Aye Derek, That C12 has done the Snow Roads route, Ballater to the Brig. of Feugh - Cairn O' Mount - Kirriemuir - Glen Isla - Cairnwell - Crathie - Gairnshiel - Lecht - Tomintoul - Dufftown - Cabrach to Rhynie - ower the Suie to Alford - Tillylodge - Tarland and Hame. 180 mile in 6 hours. Took me near 15 hours a few year back on the Colnago push bike.
Damn! We can assume from your message that you lived to tell the tale. Well done!And is the 999R OK? Your situation, where you are on great racetrack with ZERO electronic aids and circa 150bph(?) nicely highlights some of the issues around having / not having electronic aids... There are so many factors to consider, like how the bike is ridden.. "on-road" (steady pace or fast-ish riding), on-track (trackday speeds or racing flat-out), off-road riding, then theres conditions... wet, dry... hmmm...
I don’t have an issue really with modern bikes full of electronics if implemented properly, the biggest thing I struggle with is if the throttle connection doesn’t feel ‘real’ and it feels really disconnected to what’s going on, that irks me! that said, it’s more of a generation thing, I grew up in the 90’s/2000’s when some seriously game changing bikes were coming out. I was at CTL Motorworks the other day and saw this, and I now look back on them incredibly fondly…
Been a while since, last I rode with no ‘gizmos’ was a 1098 s tricolore. I respected the power delivery, not asking for too much when leaning. The brakes however, they caught me out. Locked the front. Luckily my lightning fast reflexes ‘unlocked’ the front before disaster! ( erm…or I was just lucky..) Years back, on a Euro tour me and my mate both had FZ1s. Mine an import. None abs. His a UK spec, with. A car pulled out on us in France when we were making progress. Him in front, I had to come to a stop alongside, as there was no way my bike was stopping in the same distance. Made me think about rider aids a bit more..
I agree about throttle connection. It was the thing I most disliked about my gen 1 1290 Superduke. The buckeroo suspension and squirming back end I could live with and ride around. The buffering type delay between twist grip input and delivery I could not. The wooly graduated throttle ramp, far from making the bike safer and saving over confident riders from themselves made the bike feel less controllable to me. I never knew quite what was going on at the rear tyre. A 1:1 cable throttle may bite you if you're careless but you rarely are because you fell connected to the tarmac and know exactly where you are all time.
Photograph taken in late April on the B976 Gairnshiel - Crathie road with the near 4,000ft. Lochnagar, (HRH's Balmoral Estate), in the background. Bought my first BSA C12 in 1966 for the princely sum of 25 bob, £1.25 in today's money, and now reliving past times with the addition of the Ariel, Conti. GT. and the 200SS completing the '60's and the start of an affliction with Clan Ducati. Nostalgia IS what its always been !!!!!
