but I'd be taking it out to 50-55 for a few hundred miles then just riding it.

Those running in instructions suggest the engine is made of cheese.

[niggle]

More revs, less use of torque supposed to be better nowadays?

Yes I thought labouring the engine was the worst thing to do, but keeping it down to the recommended speeds in all the gears as per the manual* will inevitably lead to that in Cornwall.

*max speeds in each gear (up to 300 miles) are: 1st 9mph, 2nd 15mph, 3rd 18mph, 4th 28mph, 5th 37mph. I will make a note of what that means in rpm terms and will change down if I feel the motor is working too hard, e.g. up hill.

[Supermofo]

then 50mph up to 2000 miles!

Surprised they let you red line it from 300 miles

[Potter]

Yes I thought labouring the engine was the worst thing to do...

They do recommend all sorts of riding though, like going up hills to put a bit of strain on it.

Personally I think the best thing about big singles or old school twins is changing up a bit early and grabbing a massive handful of throttle and feeling the thump as it builds. On my old 500 single you can actually feel the explosions as it's firing

[niggle]

So I braved the weather today for a 68 mile ride, all on back country roads in Cornwall. Keeping to the 37mph limit was reasonably easy, traffic very light and many of the roads are either 30 or 40mph speed limits or de facto sub 40mph due to tight blind bends etc.

37mph in 5th is 3000rpm and I mainly kept below that, but I did accelerate up to around 4000rpm a couple of times as required, e.g. to get through a junction, and I did open her up to 60mph briefly on a faster stretch.

I like the engine characteristics which remind me of an MZ Saxon 500 I had with the 500cc Rotax single, lots of low down grunt that lets you pull the bike up out of bends, or chug up hill without dropping down the gears.

Handling is great, gearshift mainly ok but shifting up to 4th or 5th I hit a false neutral several times (or that is what the gear indicator told me by displaying a dash instead of the gear number, which I found very helpful) I think I need to lower the gear lever slightly.

The seat is too soft, as reported by others, starts off OK but eventually I started to feel like I had hit the bottom of the foam. Brakes seem perfectly adequate so far and I have not yet noticed any excessive buffeting from the screen, but this may change as I increase riding speed.

[niggle]