Okay, I’ve got an 899 that I’ve had from new, done almost 25,000 miles on it, love the bike...most of the time!! Problem is I did a trip in Germany 2 years ago, and it was in the middle of a 34c heatwave...the little Pani toasted my arse off!! I vowed then that I wouldn’t do another long Euro trip on it, but I’ve got 3 jaunts this year totalling about 7,500 miles, been looking at things like an 1100 Tuono Or a 1290GT Superduke Even tried a Speed Triple RS ( surprisingly good! ) Then I got the Garmin routes from my mate for one of the trips , 10 days, six of which will be over 300 miles ( day 2 is over 370 miles! ) and that made me think I need to perhaps look at something that was a better mile muncher than the 3 bikes above. I should add at this point that the 899 was staying, the new tour bike would be in addition to the 899 and would therefore not need to be as sporty biased cos I’ve already got that covered.....it needs to be, comfortable, quick, easy to live with, bulletproof reliability, have the ability to get some luggage on easily and have a few creature comforts like, cruise control, quickshifter, heated grips etc It needs to be a good workhorse and something that I wouldn’t get too precious about leaving outside of hotels, or riding for miles in bad weather...that’s bound to happen! * * * What would you guys buy to fit the brief above??? * * * * So what did I buy ?? * * * I think this will fit the bill nicely! 2020 Ninja 1000sx Just done a couple of hundred miles on it so far, but it feels really good, only using it up to 5,000 revs still running it in, but it’s got loads of bottom end grunt and it’s so smooth. The suspension has been tweaked this year, steeper rake, less trail and some mods to the fork and shock damping, also it comes on really good sport tyres now, Bridgestone S22s and I can’t believe how well it handles,..really great, effortless! Got the performance tourer version ( still waiting for the Akra can to arrive ) it’s got those great integrated panniers, cruise control, quickshifter, heated grips etc Also waiting for the screen protector, so I’ve just left the delivery film on it. TFT dash is great, loads of info and brilliantly clear Plenty of buttons to play with , so this will be ideal for all the jaunts planned this year Couple of YouTube links if you fancy watching them I was worried about going back to an in line 4 after about 8 years of only riding twins, but so far..no problems, I’m loving it Think I made a half decent choice and if I don’t gel with it this year for some reason ( unlikely as so far it’s really surprised me by how good it is) I think it’ll be pretty easy to sell on if I want to . Sent from my iPad
No pleasing some folks Rob, if I hadn’t put pics in, it would have been “ pics or it didn’t happen!!” You can never have enough pics imo and don’t forget,...one picture is worth a thousand words
