2017 BMW F800GS (Revisited)

So my bike went in for it’s 10,000km service at Donford Motorrad in Cape Town on Wednesday and they were nice enough to provide me with a brand new, as in never been ridden before just out of PDI, F800GS.

Now if you read this blog before you’ll remember I rode some mates’ F800 GS and GS Adventure last sometime last year and had some good things to say. At least I seem to recall I had good things to say but I’m purposely not re-reading that post so it doesn’t skew my opinion this time round.

First things first just getting on the thing was daunting because it’s so bloody tall. I’ve gotten quite use to getting on my RS like a horse since the stand is rock solid and even since I’ve been trying that on all bikes. However with this 800 being so tall and upright this was much more of an experience but doable.

I’m literally on my tippy toes when keeping the bike upright, which isn’t the end of the world as you can lean it over for planned stops. What worries me are the unplanned stops where you suddenly need to put a leg out and for that very reason I can’t see myself ever attempting offroad with this configuration and would need to chicken out on a lower seat or even lowered suspension.

That being said, off I went on my way and a little bit wobbly at that probably to the dismay of onlookers. Immediately the bike felt a little odd in steering and I soon realised it was probably the lack of a steering dumper which I never had before but became very used to on the RS.

What I also didn’t know at the time was that it was brand new and so the tyres were nowhere near run in and still very waxy. Leaning onto her left ear it felt downright unstable and dangerous as if the neck bearings weren’t there at all. Much later I fiddled with the electronic suspension settings and put it into Sport mode from Normal and I must say after that it was much better but by then I had also spent some time with it.

Only in trying to find the bloody odometer reading did it come to my attention that the bike was brand new because this unmarked number and the trip meter were the exact same. Really Germans…couldn’t you have simply written ODO next to it?

I don’t know who the person is designing the dashboards in Bavaria but I’d love to have a long conversation with them about where their brain was at the time.

Beyond not putting in basic information like ODO they also go about using stupid little icons to indicate average fuel consumption and average speed etc. It’s a bloody LCD why not just made little text bars exactly like the riding modes for  rain, road, enduro etc and put them next to the relevant readings.

At least on this bike unlike my RS there is a full analog rev counter and speedometer and both are easily legible quite possibly because they are much closer to my face. The only thing I found odd is that 120 is at a dot instead of a line but that’s just me being silly.

It was a relatively windy day but I was very surprised by the stock standard windscreen which is not only smoked but also does a really good job throwing the air over your head, especially considering the fact that you sit bolt upright.

Back straight and arms up gives you a massive amount of leverage and it’s maybe this combined with the lack of steering damper that made it feel somewhat unstable. The XR offered a similar riding position and that I would imagine has a steering damper and while much better than this I also didn’t quite trust it.

Problem is for all the comfort the upright riding position offered my back and arms my ass was sore after less than twenty minutes on the bike due to the plank of a seat. It’s way too hard and way too narrow. This is meant to be a grown up bike, not a motard. It also forced you forward and doesn’t offer much room for movement so I see figured out why GS riders are almost always standing and that’s because they can’t actually sit down at all.

Funny that a year ago I didn’t understand the point of cruise control and here I was yearning for that button on the left because all I wanted to do was tie the straps on my backpack that I forgot to do up because I’m used to having a top box now.

Getting the mirrors right is a bit of a struggle, much like my own bike, but once you have them sorted out they are quite superb. I love the golf club shape as it shows you more without making the surface area and housing massive and retains a reasonably sexy look.

On the topic of sexy…this is far from it.

I looked at it long and hard from every angle and I still simply cannot love the look of this thing. Those asymmetric lights constantly make me think it’s falling over and from any other angle there just isn’t much to love. That being said I do like the seat, “tank” and then petrol filler areas purely because they are so different from everything else. Since the Honda N700/N750 frunk came about though I feel it’s a missed opportunity for BMW not to copy the concept.

So I soldiered on through Hout Bay and out to the famous Chapman’s Peak where I needed to pay a toll fee and again the pain in the arse that is a backpack was a swift reminder that getting a topbox was the best decision I’ve ever made.

By now the clutch was downright irritating me and the engine wasn’t really very inspiring. Yes I’m sure as an offroad bike it may or may not be superb, but how many people buying these ever actually do that?

As a road bike it’s quite terrible.

Someone recently also mentioned to me that they didn’t like the R1200 boxer engine because it vibrated to much and therefore they got the 800. I found quite the opposite and unlike my R1200 the vibrations were quite apparent on this one and any speed.

I was quite surprised by the fuel economy figures which I had reset before leaving the workshop. I was averaging 3.7/100km and that was while riding it like I stole it in most parts so credit where credit is due on that front.

After stopping for a quick brunch at The Daily Coffee Cafe in Noordhoek which I can highly recommend I finally made my way to work over Ou Kaapse Weg and by now had discovered Sport suspension settings which made for a stable and reasonably trustworthy run over the mountain.

Having forgotten there’s no quickshifter a couple of times I made many an uncouth downshift but the gearbox didn’t seem too bothered at all by it. Apart from the cable clutch being very heavy I can honestly say the gearbox is smoother and quieter than my RS and the lever travel also feels shorter. Granted it’s putting much less torque through there but that was a pleasant surprise.

Cruising into the parking lot at work I did my 1st gear clutch out riding on idle test and it did this happily even into 2nd gear but I suspect because the fuel injection hunts for idle and pushes it up a bit. I then noticed an odd thing where when closing the throttle it’s somewhat delayed as if on an elastic. Not a major concern but I couldn’t forget about it once I noticed it.

Couple of hours with a truly and properly numb ass at my desk I got the call to set off again to fetch my own bike. Hitting proper lane splitting traffic now I must admit the very tall and upright riding position does give a bit of an edge in traffic as you can see over everything and in these situations the light almost twitchy steering is a good thing if I could ignore the impending doom of extreme seat height every time I stopped.

Playing in traffic also reminded me of the issue I had riding the 800 before and that’s the fact that there is so much heat under and between your legs that your ass is on fire in no time when doing slow speed stuff.

Build quality is somewhat questionable as well, with of plenty of squeaks and rattles as you go about your ride. Maybe it was just this specific bike as I don’t remember it from the other two I’d ridden, but those were much shorter trips as well and at the same time they had plenty of owner modifications on. None of the Triumphs I rode while owning my own ever rattled.

So then I thought maybe I was being a bit of a biking snob and being horribly unfair to a bike that is half the price of my own. Only problem with that thought pattern was that the price isn’t anywhere near half.

This bike costs R157 990 now…which is absolutely mental. Sure I know that the rand is dodgy and Trump is cocking it up for everyone and all that but currency drama aside compared to it’s peers it just seems monumentally expensive.

Considering the height problem the Triumph Tiger 800 XRx Low is thirteen thousand rand cheaper at R145 500. BMW charge you extra for lowering kits and other shenanigans so the gap is actually much wider in reality. It also comes with cruise control (which isn’t even an option on the GS) and a sump guard out of the box. The Triumph doesn’t have the electronic suspension adjustment though…but then I never felt I needed it on that bike.

Sure the Triumph Tiger X800 XCx is R2000 more expensive but then even if you are vertically challenged as I was by the GS then that bike might work for you out of the box which means it’s still cheaper than the lowered GS yet again while offering more.

Especially if you are going to do mostly road riding I think the Triumph Tiger is by far the better bike, at least from my memory of having ridden one. Even then when you are going offroad I can’t imagine the difference will be that massive between the two, but then I know nothing about all that mudslinging stuff.

If you have no intention of ever going offroad then I would have to wonder why you are burning money on either of those bikes and not buying a Honda NC750 instead.

Actually come to think of it, even for offroad use you should consider visiting Honda and taking a look at the Africa Twin. I just haven’t ridden it so can’t comment on it’s feasibility but it sounds like a very good bike.

 

 

Alpinestars Spartan vs RST Urban Air II Gloves

Ever since I started riding motorcycles regularly I’ve always looked up to the Alpinestars brand as something I wanted to own one day but it was either not available in South Africa or prohibitively expensive on special import.

So when my Frank Thomas summer gloves finally gave up recently after a good five years of service it was time to do some shopping. To be honest they were probably still fine if I went through the effort of having the Velcro replaced, but as these things go boys want new toys and all that.

Being a recent BMW cultist my first stop was having a look at their range but there was nothing that quite fitted the look and feel I was going for and the price was simply outrageous so off I went to Trac-Mac in Bellville and to my surprise there was plenty of Alphinestars stuff on the shelf and not unreasonably priced either.

I’ve only ever had gauntlet race gloves and this time I thought why not try the more urban friendly shorties and ended up uhm-and-aahing between the Alphinestars Spartan and the RST Urban Air II‘s that were almost identical in price and seemingly specification.

Went outside to my bike with an A* on the left and an RST on the right and decided what the hell I always wanted Alpinestars and they simply looked sexier.

I paid my money at the till, immediately cut off the tags and off I went on my way to work. Stupidly I didn’t take the entire pair back to the bike for testing and immediately something felt a bit odd across my right thumb and index finger as if there was too much material or it was too short somehow.

For a lack of time and event though I believe gloves should “just work” I soldiered on and figured I would give them a day to break in and if it really wasn’t working come back and hope that a return wouldn’t be too cumbersome.

I really liked the way these gloves were breathing across my entire hand as if I wasn’t wearing any gloves at all, but it wasn’t the complete free flowing you get from the usual mesh stuff and I still felt very protected.

My previous set of gloves convinced me never to get gloves that fasten at the top ever again because the wind drag just knackers the Velcro over time, but with the new bikes being less naked I thought maybe this isn’t so bad and they’ll last.

After a couple of kilometres it became apparent to me that the left thumb was way too long and completely disproportionate to the right thumb and this interfered with my ability to switch the indicator on and off.

By the next day it was really irritating but at the same time the fake suede on the inside of the glove had completely collapsed/flattened as suede tends to do and they already seemed thoroughly used having done less than half a tank of petrol. I reckoned getting them swopped out now would be an exercise in futility so I just carried on.

Fast forward to the following week and four riding days later the left thumb was coming apart completely at the stitching. Crazy considering it’s not a stress point and that it was already too long so it’s not like the fit was too tight and my thumb was pushing it apart.

Sure I could have just cut off the excess fibres and carried on hoping it would stop there but after only four days it was frankly ridiculous when you consider the gloves I just replaced lasted years and didn’t show any of these signs.

Back to the shop I went expecting a fight, but to their credit they were equally in agreement that it’s not up to standard and immediately blamed the cheap Chinese manufacturing until I pointed out that these were actually made in Vietnam according to the label.

