Exactly so. Euro 5 leans the fueling out in the rev range and at the throttle openings where the bike will be ridden most of the time, reducing overall emisions over the life of the bike. Pretty meaningless really in emissions terms since most riders will ride round the restrictions. In fact, when I had my Diavel remapped and the restrictions removed it pulled smoother in higher gears at lower revs. The less an engtine works the fewer emissions it produces. It's like ecomentalists thinking that 20mph speed limits reduce pollution. They make it worse. Vehicles running at higher revs in a lower gear and taking longer to pass through the speed zone.
Don't miss them, never had them, bought an ST4S last summer coz I blew my ST2 motor on a trackday, it has ABS but I intensely dislike it and am contemplating removing it - I love good brakes with loads of feel so considering swapping over my ST2 setup on to the ST4 (999 axial 4 pad calipers & radial MC, Braketec ductile iron rotors & FDB2120ST pads) and with this I can out-brake the ABS any day of the week.. Maybe in the wet when not paying 100% attention it might, and I mean might be something worth having but I really dunno, the std setup is wooden and alien to me...
A paired phone or one mounted on the bike is pretty-near mandatory for navigation if you're going any distance. Touring Europe with a paper map / road book is possible but slightly tedious. A phone is just another tool. However, Ducati's attempt at phone integration is definitely shite. They should take a leaf out of KTM & BMW's book.
I can understand how that can be so - if you're tech literate - but that's just not for me. I can barely work my phone when it's in my hand. My bike sat nav is a lick-n-stick car Garmin unit in a Givi waterproof case, plugged into the 12v socket with some plastic round it to keep the rain out. My mind is mechanical, not digital.
I have a 1967 Rickmam Metisse T00, BSA/Triumph T100 hybrid, Norton P11, Katana 1000, Katana 1100, XR69 (gs1000 motor), GPZ 1100A2, alongside my Panigale R (v2), Panigale V4R and quite a few other toys. Some days the pure analogue nature of the the Brit parallel twins that peaks my interest, otherwise the Japanese IL 4s, and others it’s the latest Italian. All are great in their own very special way. One things for sure, I’m not getting an electric motorcycle, well, probably not
One of the things I most dislike about electronic aids is the rabbit warren of menus and sub-menus you have to navigate to adjust settings or turn stuff off. And that your settings are rarely saved if you have to remove the battery over winter. At least on the 1260 Diavel once things are turned off they stay off - unlike the gen 1 Superduke I had which defaulted to factory settings every time you turned the ignition off. The instructions in owner's manuals are usually appallingly badly written too in a sort of AI pidgin English. Then there's the matter of fault codes if the battery goes flat. Hasn't happened yet on the Diavel but if the KTM's battery dies it triggers all sorts of ECU sensorsband a "general system failure" that can only be canceled with a trip to a dealer. TBF my car is like that. When I bough my Landrover it had a cheap shit Halfords battery fitted. After weeks sat in a dealer's showroom with people unlocking and locking the doors, starting and stopping the engine but never driving it anywhere the battery was goosed. Within a couple of days I had a low battery warning and then it went into semi-limp mode when half a dozen sensors were triggered by low battery voltage. I didn't mind having to pay to fit a decent Varta battery because batteries are a consumable part but having to crawl to a Landrover dealer or specialist workshop for diagnistics was a pita. You didn't get that with a Morris 1000. If the battery was dead it wouldn't go. You stuck a new one in and all was well and you didn't have to pay £50 to a bloke with a box of tricks to turn out all the Christmas tree lights on the dashboard.
That must have been a while ago? Halfords don't have cheap shit Halfords batteries anymore. They only stock expensive ones.
Fair point. Expensive cheaply made shit then. It is true that Halfords have never knowingly sold anything cheaply. I had to buy a new headlight bulb last winter. I went to Halfords on the way home one evening because they would be open. They charged me £24 for the wrong bulb (computer said it was the right one) which I had to take back. I waited for the local motor factors to open the next morning and bought the right one for £6.
Yes & yes. Some of their gear is very good. All of it is expensive. They are only useful on Sunday afternoons as everyone else is closed.
I have a Halfords Advanced socket set which is very good - the tools anyway, although the case is shit because the sockets in the lid fall out when you open it. Apparently their own-brand car batteries are made by Yuasa and the start-stop ones have a five year warranty. Whether that'sa good thing or not I don't know, but all the independent Landrover specialists I've used have said don't buy Lion or Halfords. Buy Varta or Bosch. The Varta I bought from a local garage was cheaper including fitting than the Halfords equivalent over the counter. Touch wood it's still going strong two years later. I did have a "low battery" warning on the dash the other week which caused some consternation, but when I put my glasses on and looked again I saw it said "Phone battery low"...
I have ridden almost the whole Honda range apart from thd Blade, personally great, enjoyed them. But .. I just couldn't find anything i wanted to buy, even with discount . Yet my 748 i absolutely love it, I think im forever stuck in the 90s ,2000s The sound and experience of these bikes just does it for me .
I saw the recent vid online comparing with and without ABS stopping distances (showing that ABS outperforms non)....I would hope the quality has massively improved over the years, but my 2006 ktm adventure once tried to kill me by engaging ABS...Never used it again since.
Never had any electronic aids so can't comment on it really, all I know is the 'grin factor' my old school 999 (1038 actually) gives me means I will never need to change it for a modern replacement.
No electronics on my 1948 BSA ZB32. It will even run without a battery, dynamo for lights and magneto ignition.
As a lapsed Laverda owner (of 25+ years) the answer is 'Yes, but...': 1. if you only go short distances - 100s of miles, not 1000s 2. if you don't want to ride it as hard as you're used to - don't expect modern handling and brakes 3. if you're mechanically skilled I can go to the Alps and back with ease & relative comfort on a Multistrada. I have been to the Alps and back on a Laverda, and I wouldn't want to do it again - or at least not in 2 long days riding. Vibrations, noise, luggage - all doable, but all compromised. I gave up on old bangers in 2015, gained lots of riding time through the improved reliability and ease of modern bikes, and haven't looked back since. Much.
