2006:
After 7 years without bike I decided to ride again. When mother tea ran their Busa Beater campaign I headed off to the dealer show to sit on the new model. A few days later I went to the dealer and laid down my deposit. That short time away from the bike scene transitioned from carbs to fuel injection. Once I comprehended what was no longer easy to tune (fuel & spark) I began to dissect the new technology.
The bike began its transformation into a rolling test mule. Fuel movements would show on the AFR meter. Injector bodies would go thru different tuning stages. Different tuning tool types (pc/dobeck) would be applied. Air cleaners would be installed on top of the OEM's system. Wires would run all over the bike as each component would be added to study FI. A wire harness too close to the throttle body linkage would lock open with the harness being too close to the bell crank.
Needless to say that homemade wire harness found its way to jamming the throttle open. When I looked down at the speedo needle it read 93 mph. Within seconds the bike lofted in the air, slid me off the back and I momentary blacked out. I woke up sliding and felt that familiar burn of the skin. I watched the sparks flying off the bike as it ground thru the engine case. The bike was rendered a total.
2008:
Once I received the check from the insurance company, a dip into my savings, I bought another 14 and continued my research. This time I moved the handmade harness away from the throttle body. Again, I didn't lean my lesson and experimented with the break-in mentality and proceeded to hammer a new engine in the mode of 'ride it like you stole it,' and thus lived with an oil burner. This lasted a few years until the next generation came out. I then traded the bike in with 38,000 trouble free miles, sans the oil loss.
2013:
This time I followed book break-in and it never burned a drop. Each bike turned into the same morphing mule to study the bike so as to school myself learning FI. I figured I'd end my riding career with this bike. I found owning more than one bike and switching off kind of bored me. I was stepping down on power and no matter how well the other bike handled (aprilla) I missed that low end torque and instant performance the 14 would accomplish.
In theory, there is the idea that if you steer into the direction the vehicle was just at you could avoid a collision. In practice, that is another story. The problem is it happens so fast, there is no time to react. So when you can walk away from the accident and the bike can't, you then look for a new bike and begin to venture out looking for a new replacement.
So off to the dealerships to check out something new. Should I chance to another italian brand even though the ape had its own computer glitches, or choose a 1000cc size and detune 400cc's worth of power off the bike. Naaaaa...
2017:
I looked at the duc, yammie, suzzie just to get a feel for something different. Did I want a twin with no guts, or a 1000cc you had to windup before the power came on? Did I want to pay more for less torque? I then came to my senses and ordered a soon to be leftover. I worked with a few dealers before so I started to return to my roots. Once inventory trickles down to so many months, the factory does not re-tool-up to continue supplying an older production. The new model (2018) is now priority and whatever is left at the warehouse(s), that's all she wrote. Come to find out there are no more standards and only SE's are left.
Today I signed papers for the SE. There was no way I could pay more and come up short with less bike. So I am again with my 4th 14 so as to stay up with Grn and whoever else is on their 4th model. No extra shop manual to buy. No shim kit change to use, no tire sizes to change out, no extra rims to buy, and no envy I'm sitting on something slower.
Will the bike look the mule? WATT do you think?