They offered me another pair of the same but I decided not to risk it and opted for the RST’s that I had scoped out before and only shot down because of my perception of Alpinestars. I didn’t take into account that my winter gloves were two seasons old and also RST and they were still in perfect nick apart from the logo wearing off.

Let’s try again…

I got them in plain black and without the TT branding and they look somewhat different to the picture. Immediately they don’t look nearly as sexy but from the moment I got on the bike they were perfect as if I’d been wearing them for years.

They don’t ventilate quite as evenly as the A*’s due to the mixed mesh and leather design, but unlike those this glove actually has some leather while the other is completely synthetic in every material.

Even though they are priced almost identically the RST’s simply feel like a better glove overall for the sum of it’s parts.

Comparing the two in the shop and the manner they are stitched it’s obvious that the Alpines would wear out exactly where mine did and wouldn’t last near as long before becoming frayed.

On the “shortie” factor I need to say it’s quite refreshing to have that little gap across my wrists between the gloves and my leathers where a little bit of air sneaks in. I’m a little bit worried about sun burn there but so far it hasn’t been a real issue.

The RST’s fasten on the inside of the hand which makes a lot more sense overall from a wear and tear perspective, but again it shows up the design not being quite as sexy as the Alphinestars for being more square cut. That being said they seem more practical in that they are easier to get on than the Spartan’s while one hand is gloved so it’s the usual case of form follows function.

After 10+ years of looking down at RST as a cheap alternative brand and holding Alpinestars on high I can honestly say that at least in this segment they make a much better product for almost the exact same money.

 

 

Diary of an RS : The Review

After just about 5000km of both long distance and city riding I think I am now entitled to writing a little review about my new bike.

Since I already wrote a long story about my travels with the RS I’m going to make this one factual, methodical and also maybe a little nitpicky and go through the bike from top to bottom, left to right and front to back and just throw my thoughts out there as I go along.

Windscreen

Simply by virtue of the fact that there is one it’s already awesome. It adjusts four different ways, up and down on the fly and then physically why shifting it from one set of holes to another by unscrewing and re-screwing it. Overall I find myself wanting the cleaner air and run it in the lower screw holes but higher setting for town riding. Will probably move it up again when I’m bored to experiment. Many people are complaining endlessly that it’s terrible and has buffeting but not having had a windscreen on my own bike in many years I really can’t compare it to much. In the rain however I despise it! Being used to riding with an open visor the splashing of water straight off the screen and into my face isn’t pleasant and the alternative of not being able to see isn’t much of an option.

Mirrors

Functionality wise they are awesome. I see very little of my elbows while seeing a whole lot everything around me. The golf club shape works really to show you more without it being monstrous in size. I do find they are a little bit wide, being the widest point of the bike if you don’t have the panniers on, which makes lanesplitting a little bit trickier past some vehicles but it’s not a deal breaker overall. Compared to the useless crap on my Triumph these are superb…and they never move at any speed.

Handlebars & Grips

Having done a little bit more mileage now I do think I’ll definitely lift and move them back a little bit at some point just to add some comfort. It’s not that it’s uncomfortable, just that it could be more comfortable.

I find the grips are very thin and also oddly narrow with my hands just barely fitting between the barend and the head stock section and I worry that when summer comes and I’m not wearing thing gloves it might be a problem.

Navigator V

GPS STUFF

Clutch & Brake Levers

Being painted in black just oozes quality and also makes them warmer in the winter…little things you don’t even consider unless you go without. Fully adjustable on both sides as one would expect, although I still don’t know how that works with a hydraulic clutch.

I would have liked the brake lever to go out a little bit further as even it’s max setting is a bit close and the closest setting is just crazy.

Controls

I hate the GPS wheel. I might take some heat for this one but I’m just being honest. It’s massive and gets in the way. I find myself flipping it every so often when going for the indicators and it makes getting to the horn quickly almost impossible. It also really doesn’t add much value when you really think about it.

They could have made it a completely digital system with buttons, or just much smaller and thinner to embed it into the handlebar grip…or just chucked it away completely and you wouldn’t really be at a major loss.

The indicators lack any kind of feedback. The button is rigid and you never know if you actually flipped it on or not and the off click is just as discreet. That being said it’s never failed me where it didn’t go on or didn’t go off on request. For some reason I thought it had self-cancelling units on this bike, but I probably confused it with the Ducatis I rode at the same time, which is a little disappointing really for this class of bike.

Speaking of Ducati their idea of backlit controls is phenomenal. Something I never even thought was necessary until I was riding the new bike home in the dark and with so many buttons about had a real struggle to find things. Sure once you know your way around it’s not really an issue, but it would have been a nice touch for sure.

The brights (high beam) system on a single button works very well. However as with the indicators and horn it’s very hard to reach…maybe because of the GPS wheel or maybe just in general.

The Horn is very German. I mean when I press it I literally hear it saying “ACHTUNG!”. Not very friendly then but it’s not really supposed to be is it?

Cruise Control

It has changed my life. I use it everywhere except when lane splitting through low speed traffic and I don’t think I could ever live without it again.

Not that riding bikes is a chore, but the little parts of it that are such as long straight highways have become completely effortless with this modern technology.

Throttle

I find a weird sensation in my right hand. I don’t want to call it painful nor a vibration. It’s just a numbness that occurs on the outside edge of my palm after not very long stretches when using the throttle manually without cruise controls. In fact it’s probably a subconscious reason why I use the cruise control so much because it is quite irritating.

Beyond that I find the throttle travel/range/throw way too long. With all this modern fly-by-wire technology and riding modes and crap I don’t know why this isn’t adjustable yet? I guess it’s made like this to be more friendly and safer for less experienced riders, but I would really appreciate the option to change this on the fly so less throttle input equals more engine output.

Especially noticeable when you want to do WOT stuff and it’s ALL THE WAY BACK THERE.

As for Riding Modes. There are three : Rain, Road and Dynamic.

I’m not sure if any of them actually do much of anything to the throttle itself. I put it on Rain mode when it’s wet and haven’t had any surprises…so either it’s really doing something or the placebo effect is doing what it should…either way it works. Between Road and Dynamic I don’t feel any difference other than pretending to in my mind.

Sure the modes are more about adjusting the passive safety features so in reality you should only notice anything when things go wrong…but since I’m not a muppet that doesn’t really happen. Of if it is happening then nothing on the dashboard has indicated traction or stability or ABS activating that I’ve seen.

Dashboard

The analog speedo is USELESS. Looking at it is pointless as you can’t see the difference between 40,60,80 or 100, 120 or 140. Below and above that you figure it out purely by proximity to the top or bottom of the gauge. Either you are going too slowly or too fast…the numbers are a blur.

Then on the LED size you have a massive gear indicator…why that got preference over a speedometer is beyond me.

Unlike most I’m not too bothered by the rev counter being digital, but it’s a waste of space and they could have made it analog so that they could put a digital speedo in there instead.

Or just chucked the whole analog thing and used a laster LED display cluster that has EVERYTHING one it.

“But they give you three style options” – Yes…the other two are equally shit and pointless. None of them give you any of the information that you really need all at the same time.

So I find myself using the GPS as a secondary display most of the time to provide me with useful information.

I love this bike, but here BMW really lost the plot.

Fuel Tank

You read BMW’s marketing and it’s all about Sports Touring with this bike.

They got the sports part mostly right if you aren’t horsepower crazy like most people these days. The touring part falls by the wayside with only an 18 litre tank to get you everywhere. This means I get 300km on a tank and by then I’m well into reserve but not quite empty.

Would it have killed them to add another 2 litres and make a 20? The design of the tank and such seems to suggest it wouldn’t have mangled the look and shape of the bike in any way.

Then I could have gotten an easy 350km and possibly 400km when running near empty, which means only filling up once a week.

It’s not a train-smash but it would have been real nice.

 

 

Italian Twin Pasodoble

What feels like an age ago in November 2014 I started a love affair with the Ducati Multistrada when I visited Ducati Johannesburg while being up there (or down, if you want to get technical) for some training.

Obviously I didn’t have my gear there at the time and the best I could do was sit on and look at it. But upon my return to Cape Town I started down the path of inquiry as I was convinced this would be my next bike.

This is that very same bike…

Demos weren’t as readily available in Cape Town as there isn’t a real dealership here but more of a satellite office so I was put on the waiting list for trying one out.

Then during the same span of time Ducati announced the “all new” Multistrada with the world first Skyhook dynamically adjustable suspension. Not wanting an “old” bike I decided to wait for that to eventually arrive and ride.

Of course as luck would have it by the time that happened Ducati again announced the “all new” Multistrada that would now get the world first DVT engine and once again I delayed the test ride waiting on the new bike to arrive.

They say things come in threes and they aren’t often wrong, so yet again when the DVT version finally arrived, Ducati had also just announced the new XDiavel which I wanted to ride back to back with the Multistrada…so again we waited.

So, a year and a half later after first sitting on the bloody thing I finally pickled to Superbike Solutions in Somerset West the other weekend with a riding friend in tow to have a go on what had by now become a Unicorn.

Credit where it’s due, many of the better photos like the one above are his, not mine.

After a bit of drama with the bikes not coming back on time from the previous riders who had them, we finally set off towards Hells Hoogte (Hell’s Height) pass just outside Stellenbosch, myself on the Multistrada S and my mate on the regular XDiavel.

Immediately I asked the sales guy if the bike had been specially lowered as I just felt so much more sure-footed than I remember from the first time I sat on it in Johannesburg and especially compared to the recently ridden BMW S1000XR it seemed very accommodating towards my short legs. He advised it was the standard seat, but on the lowest setting, which is a very nice to have.

The startup procedure is very interesting and feels almost like a computer that needs to “boot” in multiple stages before it eventually tells you it’s ready to go. Definitely not just a case of pushing and holding the button until it fires. Quick push of the button and my memory fails but I think it then pretty much sorts itself out after that.

It’s keyless by default and this is where the Audi ownership shows as the key is near identical to those on Audi and VW cars but maybe just a little bit less rectangular. Still don’t quite know the point as I needed to then hide the key in my pocket and carefully check that the zip is closed so that it doesn’t bugger off mid ride.

Already it was apparent that the forward set foot pegs on the XDiavel was causing consternation for the other party, but more on that later, as we finally set off on the road. Immediately the size of the Multistrada made itself known but at the same time an odd thing also happened in that it’s centre of gravity is such that it basically keeps itself upright longer than any other bike I can remember making super slow speed manoeuvres between cars while lane splitting superbly simple.Where I was of a mind not to take any chances lane splitting the bike immediately encouraged me to go for it without any concern as it was just so simple to move the mighty beast around between what felt like small vehicle around me.

