Imitation, flattery and all that
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:02 pm
Some history,
I know, I know I really should learn to make my own mind up, but after the amount of orange love on the forum, I went and got a 790. Proved to be great fun and after the warranty expired so did my love affair. The bike was way more than I will ever be a rider, and all the electronic aids were fun. I did miss cruise control but in the back of my mind, it was always when is something going to go wrong not if something is going to go wrong.
For some reason I have a back issue, which to be fair, has only ever been resolved on adventure bikes (the 390 Adv being the case in point). So armed with this knowledge, I decided that the next bike should be such but with an added dose of Japanese reliability. This produced some decent options - vstrom 650, Tracer 700 and Tracer 900. My favourite is the Tracer 900, as I wanted the toys - cruise, heated grips etc. Unfortunately toys and my budget did not go hand in hand and to be honest none of the aforementioned list were aesthetically pleasing to me. However all of the 3 have really, really good engines. I like the v-twin of the sv series - a mini Harley in my mind, the CP2 unit in the 700 is just like a young playful child and the bigger CP3 a more boisterous child, even a teenager, with a smattering of restraint.
Although life is short, I currently work in an industry potentially subject to some ferocious cuts, thanks to our esteemed Treasury minister. Armed with only generalist skills and a lack of naked ambition, fused with not being adept at corporate politics, I found it difficult to play lose and fast with the man-maths. I did end up spending more than I had allocated, but not enough that it would cause me sleepless nights. It will play havoc with my naps though. I still can't reconcile how or why a 3 year older bike has cost me more than my 2019 KTM.
So, skirting on the back of Tricky's post on the 890 and the fact that the 790 was so much fun, I decided that I would just have to live with the back issues and not get an adventure bike, because my adventures are really only tarmac based and I really like the look of naked bikes (although I do have a secret fetish for small fairings a la z900 cafe). There were also some 790s around in warranty secondhand, and Steve's post on his non-KTM love had me thinking as well.
So off I went, in the direction of a naked bike that would be aesthetically pleasing and at least in warranty, if not Japanese.
So tomorrow, with hopefully dry days, I will pick a bike again after a break of nearly 2 months. It does not have the toys I really wanted, nor the simple things that make life better for me - heated grips, handguards, centre-stand, cruise control etc, but for the sake of my mental health (unbelievable but true) and sanity I bit the bullet. Not least from a little prompting from a couple of people (you know who you are).
Ta da, oops, I can't post pics, so you lot may have to wait awhile.........
tbc
I know, I know I really should learn to make my own mind up, but after the amount of orange love on the forum, I went and got a 790. Proved to be great fun and after the warranty expired so did my love affair. The bike was way more than I will ever be a rider, and all the electronic aids were fun. I did miss cruise control but in the back of my mind, it was always when is something going to go wrong not if something is going to go wrong.
For some reason I have a back issue, which to be fair, has only ever been resolved on adventure bikes (the 390 Adv being the case in point). So armed with this knowledge, I decided that the next bike should be such but with an added dose of Japanese reliability. This produced some decent options - vstrom 650, Tracer 700 and Tracer 900. My favourite is the Tracer 900, as I wanted the toys - cruise, heated grips etc. Unfortunately toys and my budget did not go hand in hand and to be honest none of the aforementioned list were aesthetically pleasing to me. However all of the 3 have really, really good engines. I like the v-twin of the sv series - a mini Harley in my mind, the CP2 unit in the 700 is just like a young playful child and the bigger CP3 a more boisterous child, even a teenager, with a smattering of restraint.
Although life is short, I currently work in an industry potentially subject to some ferocious cuts, thanks to our esteemed Treasury minister. Armed with only generalist skills and a lack of naked ambition, fused with not being adept at corporate politics, I found it difficult to play lose and fast with the man-maths. I did end up spending more than I had allocated, but not enough that it would cause me sleepless nights. It will play havoc with my naps though. I still can't reconcile how or why a 3 year older bike has cost me more than my 2019 KTM.
So, skirting on the back of Tricky's post on the 890 and the fact that the 790 was so much fun, I decided that I would just have to live with the back issues and not get an adventure bike, because my adventures are really only tarmac based and I really like the look of naked bikes (although I do have a secret fetish for small fairings a la z900 cafe). There were also some 790s around in warranty secondhand, and Steve's post on his non-KTM love had me thinking as well.
So off I went, in the direction of a naked bike that would be aesthetically pleasing and at least in warranty, if not Japanese.
So tomorrow, with hopefully dry days, I will pick a bike again after a break of nearly 2 months. It does not have the toys I really wanted, nor the simple things that make life better for me - heated grips, handguards, centre-stand, cruise control etc, but for the sake of my mental health (unbelievable but true) and sanity I bit the bullet. Not least from a little prompting from a couple of people (you know who you are).
Ta da, oops, I can't post pics, so you lot may have to wait awhile.........
tbc
