Its big. Really big. And really heavy. And long. One of those bikes where it handles better with a pillion, or a really fat bloke riding it.
Power. What power? It makes about 55bhp by the time it gets to the back wheel, and the thing weighs about 250 kilos wet. Add a rider and panniers ... Read review
Its big. Really big. And really heavy. And long. One of those bikes where it handles better with a pillion, or a really fat bloke riding it.
Power. What power? It makes about 55bhp by the time it gets to the back wheel, and the thing weighs about 250 kilos wet. Add a rider and panniers and it weighs lots.
Handling. A tubular steel double cradle, one half of which is bolted on. The swingarm is also tubular steel, and ... ...The forks are the same diameter as on the 600 bandit, so no problems there.
Brakes. A single disc front and rear. The front disc is quite big, but its still working against about 320kg.
Now for the surprising bit. Its the best bike I've ever owned. Thats against assorted competition of 6 similarly priced bikes, so not a great sample I know.
On paper and design, it looks horrendous. To actually ride, its ... more
Its big. Really big. And really heavy. And long. One of those bikes where it handles better with a pillion, or a really fat bloke riding it.
Power. What power? It makes about 55bhp by the time it gets to the back wheel, and the thing weighs about 250 kilos wet. Add a rider and panniers and it weighs lots.
Handling. A tubular steel double cradle, one half of which is bolted on. The swingarm is also tubular steel, and not braced. A fair bit of flex in there. The forks are the same diameter as on the 600 bandit, so no problems there.
Brakes. A single disc front and rear. The front disc is quite big, but its still working against about 320kg.
Now for the surprising bit. Its the best bike I've ever owned. Thats against assorted competition of 6 similarly priced bikes, so not a great sample I know.
On paper and design, it looks horrendous. To actually ride, its a bit like a bandit with midrange instead of top end. You can of course rev it to get power, but its pretty flat after 6000 rpm, redline at 9000ish.
It can weave in corners, but not a huge amount. Having the head bearings at the correct torque helps, as does having decent swingarm bearings and rear shocks. And not throwing it at the road is advisable.
The brakes work ok. In an emergency situation they aren't great - more on that later - but on the road they do the job well enough, and really benefit from ferodo platinum pads.
Its great on quickish A roads. Tight twisty stuff is a lot of work, jaunts down to the coast and distance are no problem. A fair size tank and around 45mpg gave me about 170 miles between fill ups.
So. Mostly positive. It was, until I crashed it. Blind corner, too much speed, and a car sitting in the middle of it waiting to turn right. All my fault, which is a shame. I threw the bike and myself at the road, which was preferable to hitting the car. Both wheels locked up first, which was impressive. Breaking bones was less impressive, and the bike never handled the same afterwards. Ended up selling it for a lot less than I paid for it, and jacking in the bikes for a bit.