Until I had to stop at the first traffic light and there was an almighty banshee squeal coming from the front brakes and moments later a similar yet different wail from the clutch as I pulled that in…strange since it’s hydraulic and there is no cable to make a noise .

Now by their very nature bikes and cars make funny noises and my own Triumph whistles from rear brake at parking lot speeds, but when I’m on the Ferrari of motorcycles I sort of expect those things not to happen. Here I am with a 1/4 of a million Rand of Italian exotica under my ass and feeling embarrassed about it while the lady next to me in traffic is looking perplexed.

I wish I had ridden the non-DVT version of the bike so I could make a fair comparison, but it certainly felt like it was working compared to the BMW XR which had no bottom end torque whatsoever. You don’t need to rev the crap out of it to get somewhere, but at the same time it also makes the very same 160hp as the BMW seem almost boring as you climb the revs as it’s delivered in a very flat manner. Great for everyday, maybe not so great for the fun times when you want to feel it pull your arms out of their sockets.

For such an expensive bike the engine also feels very unrefined and I don’t want to say unreliable in a mechanical context but more as a matter of consistency. I kind of expect that if I revved it the same way ten times in a row that one or two of those times the engine would falter or even choke completely. It just doesn’t deliver the same confidence and inspiration every time and it also vibrates and shakes the crap out of itself.

Wind protection seemed almost too good with the screen in the top position and so I dropped it quite easily with one hand while riding to take that breathless feeling away. I’m used to naked bikes so don’t pay much attention to these things but there is a fair amount of leg protection as well and it being a chilly morning I can’t say I noticed the cold air over my legs at all throughout the test ride.

Stopping in from of all the other traffic at a light, the XDiavel lost somewhere behind me, I decided now was the time to give it horns and as the light went green I dropped the clutch in a reasonable fashion but whacked the throttle and suddenly I saw orange lights appear in my peripheral vision and looking down at them I realised that the front wheel was reaching for the sky and this was obviously the wheelie control doing exactly what it was meant to.

Outside of the lights it was a very calm non-event so the technology works and lets you have some fun without letting you kill yourself. I saw it was in Touring mode and switched it to Sport so I could do it again…and of course I then failed miserably as every wheelie in my life seems to only ever happen accidentally and never on command.

Knowing the road ahead I expected some speed cameras and so I decided to try the cruise control. Unlike the other bikes I rode recently this one works exactly like the system on every car I’ve ever driven with Cruise Control. You first switch it on (or off) and then you have a +/- button and a Set/Resume button. It’s simple and straight forward and there is no guessing what does what. The on/off toggle prevents you from any surprises and the system just works.

I don’t know if I’m lob-sided or my minor scoliosis isn’t so minor any more but I always thought my notion to lean left when going hands free was just because the bike wasn’t under throttle, but even with cruise control I still keep veering left even if I’m leaning myself completely over in the opposite direction. Definitely never going to be one of those stunt riders, that’s for sure.

The seat gives you some options to move around and find what works for you, without leaving you completely unsupported. It’s something I partly liked about the XR holding you firmly in place, but I can see the appeal of being able to change your riding position when you like to.

The mirrors are excellent showing you everything you need to see and offering lots of adjustment without any major vibration. They are large but also not stupidly so that they get in the way. The hand guards also do a great job and I bet you would hardly need the heated grips with them on, or might not need super winter gloves, at least not in our climate anyway.

Once we hit the Hells Hoogte pass and I could start leaning it over I felt very much the same wallowing in corners that I did with the XR but unlike that bike I didn’t feel unsafe. It might very well be a case of typical behaviour for bikes that are so tall and on softer suspension and just not something I’m used to.

It leans over on its ear quite happily and feels utterly weightless while doing so. In general the bike never really gives its 235kg away and always feels light and nimble, even at parking lot speeds. The brakes are perfect, if I don’t remember them that means they weren’t lacking in any way or so over the top that I’m still trying to put my face back on after it got peeled off.

It’s hard to say if the Skyhook dynamic suspension made any major difference here as I didn’t have a regular version to compare it against and I don’t know the roads that well, but overall it’s a very comfortable ride and nowhere did I hit a bump going “ouch” in my helmet. If anything, it might even be too soft for most people, but that could probably be adjusted a little with the custom modes that I didn’t mess with.

I expected the screen to be a problem, but even in this bright daylight I don’t recall even once having trouble to see what was going on and it felt no different to any regular system. I might even go so far as to say that the reflection on my own clocks where I see myself is more distracting than the sun would be on this LCD based system.

There isn’t really much to fault the bike on, except the price. It just doesn’t feel like it’s worth more than any other bike and in many ways it feels lesser even if it was in the same price bracket. It seems like you are literally paying for the exotic factor and not much else. If the prices were all the same and out of the bikes with similar feature sets I tested recently I still end up feeling the BMW R1200RS is the best, while ironically being the cheapest. Sure the XR is the direct competition for the Multistrada, but the RS suits me better than both. If money wasn’t a factor and I was forced between the XR and Multistrada then I would have the Italian…except for one big reason I’ll get back to later.

So while I was having a jolly good time on the Multistrada my buddy was absolutely miserable on the XDiavel.

I think if I hadn’t stopped to swop when I did, he might have hunted me down or just parked it and set it on fire next to the road.

A lot of that has to do with people not knowing what to expect. If you haven’t ridden a cruiser with forward controls before this bike is going to be a shock to your system,. Even if you have ridden a cruiser with forward controls before, this is still going to give you an electric jolt.

This is not a cruiser, at least not like any other that has come before. Like I’ve explained it to others it’s a cruiser in the back with its fat 240-section rear tyre and low comfortable seat, but it’s a superbike in the front with its monstrous engine and crazy sport bike handling.

Sitting on the thing I would imagine is very similar to sitting in a jet fighter plane. You sit very low compared to everything else, while your legs are straight in front of you. It actually feels like your legs are pointing up compared to most other forward control bikes I’ve ridden.

Then the bars are wide but also don’t sweep back quite as much as I expected, but unlike the regular Diavel this one is actually comfortable. Closest thing I can compare it to is the lovechild of a Yamaha V-Max and the Harley Davidson Nightrod Special, but more comfortable than the Nightrod which makes you feel like a double folded pancake.

I felt a little bit short in the leg reaching the foot controls but when mentioning this to the sales guy he showed me that there were in fact four different positions for the foot pegs and they were on the third setting now so it could come two clicks closer to me. If I were to own one I would definitely move it closer, so if you do test ride one and you find this is your problem then it’s easy to fix and not a deal breaker.

Seeing press shots of the bike beforehand I figured that tiny little screen would be a problem, but with this kind of minimalist approach it didn’t bother me at all. The electronic and startup procedures are pretty much the same as on the Multistrada with the same riding modes and cruise control options, except for the Enduro mode obviously.

The two bikes are identical from an engine and drive train point of view, except that the XDiavel make a little less horsepower in favour of more torque.

I didn’t realise the non-S had the Launch Control option as well and so I never looked for it until almost all the way back and then I couldn’t figure it out quickly enough to make use of it. There is seemingly a special routine to be followed to make it work.

Jumping straight onto the XDiavel at the end of a twisty road I was thrown into the deep end immediately. It feels insane because your feet are way up there in front and so you can’t really use your legs to corner but pinch them to the tank instead. The net result is that you now end up cornering with your elbows…and it feels like superhero stuff.

The first time you dip this thing into a corner it’s like passing through a wormhole or stargate or some such because it is just that bizarre a notion, but then you realise that you haven’t died, it has gone around the corner…and it’s just done it better than the Multistrada you rode a few minutes ago. That’s when the cheshire cat smile appears on your face and you want to do it over and over again.

I know the term “it turns like it’s on rails” is overused so I’ll rather say this is more like a Scalextric system that just goes where it was meant to go with you pull the trigger. It makes no sense to my brain and years of riding experience, but it just works. The lean angles are pure insanity and even when you aren’t riding it to the edge it just feels much more extreme and exhilarating because you are sitting so low and close to the ground.

The engine itself works very well in this package and I can’t say I had any complaints there, but I had a very hard time with the clutch, it just feeds in way too far from the bar and is a little bit like an on/off switch and not progressive at all. Each and every time I stopped through the test ride it was a mission to get away and it didn’t become natural at any point.

The forward set controls are tricky at inclines especially as you can’t really hold the bike with the foot brake and keep the bike up with the other as being so low means you have no leverage and your balance is throw way off by the right foot hanging in the sky. So I opted for the front brake with the fingers, throttle with the palm  configuration which is tried and trusted.

Seating wise it’s very comfortable for the rider except for the oddity of a metal Ducati/XDiavel logo plate thing that is stuck right under your ass in the lowest part of the seat. This is one of those silly form over function things where the rain is ultimately going to accumulate there and you’ll have a wet bum before you even hit the rainy rode home. Put I guess the target market here is fairly fair weather inclined so I shouldn’t be surprised there. I didn’t have an Italian supermodel handy to test the passenger seating and I doubt anything else would fit. My Buell took this to the extreme but the XDiavel seems like it was designed for a man who is begging for his significant other to use the good excuse that there isn’t space for her on the back, so he can ultimately go alone like he intended in the first place.

XDiavel is a thing to behold and I realised many won’t like it, but for me personally it’s a beautiful bike. I didn’t get to see the more shiny S variant but I’m sure that would be a feast for the sense. It won some or other design aware recently and I can’t say I’m at all surprised. It’s futuristic while at the same time being classic, but it’s also not retro and trying to look old. You know if I didn’t know better I would have thought it’s an electric bike as it has that same sort of modern Tesla feel to it.

I loved it, every minute of riding it was a fantastic experience and it was easy to overlook the little things by the sheer brilliance of everything else. Would I buy one? Right now it doesn’t fit the bill as an everyday bike for me, largely for the complete lack of luggage options makes it a bad value proposition to me personally. That and the price would keep me away, but if you can afford it without cringing and you don’t ride every day or don’t mind a backpack it might be perfect for you. In a few years when I have some spare change I could definitely see one as a second bike in my garage.

Both Ducatis sound better off the bike when someone else is riding them, than when you are actually on them yourself. The engine is just a utilitarian lump at the end of the day, but the ultimate deal breaker on both bikes that I simply couldn’t ignore is that they were both on fire.

At first I thought it was just the Multistrada but as I was riding back the XDiavel was even worse with the heat through the seat being so bad that the heat rash had me itching. And this was a pretty cool winter’s day, can you imagine how it would be in the summer?

Combine the extreme and literal seat of the pant heat with the crazy money that these two bikes are selling for and the fact that I just didn’t feel that special riding them the overall experience has left me yearning for a german.

