Thanks Piken.
When I first left the dealer and shifted up through the gears,I knew I'd made a good choice.Didn't have the QS turned on,so I thought something was wrong with it.The clutch lever is very light.Shifts were positive and solid.Couldn't ride that day,so just brought her home and parked her.6 miles that day.Changed some of the factory body parts and added CF.Cleaned her up some.
My next ride I took her out for around 250 miles.Reset the QS to 'on' and tested it.A few times I couldn't even tell I'd shifted.It is that smooth and quick.Same with the downshifting.Not any hint of notchiness.Just clicks right in.Another thing.Shifting into 1st from N was clunkless.You feel it shift of course,but nothing like any other bike I've had.Just goes in without drama.Engine noise at startup is quiet.No rattling.Nothing.Turns over once and it's purring.
Idle is steady and even.Has a nice sound to it.Some say they have engine noise.I'm not hearin that.Those are on the 2018 models it seems.
The seat height is good.Flatfooted contact.You do have to pay attention when backing up that you keep you eyes up.You can feel some weight.But not badly.Once moving it totally transforms into a very nimble bike.No feel of weight really.
It's really well balanced.
Taking of and going up the gears it just whines and pulls and shifts like no other bike I've had.VERY nice.Refined.Solid.
Opening her up with a brisk run is way satisfying.Downshifting for corner entries is planted and smooth.There's no chassis wiggle dropping in at virtually any speed I did that with.You can really feel the IMU controlling the chassis attitude,but it's not some 'abnormal feeling'.It just does it automatically which to me is excellent.I didn't need to worry if the bike was gonna run wide or get squirrely.It never did.Just lean in like being on a smaller streetbike,and then adding throttle(much easier to do when you're not feeling something is gonna let go).
It transitioned at all cornering speeds during 's' curves extremely quick.Never felt I needed to brake or anything.I was doing say 40-50 over the curve limits with no drama.It just dips right in and holds your position.There's no muscling it or hard countersteer needed.I didn't expect this.Honestly,it does much better than my H2.
Regular cruising it absorbs the road stuff great.No jarring.No sharpness over road cracks like asphalt to cement edges.It rolls over holes and such smoothly.Riding without hands it stayed vertical.I didn't need to adjust my body position to balance it into line.Just tracked straight.
The motor has a really nice whining sound to it which you can hear nicely.In every gear and rpm.It's very cool.
It's got Stylemas on it,so braking is excellent,plus the electornic suspension(with the IMU) virtually keeps it from diving.
I was rollin pretty good at times well above 80 in open spots and it was gettin anywhere from 35 to 50 MPG.A consistent 50 mpg is easily done by setting the cruise control at the right amount and gear.I'm talkin 90+ mph.
The 5 gallon tank is a Godsend.Tell ya that.Nice to be able to rail and have fun without having to deal with filling up again every 100 miles or so.
I wish I could describe how it feels.I really can't.It's definitely the most fun bike I've had.Rock solid and smooth.ZERO things I would say about it EXCEPT!!!!The seat's gonna disappear.Good for about an hour,but not an all dayer for sure.They shaped it in such a way that ya slide forward and you know how that feels after a couple of hours.Putting a Sargeant on there...sat on one with a Sargeant.WAY better.
I guess to top this review off I'll just say I didn't know what to expect from her.But I'm really glad I got this bird.Centerstand's nice as well.Makes stuff a lot simpler to do.
This motor is extremely smooth and torqey.It's very fun.
So if ya get a chance to ride one...do it.Make sure it's set in full power mode at the least.This bike is NOT a 14R.Some have compared it to that.I'm sayin,no way.It's a sweet machine and totally refined.
* Last updated by: Grn14 on 9/21/2020 @ 3:26 PM *