Ah - a full head of brown hair here.....not that im worried about my age but someone told me I looked 36.....46! double bam! Hey Royal - are you going to the Bristol Italian day thingy!!
Ah - wasn't sure where you were.... BIAMF Essentially Gordano services car park fills us with bikes form about 7am in the morning til about 9 I think then they all drive into the centre of Bristol and there's loads of Italian cars etc etc already there.....I must confess I tend to duck out for the drive into the centre for a blast around first....I think its all usually over by around 2 - 3ish so if you could stomach the early morning drive its a good day...
Well I put 200 miles on it before handing it over to the "team spanner man" to prep for the Ulster GP In brief and by no means an expert opinion... It's an excellent machine, I'd argue the points about poor build quality. I think its a big improvement over previous yamahas I have had. As with all the newbies it's got lots of electronic toys and they all seem to work well and I found it user freindly even if the manual is 100 odd pages long! it no more comfortable or uncomfortable than any other superbike, it's pretty easy to ride in traffic and is amazingly forgiving on the faster roads. There is a lot going on with the fancy dash that I found a little distracting at first..lost of graphs and colours...ooohhhh pretttyyy... I haven't thrashed her nor tracked her, that will come once all the race prep is complete. It will be ridden to its limits at the ulster gp (not by me I may add) and that will be a big test for it. It may not have the desirability of the Ducati badge but neither does it have the price tag even though it can run with it (Jerez testing proved its capable) Is it worth 15k? Yep if you look at the tech on it and put the blade next to it. Is the Ducati panni abs worth £1500 more than the R1? The head says no but ofcourse bikes are usually bought with the heart. Josh Brooke's has proved how good the almost stock bike can be, dunlop has busied himself crashing it (leading cookstown 100) but that likely to be him pushing beyond all reasonable limits. It would never replace the 1098 I have but I am glad I bought it, there is no doubt its an excellent bike regardless of personal tatse and badge snobbery. Test ride one and put aside any prejudice and I honestly think you will love it. A mate of mine who races the Manx and owns a stunning 1098R took her out and fell in love went and put a deposit on one soon as he finished riding mine. He claimed it was so easy to ride fast.
Good to hear first impressions are positive,would like to hear some regular updates and pictures are always a bonus.
I'm holding out hope of getting on a demo bike at my mates place, there's talk of them having one after saying they wouldn't a while back. I got the wig cut as well so could get another picture taken!
You could never afford one cabbage-head Only joking....John's on the R1 forum,couple of guys have bought them,and they think they're awesome bits of kit
I went out yesterday lunchtime following my mate on one of the standard new R1 as he needed to do some checks on it. I didn't want to take any chances as I was only in shorts (yes I know, wasn't planning on riding anywhere, I just popped up the road to see him) but he flew away on the R1, looked like he was happily spinning the rear at big speeds without even thinking about it.
Correct me if im wrong but that shouldn't be happening should it with TC on and decent rubber - that's the last thing id want...!
On race mode don't most bikes allow some spin? Like expert mode style, "I want to be able to slide right up until it goes pear shaped".
The new R1 has slide control on it, you can fully nail the throttle out of the corners and it will control the sideways slide. Computer game stuff for sure!
Id just like to add to this conversation that ive just come back from fowlers in Bristol and they've got one in the showroom....the weight (or lack of it is impressive to say the least) theres hardly any weight sat on it and throwing it from side to side, my rsv4 feels like the equivalent of and anvil compared to it.