It makes me wonder if I am ever lucky enough to drive both an Audi R8 and Lamborghini Gallardo if I’ll walk away with the same impression that the Lambo is just overpriced Italian exotica while the german Audi is the better car, even with the identical underpinnings.

 

Rise of the Triad

I’ve never been a huge BMW fan. Whether motorcycles or cars. I would just always find something else that ticked the boxes better or was simply more appealing overall.

Aside from the K1200/1300S, which let’s face it is nothing but a Honda Blackbird clone, I’ve never even been inclined to test ride one.

Let’s be honest, affordability has also always been a concern. Especially with their cars, the ones I do like were simply beyond affordable, so not even worth talking about. Now that I’m older and wiser, the bikes are at least reasonable.

Then came 2015 and BMW just seems to be on the money with rolling out bikes that appeal to me. Beyond that I’m also pretty disillusioned with the general dealership experience in Cape Town and my BMW-riding friends keep ranting and raving about the awesome service in Apple-like fanaticism that I just needed to make a plan.

So I popped an email off to Harry Clifton at Donford Cape Town with a frankly ridiculous request to come and ride four different bikes back to back in a single day. Not only did he get back to me in exactly 56 minutes, but was also massively accommodating with my request as if it happens every day.

On the list was the R1200RS which I expected not to like for reasons of comfort and being too similar in ergonomics to my Street Triple, but is shaft driven and runs with a Boxer Twin. Next up was the S1000XR which ticked all the comfort boxes again but has a chain drive and is running an inline-four cylinder which I’ll be frank is always a soulless experience to me.

Those are the two bikes I’m genuinely interested in buying but I added the RnineT to the list just “for science” reasons, especially as riding many miles on a Triumph Thruxton of late has opened up my mind to that kind of thing. Then I also got bludgeoned into at least trying the non-Adventure 1200GS because I apparently simply have to experience it. Really, my mates do sound like the Apple fandom when it comes to singing GS praises. It is the iPhone of motorcycling apparently.

What do I really want?

I thought it best to explain what I’m looking for so that my comments regarding wants and needs or likes and dislikes tie into something a little more sensible.

I’ve gone through a Suzuki GSX-R600, then a Buell XB9SX and most recently a Triumph Street Triple R. Through all the years I kept the Buell the longest as it was the most comfortable and I had gone through the motions of purchasing luggage for it which made it all the more useful. Had it not been for an intimately physical conversation with a Mazda and the resultant mental “misalignment” with motorcycling I would probably still be riding it today.

For various reasons, some of which involves my health the Triumph has been murdering me slowly day by day for the part year with it’s very hard pitched forward into the tank seat, hard as hell suspension and general discomfort to my wrists even though the bars have been raised by 20 mm.

So my next bike is all about comfort while still retaining at least reasonably sporty undertones. Part of that comfort is the ability to carry my daily luggage on a 75 km round trip without needing to strap it to my person while also looking reasonably appropriate in doing so. If a top box wouldn’t look utterly ridiculous on a Street Triple I would have done it ages ago already.

Apart from the comfort and luggage factors I also want a Batmobile, with every possible piece of technology that is available. My friends are desperate to have me join the off-roading fold but I simply don’t see the point buying a compromised bike when realistically all my riding would still be on tar.

I would rather buy a built for the road motorcycle now and in a year or two buy a properly off-roadable bike second hand and go nuts with that, not minding so much if I crash or bend this and that.

So let’s go riding…

2016 BMW R 1200 RS

To say I was apprehensive about this one was an understatement. I compared it to my Street Triple on Cycle Ergo beforehand and it just didn’t seem like it would make much of a difference at all switching to this bike for comfort.

Walking up to it the white and blue metallic paint is quite striking because there is enough of both colours that the bike appears more blue than it does white, whereas my own bike is almost too white with only little red accents. I’ve never had a blue one before…I like this.

The bike didn’t appear overly large walking up to it, maybe just a bit longer than I’m used to because of the luggage rack fitted as standard on the back. Getting onto it though there is a hell of a lot going on in front of you and it suddenly seems rather large, bringing back nightmares of the VFR1200 which is the only bike similar to this that I rode in recent years.

Then I hit the starter button and the sideways twist from the Boxer motor almost threw me off balance. I rode a 1200GS once many moons ago, I think when they just came out with the 1200 which was still air-cooled back then and I simply didn’t remember that at all maybe because the bike was already running.

Now I loved my Buell for it’s insane torque that made it walk backwards, so the fact that this thing was doing that same thing, only sideways had me already grinning inside.

Then I pulled in the clutch…and I thought something must be broken. The RS has the lightest clutch I have EVER used on a motorcycle. When I say light I don’t mean “less heavy” I mean basically there is no resistance at all, it’s like operating the lever on your toaster, not a clutch on what is essentially heavy machinery.

One of my biggest comfort issues is related to the clutch action making my hand and wrist seize which leads to me often just going clutch-less as much as possible to avoid using it.

So off I went down the driveway and waiting for traffic to turn into the road I realised this is probably the lowest bike of this kind I’ve ever ridden. I was happily putting both feet down and although catching the foot beg slightly with my boot (as I do with all BMW’s it seems) I was immediately in my comfort zone with this bike.

Down the road and doing a quick U-turn towards Hout Bay I wasn’t even a hundred metres away from the dealership before I was asking myself how on earth this thing is so comfortable when it shouldn’t be and started waiting for the penny to drop.

Granted the seat to peg distance does scrunch your legs up a little bit, definitely much more so than on the XR which has you sitting quite squarely, but it’s by no means uncomfortable or even noticeable short of direct comparison. The biggest surprise however was the ratio of my torso to the handlebars and that I didn’t even feel slightly strained in my lower back, upper back, shoulders or my wrists. I think it all comes down to the seat being so low that in essence the bars are higher than you expect, while also being so plush that your ass really doesn’t have anything to complain.

The bike has I think four different seat options adding more height or sportiness by tilting you forward into the tank. Personally unless my legs were to become uncomfortable over time I don’t see why I would opt for any of the others as that would then throw out the ass to handlebar ratio and cause a different concern.

Where the XR holds you firmly in place and is therefore more comfortable in the moment, the RS allows you to move around the seat a little bit. Someone commented that on the long road that’s exactly what you want as sitting in one place can get tedious. Again it wasn’t a complaint, just something I noticed comparing the two.

Pulling away from the robots (as we call them down here) that beautiful clutch action was working it’s magic, but since this bike was fitted with Gear Shift Assist Pro (aka BMW Quickshifter) I figured it’s time to forego that and see what happens. Looking down at the LCD dash display the gear indicator actually shows you a little arrow when going above 3000 rpm to indicate that you can now use Shift Assist…and so I did.

Let’s be honest, it’s not as smooth at lower revs and doesn’t work quite as well as on the 4-cylinder XR but it’s still pure magic compared to the unpredictable Triumph unit I had used recently. The Triumph one would often cut out the engine but then not change resulting in a sort of false neutral, whereas the BMW either works every single time or simply doesn’t do anything at all.

The true beauty of Shift Assist Pro is the Pro part though which allows you to down shift as well. Simply close the throttle as you would normally and pop the foot lever down, the bike does all the rev matching for you and bam you’ve gone from 4 to 3 and 2 to 1 on the LCD in front of you without the bike even dipping it’s head.

Obviously you need to pull the clutch in if you were heading for a complete stop, but the really useful part of the system is that you can just keep leaning hard on the brakes while smashing down the gearbox. Even better is that unlike an automatic car for instance this is completely optional. If you feel like doing it all yourself one day you just carry on as normal and ignore the Shift Assist system, unlike a car where a clutch level isn’t going to magically appear at your left foot.

The higher you rev it the smoother it shifts and I know many people don’t get the point, especially those adept at clutch-less shifting. Sure it’s probably only a little bit faster than doing it by hand but the real benefit is that it happens so smoothly. Further more this being a touring bike odds are you’ll have a passenger on the back and for that reason alone I would definitely opt-in for Shift Assist to reduce the usual helmet bashing, or possibly eliminate it all together.

Being able to shift both up and down without using the clutch also makes those leisurely one handed throttle-only rides an absolute pleasure. Yes yes I know we are supposed to keep all hands on deck at all times to keep the cops happy, but I’m sure we all do the left hand on hip right hand on throttle action at least once on our way home.

Amongst all this faffing with the gearbox though I simply couldn’t miss the megaton of torque that this 1170cc motor knocks out. In fact if you want to get serious and look at the numbers it’s pushing out 125 Nm @ 6800 rpm which is 12 Nm more than it’s S1000RR superbike sister in law at much lower revs, while not being far behind the almighty Ducati Panigale 1299. Without Googling a dyno chart I can also tell you with seat-of-the-pants surety that most of that torque happens just above idle in true Diesel-power fashion.

I’m sure the Boxer die hards know all about it, but anyone else that is uninitiated like I was before this ride need to make a plan and go ride a Boxer based BMW. Any of them will do the job.

At this point as I was heading up Table Mountain the bike was incredibly composed for such a seemingly large beast. It feels much bigger than it really is, probably more for me personally as I’m not used to having big windscreens and fairing mounted mirrors and such any more.

The mirrors sit far forward and are the widest point of the bike, unless you have the optional panniers fitted. Because of this my usual chicken wing style “will my elbows fit through that gap” style of measurement doesn’t exactly apply and because it wasn’t my bike I wasn’t going to chance too much lane splitting just yet.

Hitting a few curves up Kloof Nek the bike and I were immediately in tune with one another and leaning it all the way over while passing cars wasn’t even a thought pattern but rather an instinctive action.

Going over and down the hill on the other side I got stuck in some single lane traffic. I was a little liberal with the rear brake on my approach which had a sudden kickback action presumably from the ABS although I didn’t see the light come on. I must say it’s a genuine pleasure and a surprise to find a properly sized rear brake level on a bike that isn’t trying to hide under the engine and big enough for any size boot to lever comfortably.

While I was chilling in traffic and not wanting to cross any solid lines I took the time to mess around with the dashboard and the various electronic suspension and throttle settings. I must say as a BMW-n00b I’m still not quite sure if i was doing it right and tried every variety of long pressing or holding buttons to make stuff happen. I’m sure with genuine ownership and a manual in hand it would be a simple thing to get used to though.

I was under the impression that only Dynamic suspension mode actually changed anything dynamically so I spent most of my time in that mode as I felt it a little silly to have all this fancy suspension and then not use it. Then you might as well just use a spanner with conventional stuff. Turns out the Road mode is also fully dynamic and that Dynamic should actually translate to “sporty” where it’s just a bit more sensitive and adjusts itself much quicker to your surroundings.

Oddly I knew Dynamic was the more sporty option with throttle input so why I didn’t apply that logic to the suspension is beyond me. So I put it all in Dynamic mode and was soon free of the cars holding me up as I hit the beautifully sunny and surprisingly wind free coast.

By this time I was pretty settled in with the bike and so I gave it horns around the twisty bits. I can honestly say this is the safest and most comfortable I have ever felt on any bike at such a pace. On one hand I want to say that it always felt faster than it really was, yet at the same time it’s also deceptively quick. I think it’s more about the surprising lean angles at speed, rather than the speeds themselves.

At some point I was leaning it all the way over when I thought to myself “hmm…this thing has massive cylinder heads sticking out the side” and so I looked down to find what seemed positively dangerous to me. Needless to say it’s a false alarm and having a chat with the folks on the R1200RS Forums it sounds like nobody really puts their engines cases down short of actually crashing the bike, so it must just be a top down perception thing.

I was having such a ball that I smashed right past my usual stop for taking photos and just missioned onwards straight in and out of Hout Bay again spotting some unbranded Porsches (apparently they are testing the 718’s down here) but they sadly turned the other way so there was no fun to be had.

Again I was stuck in some horrendous traffic, but instead of trying to make a break past them I took it as a good opportunity to see what the bike is like in the real world. I’m happy to say that you can go as low in the revs as you dare and it pulls perfectly without any surging or dips in torque. The throttle is also smooth as silk and there are no surprises. Sure the Shift Assist doesn’t work at all with low revs, but I never found myself unaware of that and just rode accordingly.

Parking off for a quick picture my first thought was that this bike stands incredibly upright on it’s stand. In Cape Town the wind is a major worry and although the thing fortunately has a centre-stand I still find it a little ridiculous. I see the guys on the forum also complain about this so maybe with enough moaning BMW will issue a recall. Parking against a slight incline it could throw itself over by just starting it.

Having a quick walk around while taking pictures I just noticed so many little quality details. From those little wings in the flanks of the half fairing to just the way the multi piece tank is put together and the way the bolts are used as a feature instead of being hidden away. Everything has a serious quality feel about it. Pushing the windscreen up and down feels rock solid and I left it in the upright touring position before I set off again.

Making a very questionable u-turn I then almost saw my arse on a bloody acorn of all things. This is where the height comes into play. Were it a taller bike like the XR which I can ride quite happily but struggle with in these manoeuvres I might very well have found myself on my bike looking at the clouds contemplating the very large amount of money I would need to pay BMW to fix it. Meanwhile it was simply a minor “oopsie” and off I went again.

Putting the bike in Road mode for both throttle and suspension I definitely felt it was a bit softer but not in a wallowing kind of way. This would happily make for my default mode every day as the throttle is also just a little bit more docile and everything just gets soaked up in a little less frantic manner.

Throughout the experience of riding I can’t say I noticed anything different with regards to the shaft drive. Needless to say anyone worried about going for the shaft should just be more than happy about the lack of maintenance and have nothing else to fear. If anything the complete lack of drivetrain response came to the fore with the XR I rode after, but more on that later.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I realised that I hadn’t tied up my helmet, which is very rare for me as I’m very methodical safety first kind of guy. Probably got distracted with excited or chatting to the guys at the dealership. It was the perfect excuse to try out the cruise control though, something I still haven’t really felt the need for on bikes. I’m piss poor at balancing a bike hands free, but having the throttle stay on makes all the difference and it was quite easy steering it with my legs while fastening my lid. The cruise control controls (<<tricky one there) were a little more confusing than what I recently used on the Triumph Tiger but worked well once I figured it out.

Sadly I didn’t really hit any proper highway with the bike so can’t really comment on it’s touring ability, but being used to no wind protection whatsoever it was a whisper quiet experience behind that screen. I would imagine it will offer a fair bit of protection for the rain as well, especially around the leg area.

Enough faffing about with Road modes it was back to Dynamic as I approached the famous (to us Capies at least) De Waal drive and by now I was hammering every gear home with Shift Assist and back down again as required. The bike feels smaller and more agile the faster you go and nothing like the tank that is the VFR1200. I could happily see myself riding this all day long with a huge smile on my face, hoping for the road to go ever onwards.

Getting back to the dealership I still found it hard to quantify my experience as the numbers still didn’t add up…I should be unhappy and sore from being uncomfortable, yet I was refreshed and ready for more.

I’m not one to give anything 10/10. In fact not having endless moans and complaints even about things I really like is unusual. Yet with the RS I find it hard to find anything that I would consider a deal breaker…absolutely nothing comes to mind apart from nobody giving it to me for free.

Superbly comfortable, great diesel torque engine with loads of flair and soul, brilliant gearbox with the best clutch I’ve ever used and beyond all else a pretty good price too. I guess if I need to moan about something it would be the LCD display that wasn’t all that great in sunlight, but after the fact I’ve heard there are a few different display options that might sort that out as well.

Ultimately, as with all things motorcycling it comes down to price. The R1200RS is R176 000 after the R/$ plummet adjustment which is still a good deal considering we get pretty much fully specced bikes in SA for less than the base models elsewhere. Gear Shift Assist Pro will cost you another R5500 and the Top Box + Panniers will be in the region of R15k. So for less than R200k you have pretty much everything you could ever need and I think that’s a pretty damn good deal.

Don’t piss your money away on keyless go nonsense, rather use it as a “discount” for the Navigation which will be infinitely more useful. Sorry I don’t know how much that costs, but regardless it still makes more sense than not having a key…but still having a key which you need to carry on your person and will inevitably lose.

In conclusion, if this is the type of bike you are looking for, or even if it isn’t, you need to do yourself a favour and go test ride one. For me personally it’s pretty much perfect.

2015 BMW S1000XR

Although I was apprehensive about the chain drive and not being the biggest fan of inline-fours I expected those to become a distant memory as like most people I don’t mind a megaton of power on my bikes and on paper it seemed to tick all the comfort boxes.

It’s also not very pretty in a conventional sense, but does have a sort of weird Transformers like appeal to it. If anything, it’s at least different.

Having also read and watched every review I could find on the bike beforehand, people appear to be blown away by it and generally found to edge out the Multistrada based more on preference than anything else.

So it was a little odd to find that the more and more exposure I had to the bike the less and less I liked it, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

Jumping on, and I mean that literally, since it’s fricken tall and you can’t really mount it like a horse as you would with the GS, the first thing that I noticed was that the clutch is cable based instead of hydraulic as on the RS.

Now it being cable isn’t a real issue if it worked properly, but it does leave me with a sense of lower quality and questioning WHY? Thing is it doesn’t work properly either, the action is very stiff and maybe it needed some adjustment but after getting to the friction point it would have a centimetre or so to travel still before hitting the stop.

Sure you’ll argue as with the RS what does the clutch really matter if you are have a factory fitted Shift Assist Pro system (same as the optional for the RS) but the thing is inevitably you get stuck in traffic staying in the same gear where you end up feathering the clutch the whole time and that becomes very tedious very quickly if the clutch is fighting you.

The further I went the more and more the clutch was a painful reminder and a pain in my ass. Especially once you start realising that the engine comes out of a superbike and is therefore quite gutless as low revs and makes all it’s power at the top. This is what made the Boxer in the RS so lovely is that super low down torque which is non-existent here.

Anyway out of the dealership I went and needing to stop for traffic again the immediate reminder of the height of this thing is apparent. Truth be told it was actually better than I expected but much like the 800GS I rode recently the super wide footpegs do make for some exciting times until you adjust the way you put your foot down. I say foot because in most cases putting it in first and dropping your left foot is your best bet. Yeah, you could tip toe on both feet but ultimately that’s more unstable in most situations.

Pulling away the comfortable seat is quite apparent and the leg to seat ratio has you sitting almost square legged. As I said before, the seat does have a tendency to hold you very firmly in place which isn’t everyone cup of tea. I suspect it this was done very much on purpose because when you open her up you need every bit of resistance to hold you in your seat when those 160 horses try to buck you off.

Immediately however I noticed that the bike seems quite cramped. Moving onto the balls of my feet I was standing on the heat shield of the exhaust and later trying to “Meerkat” (this is a pretend offroad bike after all) I found it very odd standing up with the various bits getting in the way of your feet. Sitting here now I recall the rear brake lever also irritating me for some reason but I can’t even begin to remember why, right now.

Being irritated by the clutch and by now quite familiar with Shift Assist I used that immediately and I must say it does work much better on the XR. Not to say it doesn’t work well on the RS in isolation, but compared directly there is definitely a smoother shift with the XR across all rev ranges. Oddly the XR doesn’t have an indication on screen of when to shift which seemed a little strange all things considered this being the “superbike” of the two.

There is an awesome burp from the exhaust when closing throttle at lower speeds and it quickly became quite addictive to do this on purpose, in traffic. In general the engine isn’t really all that great when stuck in the aforementioned. I found myself constantly on the clutch trying to find reasonable power, it’s either too much power or too little torque. Although torque is only marginally less than the RS at 116 Nm it peaks at just over 3000 revs higher at 9,250 rpm and feels like it just about starts there too.

Suspension is the same dynamically electronic system as in the RS but seems to have slightly longer travel I guess for that pseudo-offroad GS feeling they were going after. The problem here is that it seems to be sporty while also being soft at the same time. I found a lot of fork dive when suddenly getting on the brakes which makes for what seems to be a lot more unstable experience over the on rails notion of the RS. Some people will call that exciting, personally I find it a little rude but then again I’m apparently an old man now. The bike almost felt like it had a flat tyre (it didn’t I checked) and I won’t go so far as saying I didn’t trust it, but it just doesn’t feel like the engine is matched very well to the chassis…which it really isn’t otherwise more people would build weird bikes like these.

I can’t say I felt a massive difference between the Road and Dynamic suspension modes here and riding the exact same roads I felt it was harder but wallowing a bit more. Throttle wise they should just rename Dynamic to Satanic because it’s absolutely mental. As I said previously that seat was probably designed to keep you on the bike because when you rev it out you really need to prepare yourself and brace against the monstrous power that gets unleashed. Being a superbike engine the 160hp happens at 11,000 rpm but it’s more the slight shot effect from about 7,000 rpm that catches you off guard. There is just this sudden rush of power out of nowhere almost as if it’s turbo driven and if you aren’t prepared for that you might find yourself on the tar with the bike soldiering on by itself.

Which brings me back to the main reason I just didn’t like the experience. The engine just doesn’t seem to match the style of the chassis and the two seem to be fighting each other. I can only think that the people raving about this bike are used to the relatively low-powered GS (in comparison) and therefore bowled over by the madness. Personally I think it doesn’t make a very good GS and at the same time isn’t a great superbike so I ask myself why not just buy a GS if you wanted that or an S1000RR if you want a superbike.

Back to comfort I simply couldn’t acclimatize to the high bars. Yes I’m not used to those and I had a similar experience on the Triumph Tiger, where my arms go numb and the usual lower back paid simply moves up to mid/high back pain and climbs right into my shoulder blades. Maybe in time that would change, but I very much doubt it. Either I’m too short in the upper body and therefore incompatible, or the bike itself just isn’t quite right. Also, this overly upright position is exactly why the crazy horsepower just doesn’t work as you always end up clenching yourself to the bike instead of relaxing which may be exactly why I find my upper back not complying.

The buzz is real! I thought people were maybe just being sensitive in reviews but I can now fully agree that the buzzing through the bars is just insane and very very irritating even just riding through urban areas. I can only imagine it will be a hell of a lot worse on the open read and would be a serious deal breaker. Further to this the vibration from the chain drive was so crazy coming up through the seat that at certain revs I felt like I might pee myself. Maybe it all comes back to the engine being in the wrong frame and just not coping wel with lower speeds?

Much like a Honda Civic Type-R this bike feels like it just wants to be at 100% all the time and when it’s not, well it sucks pretty badly.

On a more positive note I liked the clocks and LCD display on this much more so than the RS. There is just less going on and so it’s much easier to read and find your way towards information. Between the two the tacho is swopped for the speedo, so on the XR you have a large rev counter with a digital speed readout which is my preference.

The windscreen does the job I guess. I’m not really an authority on these things but it did seem somewhat “flappy” compared to the RS. Overall actually the quality just doesn’t seem quite there with the XR. I can’t put my finger on it exactly but it just doesn’t feel as solid which when considering the price of R 218 000 doesn’t really make it seem like a very good deal.

It seems to be priced exactly in the same ballpark as the Multistrada locally but even though I haven’t ridden that yet I’m not quire sure it can compete. Yes on paper the Multistrada is lacking a quickshifter but also comes with Keyless ride, which granted nobody needs) and has a trick up it’s sleeve with cornering lights. The Multistrada also has some optional nice to haves like the tank bag with USB integration for you iPhone which also talks to the bike through an app. On paper the Multistrada has DVT and is already a Twin which should sort out the low end grunt problem I had with the XR.

Overall then I have to say that I didn’t like it very much and it went from my most likely to purchase assumption to “do not want” very quickly. Just shows you not to judge a book by it’s cover but at the same time I’ve also learnt that a quick test ride doesn’t always tell you the whole story.

I’ll come back to this one after riding the Multistrada somewhere in April, but the XR certainly isn’t the bike for me and I’m not convinced it’s the best choice in this class if you absolutely have to have this kind of thing.

2015 BMW RnineT

The first thing you realise about the RnineT is just how small it is compared to the other two. It’s not that the chassis itself is smaller but there is just less protruding everywhere and the ass has pretty much been chopped off. Well not chopped off…it was never there to begin with. The rear end of the bike is pretty much a seat floating on an almost invisible metal strut.

So much like my Buell, it’s a BMX with a massive engine then…and that makes it awesome.

By and large it’s the “old” aircooled version of the same Boxer engine fitted to the RS and GS and many other S’s this time in a 1170cc configuration pushing out 110 hp at a low 7,500 rpm.

Who cares about horses though? It’s a 119 Nm at 6,000 rpm that makes it truly spectacular. I thought the RS had an interesting torque twist when you started it, but this one takes the cake. First it tries to throw itself off the stand when it fires up, but I swear when you pull away from a standing stop while turning it even pulls slightly to the side. That’s by no means a complaint, I love it for that.

It makes a gorgeous noise and out of the three it is the one that I didn’t feel needed any help to sound better. Then I did some reading and found out the stock pipes are actually unbranded Akrapovic’s which explains all that. Why can’t they just do that with all bikes? Or better yet just sell them with no pipes from the factory and let you choose one on order, since the stock ones are really just a waste of money and metal in most cases.

Unlike just about every other BMW or modern bike for that matter there are no electronics here. Short of basic ABS, gone are the traction control, ride modes and electronic suspension gizmos. There’s no shift assistance either but you do get a rather large gear indicator on the screen in front of you.

It’s just you and the RnineT…for better or worse.

Which means out of the three bikes here this was the most fun to ride because there is that little bit of safety net (or lack there of) fear that leaves everything in your hands and demands that you pay attention. Not that I ever felt unsafe, but you know you get used to these things and take them for granted.

It’s hard to compare this with anything as there aren’t many like it. If anything I decided to ride this bike because I spent a lot of time on a similar, yet nothing alike, Triumph Thruxton recently which opened my mind to this kind of thing.

I like the RnineT more than the Thruxton for the reason that it’s a modern bike with retro styling, whereas the Thruxton is pretty much an old bike in the modern world with some technological compromises.

The R9 has modern upside-down forks, a shaft drive and proper fuel injection with presumably ride-by-wire throttle as well. It’s modern and fresh for all things but it’s styling and even that isn’t really old or classic just a throwback to a different era. It has proper brakes too with dual discs in front…where the Triumph can’t do math.

As spartan as the clocks and controls might be there is really everything you might need, with large tachometer and speedometer around a subtle digital display that has luxuries like a fuel gauge, gear indicator and the usual trip and odometer readings. Warning lights are sort of hidden away above the display but clearly visible when lit up…unlike the Thruxton where they are near invisible all of the time.

More than anything though it’s modern for having simple every day should be on every bike things like a normal ignition with built-in steering lock and a normal petrol cap that uses a key to protect your petrol, both of which are lacking on the Thruxton for being retro (and foolish).

Controls are equally bare bones for the lack of electronics since you don’t need all those buttons to control something that isn’t there.

Pulling away from the shop I noted the clutch is quite heavy but being hydraulic it’s nowhere as bad as the XR’s unit and really is only heavy by virtue of the RS’s being feather light. Obviously now I needed to do all the shifting myself and so I noticed that the gearbox does take a bit of effort through the gears but is precise and sure footed. I don’t want to say clunky, but it can be a bit noisy.

For the lack of shift assist I tried a few clutchless efforts, but I must say it takes very precise timing otherwise that twisting torque does throw you off course a little bit and I think for this type of bike it’s hardly necessary.

Sitting in the shop I felt the bike might be a bit uncomfortable as the reach to the bars is quite forward but once you get going none of this was an issue. If anything this being the third bike in a row I expected to be hurting by now but all three BMW’s treated me well and this being the most uncomfortable of the three I was still riding quite happily and without strain.

Burning it through corners it was the most fun I had all day. The bike was pretty much built for short jaunts like these around the coast. There is no wind protection at all, but that adds to the visceral nature of this bike and makes it feel faster than you are really going. Sure I wouldn’t want to take it on any long distance trips but if this was all you had in the garage then it would do that quite happily as well I’m sure.

Suspension is sporty but comfortable. I hit a few pot holes and bumps in the road and they made themselves known but at the same time you can hit a speed bump at speed and hardly take notice any notice of it, something that my Street Triple fails at miserably. If you want to learn how to get your knee down this will probably be one of the best bikes for that as you sit almost cruiser low but without the usual cruiser compromise in handling. Riding with jeans only I almost wished I had put my full leathers on for the day so I could give it a try.

At the same time it’s not a bike that I feel you need to get off of to go around corners. You can just drop your shoulder under spirited riding and you are good as gold…or just sit right in your seat and counter steer it. It’s a very easy bike to ride at pace and have major fun on, I was smiling all the way even with the wind coming up.

BMW are embracing the Harley Davidson lifestyle approach to bikes with this one by offering a multitude of customization options. Essentially they want every bike to look different and have it’s own personality. For that reason you are paying a premium for styling on this one as the sum of it’s parts don’t quite add up.

I know it’s somewhat unfair to compare the RnineT to the Thruxton which is a much cheaper bike, but it’s my only point of reference. I think the Ducati Xdiavel which I should ride soon enough will be the closest rival in specification, but at the same time it will also be much more expensive.

So at R162, 990 the RnineT is in it’s own price class compared to other manufacturers and it doesn’t seem like very good value for money compared to the RS at R175,750 from the same stable which comes with a whole lot more bells and many more whistles. Yet at the same time it’s going to be a very particular customer who wants this kind of thing and I think the money will be somewhat irrelevant to them because the heart wants what the heart wants.

For me personally it doesn’t work as a primary bike, as it doesn’t tick all my day to day boxes, but I would LOVE to have one as a second or third bike in a few years. Probably off the second hand market when the price makes a bit more sense to my pocket for a lesser used vehicle.

The BMW Donford Cape Town Experience

I can only liken it to my Harley Davidson experiences from back in the day when I owned a Buell and even though I was treated like a Black Sheep amongst those folk I never felt like a number.

The last few years my dealership experience from all the different brands have been somewhat lacking. Either you walk in and have to beg for service, or you send an email and never get a response.

Then when you actually want to ride the bikes they either aren’t available or you need to wait for them and it’s like they are doing you a favour. Some of them don’t even bother to come talk to you even if you help yourself and sit on the bikes in store and it’s not like they didn’t notice you…they looked you in the eye when buzzing you in the door. I’ll never own a certain orange bike from pseudo-Germany for this reason.

Harry Clifton from Donford Cape Town responded to my email in exactly 56 minutes from sending it and included an extremely positive response. I rocked up and it took a few minutes to get the first bike ready and the others were all there waiting for me as I got back from each ride.

The dealership itself is large and every single person who works there is pleasant to chat to and not once was I ignored. At the same time they also weren’t overbearing trying to sell me something which is usually the dark side of customer service. It’s very obvious to me that the staff have received proper training.

Although the coffee shop inside the dealership is a little too hipster lifestyle for me I’m getting older and starting to embrace this kind of thing. I sat down and had a quick lunch after the XR ride and it was a lovely experience being surrounded by bikes and motorcycling culture. Oddly I’m sure a number of people in the coffee shop have never ridden bikes in their lives…so maybe BMW is on to something there.

If I would change anything about the test rides it would have maybe been to have a bit of education around the controls of the two more complex bikes. I guess most of their customers aren’t new to BMW’s so this isn’t really a usual concern.

Both the staff in store and my friends have also stated that courtesy bikes when coming for a service should never be a problem. Something I haven’t experienced in a long time and would be a welcome “feature”. BMW owners seem to generally be the types who ride every single day and they understand this other than other dealers that think you can do without your bike for extended periods.

So what happened to the GS? Well by the end of the day I was running a bit short on time as well as energy. I had a look at the various GS’s on the floor and took a seat here and there and realised that I wouldn’t buy the Trophy because it doesn’t have Batmobile features and quite frankly I’ve never liked the look of the GS so I know I won’t actually ever buy one unless I get offroad mad.

To appease the GS-fanboys I will however go ride a GS should I decide to take the plunge on an RS later in the year. I’ll actually go ride the RS again too just to be absolutely damn sure.

It’s the little details that make all the difference, such as finding the side-stand on all three bikes I rode with the first try. The multitude of seating options or just being height adjustable and configurable. Customer service that has so far been truly spectacular and above all else people taking you seriously and treating you like a genuine buyer.

BMW as a whole have me convinced. I’m ready to join the cult and become a skinhead.

 

 

 

Italian Stallions vs The British Pony

This was actually written way back on 13 July 2015 elsewhere and I decided to post it here now. I haven’t back-dated it as it is a standalone piece.

First a little disclaimer : These three bikes are very different and therefore a direct comparison is somewhat unfair and that’s not really what I’m trying to achieve here. It’s rather a case of observations regarding each compared to the other and a lot of it might not be good or bad depending on the type of rider who it appeals to.

Also I should state that I have no real world interest in buying a Diavel and didn’t expect it to convert me in any way because even as a pipe dream it would also be a second bike kind of bike to me.

A little bit on my current bike first to tell you where I’m coming from…

2014 Triumph Street Triple R

Having had a Buell Lighting before I had a bit of “bomskok” after an accident and stopped biking for a while I’m fully converted to naked bikes with near zero interest in owning a fairinged bike of any kind least of all a superbike. I never say no to taking any bike for a spin, but I’ll never own a superbike again unless I win the Lotto and even then I’d park it in my garage and have a glass of wine with it.

Funnily enough before I even got on the Street Triple vibe I had wanted a Ducati Hyperstrada since they were first announced in early 2013 but then partly due to lacking local support and the overall price I had simply put the option out of my mind.

So out of what was left the Triumph Street Triple checked all the boxes as there was a brand new model released in 2013 with a design that finally made me really like the bike. I got the first MY2014 bike thinking that it being a new model you never take the first bikes and check out the issues first.

Although I could afford the Speed Triple it seemed like a waste of power and money since I ride every day. I would simply burn more fuel, tyres, sprockets and chains for something that maybe adds a real world 10% that I really wouldn’t use every day.

Naked check, medium sized engine check, fuel economy check, good looking check, comfort…reasonable. Luggage options…if you want anything more than a wallet and a toothbrush to go anywhere you are off to buy strap on bags or wear a backpack.

Over the last two years the comfort has become more and more of a concern. Half of it is the ridiculously sporty (super hard) suspension. Now lots of people think you simply buy the bike with the adjustable suspension and then you can soften it up for your comfort…that is not the case. You can’t make hard suspension soft without swopping the parts and that is not only an expensive adventure but more than likely will compromise the handling otherwise the manufacturer would have done it in the first place.
The other part of the comfort problem is simply the geometry. This is effectively a naked Triumph Daytona 675 superbike for all intents and purposes fitted with regular bars instead of clip-ons.

So the seat is very much the same and your grip on the tank identical, you just don’t lean as low into it as the bars sit a little bit closer. Two years later and many back pains and wrist aches later I can tell you that I might as well have bought a Daytona. Not really, I still can’t spend more than twenty minutes on a superbike without wanting to die, but you get the idea.

I fitted a 20mm riser to the bars and rotated them closer which has made a world of difference so that I actually use the clutch again and don’t have too many aches and pains too often. It actually does the job of getting to work and back without too much of an issue, it just limits me from touring or going on properly long day rides like I used to.

Let’s also not forget that I’ve gotten older and I have a hell of a lot more issues than I had 10 years ago, so it’s not all the bike’s fault.

The Triumph has a superb engine, probably the best in this class. Really, the capacity is perfect, the noise is brilliant, the power and torque are perfectly balanced. It’s really the perfect blend of Inline-4 power and Twin torque and is also surprisingly economical at 5.5-6 l/100km even when I’m smashing it.

The engine also never ever skips a beat and remains supremely reliable and predictable. I’ve had one warranty claim at 6000km from new and it was a small gasket at the front sprocket that was trickling the tiniest bit of oil. 20 000km later it hasn’t had a single drama.

At the same time that reliability and eternally predicatable nature also makes it boring. Say what you want about Harley and their motor in my Buell, but it had a soul. It was never quite the same twice but also never had any problems and always fired up and put a smile on my dial.

The 675cc Triple is pretty much like a german car. It will always do things exactly the same exactly as you expect it to do them and never have anything else to say about it, which makes it utterly soulless. It doesn’t shake or rattle and idles just like a 4-cylinder with a little bit of a vacuum cleaner induction noise when you rev it up.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a brilliant bike any way you look at it, but I think my needs have changed while the bike is still just doing exactly what it has always done.

2015 Ducati Hyperstrada

So two years on and I find myself looking at the same bike I did three years before when I first started thinking about getting back into the biking game again after taking a short break.

The Hyperstrada is the exact same thing as the Hypermotard and just defines the standard touring kit. So it comes with a different seat, proper windscreen, soft panniers, raised bars and a centre stand. All the parts can be fitted to a standard Hypermotard if you like and vice versa.

It claims to be a big bike motard, duh it has motard in the name. The Hyperstrada is just more of the comfort and touring sales pitch of the same thing. Now apart from my Buell which also claimed to be a pseudo-motard I’ve had little to no experience with these kinds of bikes that I can recall.

Needless to say then I expect it to be very similar to my Buell…what a shocker when it wasn’t.

Getting on the bike it’s firstly really damn tall…especially when you try to dodge the panniers to get on. I had checked the spec sheet beforehand and there’s only meant to be 5mm seat height difference between my Street Triple and the Hyper but in the real world that translates very differently.

Then the part where it gets weird is that you sit on..where you expect the tank to be. Normally I’m used to having the tank in front of me and gripping around it. In this case there is no normal “tank” in front of me and it’s all flat with me holding onto the frame instead.

It’s a bizarre feeling as if I’m sitting on the front wheel and that part is much like my Buell where you lean forward and see the front wheel touching the ground in front of you, but the main difference here is that it feels like the windscreen will klap you in the face if you just lean slightly forward.

As strange as it is, it’s an incredibly commanding position and I found myself quite at home within a few kilometres and also immediately knew why these motard okes want to put their leg down to shift their weight because it seems much more natural to do that than shift your ass off the seat.

However I did have a problem moving off as the freeplay in the throttle wasn’t at all to my liking and I would adjust that out immediately should my own bike have that problem and the clutch was biting way too far out. I get incredible wrist pain very quickly riding like that so the Triumph has been adjusted to start releasing within a centimetre or so from the grip.

One also tends to forget that over two years your own bike has been perfect adjusted little by little for your needs. Suspension is perfect (as can be) and all the other bits have either been setup for you or you’ve adjust to them perfectly over time.

So it took a bit of doing to get my shifts right nicely and the bike being virtually brand new certainly didn’t help. Never had a problem with the gearbox not working as expected but it’s not as defined and clicky as my Triumph or other sportier bikes which I would prefer actually.

I hated having a gear indicator on the Triumph at first as it was quite distracting…and here I find myself moaning about the fact that the Ducati doesn’t have one. It also doesn’t have a fuel gauge but only a fuel light. Neither are deal breakers, but it just shows how you get used to the little comforts in life.

The 841cc motor in the Duc is very tricky to define. It’s extremely linear so you don’t really feel the power through the rev range and then get massive surprise when you look down and check the speedo only to realise you are way past illegal. Looking down is also an odd problem, as I feel with my STR I look forward and down still seeing the road and now I have to look straight down to see the dash.

Which is also why I found myself thinking that the “touring” windscreen wasn’t do jack ****, until I looked down and saw I was doing 170, this while sitting bolt upright in supreme comfort. On my STR with no real windscreen to speak of, more of a cosmetic trimming in front, when I get to 150 it becomes hard work and 170 is just downright uncomfortable.

The seat is a catch 22. It’s a terrifically comfortable thing and does a superb job of holding you in place. However, this also means you aren’t moving anywhere but at the same time with the windscreen right in your face you don’t really have anywhere to go. For me personally it was superb, but big/smaller guys might not find it as accomodating. I suspect the Hypermotard will offer you more options in this regard though and really if need be you could probably put that seat on the ‘Strada or choose one of the other optional seats.

Suspension wise I took some purposely familiar roads with known bad patches and also some speed bumps I’m quite familiar with. I clocked a speedbump I normally take in 1st on the STR in 3rd on the Hyper and it was pretty comfortable whereas normally I would be clamping down to fight the hard bumps.

Another catch 22 is that the front suspension isn’t adjustable. Not at all from what I could see while the rear has preload and either rebound or compression settings but not both. Preload is with an auxiliary adjuster as well so you can easily tune it for luggage or a passenger which is nice. Now on one hand I would feel that I need to be able to setup my suspension, but at the same time if the stock suspension works for me why worry. At the same time I feel that if it is adjustable you just end up worrying about it and never quite getting it right, whereas in this case you simply deal with it and move along. So while I do find it a bit odd, especially on a machine of this calibre, it’s not going to stop me from buying one.

I specially asked to have the panniers fitted for the demo so I could see how hard they are to handle in traffic. Well…I forgot they were there and my mate claims I never really came seriously close to hitting anyone with them. Reason I worried is because they are the widest point and peak out about 10cm from the bars I reckon. Obviously I didn’t have luggage with me so I can’t comment on how they affect weight and handling when loaded up. Sadly they don’t lock in a normal latch setup but come with pinlocks to connect the zippers together. Not ideal but at the same time similar to what I used on my Buell. I wouldn’t leave it overnight like but short stints would be fine and they do clip off easily enough and do lock to the bike itself.

Personally though one of the big reasons I want this particular bike is because it has a factory Topbox setup. Something I’ve always wanted to have but was never willing to compromise a bike for. In this case they look like they belong and therefore my day to day riding would simply be with the Topbox to put my laptop bag in and when I get to work take my jacket and helmet off and swop the two. No more having to do a plie through turnstiles or carrying your kit with you everywhere. Jeez I could probably go buy Sushi and get it home in one piece.

I quickly went home to show my wife the bike and even with her and baby on the back it still felt like there was more than enough room. Look I took a Buell, probably the shortest bike in the world, touring with two people and luggage before so probably not the best judge there. But I think even with the Top box fitted it’s been thought out well with grab rails and everything. Normally my wife complains that the footpegs are set too far backward forcing her to lean forward, but she was quite happy in this case. Even as the rider I didn’t once consider the footpegs which means they didn’t bother me at all.

About the only thing I could complain about ergonomically is that the normal footrest and the centre stand tend to overlap each other and therefore getting the stand out was pretty tricky. That being said I struggled with my Triumph stand for weeks as well so I’m sure ownership would change that in time.

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention were the electronics and riding modes. Firstly in typical Italian fashion some of it was needlessly complex…so much so that I still don’t know how to reset the fuel economy trip meter…and neither did the salesperson. Changing between the modes is simple enough and you click the indicator button to jump through them and then hold it for three seconds to select. You can do it while riding but you need to have the throttle closed and brakes off.

Speaking of the indicator switch I had an incredibly hard time on both bikes to know if I had pressed it or not and needed to look down every time to make sure that it was in fact on. It might be partly because the light isn’t in my peripheral vision but I think it’s genuinely the case of the action being too soft and lacking a definite click. It wasn’t ever not on though, so maybe it’s more sensitive than I think and won’t be a real world problem.

The riding modes are Urban, Touring and Sport. Effectively Urban = Rain and limits you to 75hp and puts the ABS and Traction on super sensitive mode. I didn’t even bother using this. Touring is meant to be the middle ground day to day mode with full power but more restrained power delivery and normal level of ABS and Traction. Sport is balls to the wall mode with sharper throttle and although ABS and TCS remain on they are much lower. I’ll be honest and say I really couldn’t’ feel the difference between Sport and Touring. And although I didn’t track the bike or go completely nuts with it I did a number of purposeful hard stops and also accidental ham fisting of the throttle due to the freeplay as well as just dropping the clutch and not once did the TCS or ABS intervene.

My Triumph also has ABS and I’ve only ever managed to activate it using the rear brake when getting a little too frisky. I think for a new rider these things will probably play a paramount role but as someone who has done this in excess of twelve years now on a myriad of different bikes my self-preservation is well and truly in place to ride properly. That being said I’m not trying to say you don’t need them…one of the reason I want this bike is for the ABS and the new addition of traction control because the day that I do make a mistake I want it to be a non-event.

Stock the bike doesn’t sound terrible but it certainly doesn’t sound amazingly awesome either. It sounds great coming past you, just much more subdued when you are riding it yourself. The big problem here is that the Termignoni pipe you really want to put on there costs R24000. Yup that’s not a mistake. And sure there are other options…but they just aren’t quite the same.

Overall I was immensely impressed with the bike and it ticks all the boxes that I want right now. I still question myself whether it’s worth holding onto the STR for another year and then buy a Multistrada, but then much like the Speed Triple all over again I ask myself if that’s simply too much bike for my purposes. Sure it has all the technology in the world but at a phenomenal price as well, even second hand. So I find myself coming back to the Hyperstrada being the logical/sensible/practical choice while still being Italian and maintaining some of that exotic flare.

2015 Ducati Diavel Carbon

You don’t ride the Devil, the Devil rides you.

That pretty much sums up the Diavel experience in one sentence. It’s an utterly unadulterated, unapologetic, balls to the wall riding experience. Actually I’m not even sure calling it a riding experience is fair, it’s more like a rollercoaster that does it’s own thing and you just happen to be holding onto it.

Let’s start at the beginning. What is a Diavel? Ducati’s official blurb says “Don’t call me a cruiser” and I tend to agree. Most people would call this a Muscle Cruiser and place it in the same segment as the Yamaha V-Max and Harley Davidson V-Rod series. Cruiser looking things with big horsepower engines that have been somewhat tuned to handle as well as they possibly can for what they are. On face value the Diavel seems exactly like them…then you ride it and realise this isn’t a Muscle Cruiser but instead it’s a Cruiser Superbike which is something altogether different.

Three things stand out about this bike that set it apart from everything else even close to this segment.

Firstly there are the looks which I will simply call…interesting. I would never call it pretty in totality but it’s most certainly unique and that gives it a certain allure. Individual parts are something to be marvelled at especially the carbon fibre bits all over this particular model. The entire look is scifi and space age with modern LED tech all over, super sexy exhaust headers with twin pipes. The front and rear end are both a little bit odd but I wouldn’t dare say ugly, but strangest of all actually sitting on the thing the view from the seat and out over the tank and bars is actually what was most pleasing to me. The seat in and of itself is a work of art, especially that carbon cover over the pillion section when not using that. Oh and the pillion footpegs…man why can’t everyone have something this sexy that completely hides itself out of the way when not in use? I wish I had taken a video or time lapse pictures of those because it’s the hottest thing on this whole bike.

Second up is that incredible 240 section rear tyre. It just looks crazy badass, they always do on any bike that runs them. But then you always assume it simply can’t go around corner…but it does…incredibly so. Granted at slow speed it’s a bit of a beast to maneuver around the neighbourhood, but this has more to do with the wide pegs which make putting your legs down “interesting” especially on painted lines. Obviously living in the real world you expect a certain kind of handling from a bike this bike that weighs 234 kg fully loaded, but even then the Diavel really surprises. The only thing I have an issue with is the Italians over engineering a problem that never existed in the first place in the shape of the number plate bracket the comes off the swingarm and also acts as a mudguard of sorts. It just looks a bit silly and in a way you expect the arse of the bike to carry this which is not just a massive blank space and partly why it looks weird, but it also blocks the view of that massive rear tyre.

Lastly there is the power. This thing runs 162hp from a superbike engine which I believe was used in the pre-Panigale 1198. Now technically the V-Max has a bit more power, but less torque, but at the same time also weighs more than a 100 kg more so that is completely negated in real world terms. It is unbelievably fast as long as you keep it above 4000rpm and manage to hold on, because there is no windscreen or any kind of aerodynamic protection to keep the world at bay. Below 4000 rpm though it tries to rattle itself apart. You could think a bike with a massive motor like this would run off idle using the clutch alone but that is not the case, get the gearing wrong and it bogs right down. In contrast the Hyperstrada would pull from just about anywhere in the revs in any gear. On the upperside of the rev range though this thing would pull the Hyperstrada at crazy speed like I mentioned earlier and because of it’s low profile and weight remains completely stable doing so with aerodynamics being the only limitation.

The seat does an excellent job of stopping you in place under acceleration much like the V-Max I’ve ridden previously, but unlike the Hyperstrada there is a bit too much motion for my liking and under braking you end up sliding forward and then back again under acceleration. Ergonomically I wasn’t exactly compatible with this bike having to stretch too far forward to manage the controls and getting especially uncomfortable under acceleration. The Nightrod Special I rode before had similar issues for me, but Harley give you a hundred options to customize your bike as part of the purchase price to sort exactly this out. The Night Rod Special had forward controls for footpegs and shifter/brake which I hated at the time but in retrospect I feel that’s exactly what the Diavel needs to make it work for me. In previous years Ducati had the Diavelstrada which was also a more touring oriented bike but now it’s missing from the website so I can’t confirm the differences, but I suspect that might be the one you would really want to be truly comfortable on the thing.

It’s aerodynamic and ergonomic issues are ultimately what make this a pure poser bike for me personally and not something I would want to ride regularly or even own in this specific form. It’s a little bit like doing a Moon Landing all over again in that it’s nothing more than a pissing contest that is utterly pointless. Especially when you consider the R258 000 price tag attached to this Carbon model.
Much like the Hyperstrada the engine sounded great when it was riding past me, but somewhat subdued and tractor-like when I was riding it myself. Again though with some pipes on I’ve heard these bikes before and they are absolutely mental. At idle it also sounds like there is a marble running around in there somewhere, but it might simply be Ducati’s timing system that I’m not used to or even the hydraulic clutch setup.

Speaking of the clutch I expected it to be super light being hydraulic but that wasn’t the case. It certainly wasn’t terrible by any means and I’m just happy that it grabbed at the right place for my liking because you can’t adjust it like a normal cable clutch. Again like the Hyperstrada the riding modes were much of a muchness to me and I never had the traction or ABS lights come on. That being said with a 162hp bike I would most definitely be using the 100hp limited Urban/Rain mode when it gets wet, or even every day for commuting as it will save some fuel as well…but then I would never own this bike so that would never happen.

Overall it was a fun and interesting experience and I think definitely something every motorcyclist should try at least once. Short of some serious modifications or the Diavel Strada model I can’t see myself ever owning one or wanting to spend serious time with it. In this price range there are a hell of a lot of options and in this particular category I would probably end up buying a Harley Davidson Night Rod Special as bizarre as that sounds to myself.

Back on the Triumph

As with all test rides of any other bike you always find yourself jumping back on your own steed and then being right at home, no matter what it was you’ve just ridden.

With my Buell this would happen time and time again where I would go ride something else thinking this is the one I’m going to buy and then I end up back on my bike and think to myself “Nope…this is still awesome”. If it wasn’t for the fact that I needed some mental time off after a crash and that Buell doesn’t exist any more I would probably still be riding that bike today.

Sadly with the Triumph this wasn’t quite the case after jumping back on. Immediately the clutch and throttle work as expected and the timing is perfect changing both up and down with throttle blips and no slipper clutch required. However it’s immediately apparent that the seat is hard as all hell and the suspension certainly doesn’t help either.

The slightly pitched forward upper body also doesn’t help things and you try your best to compromise between laying into your arms or holding yourself onto the bike with your core. So you end up sacrificing either your back or your wrists or to a lesser degree both.

In the Triumph’s defense that was after a hectic demo ride and with the Diavel being last which is more uncomfortable but in a very different way. Today riding into work it doesn’t feel all that bad and I can see myself riding the STR for as long as I need to especially if Ducati don’t play along with the trade-in that is sensible and doesn’t see me taking an unnecessary knock..

The Ducati Experience

I feel I just want to say a few things about the Ducati bike experience as a whole and also some things specific to Cape Town and trying out Ducati’s.

Regarding the bikes themselves, there is absolutely no denying that you are getting on or looking at a Ducati. Even with these two bikes being at significantly different price points they are both equally special and you feel special riding them and looking at them.

There are a hundred Ducati logos on each of them to make sure that you know it’s a Ducati. But none of them are brash or in your face and are done quite subtly just as a little token reminder. From the logo on the engine itself through to the embossed logos on the tanks and the inlay in the carbon fibre on the back of the Diavel. There are Ducati logos imbedded in the handlebar grips and machined into the aluminium protector of the panniers. Best of all when you start each of these bikes it says “Ducati” on the screen with a little animation and then swipes that away into the model you are riding. It seems like a silly thing but it really makes all the difference in adding that special Italian flair. The workmanship overall makes you understand exactly what you are paying for here (ignoring the ridiculous Italian export taxes inflating the price of course) and the little details everywhere really makes it stand apart from other brands. I look at the stitching in the real leather on the “cheap” Hyperstrada and then look at the plain piece of fake rubber pretend leather on my Triumph and it’s clear which one was paid more attention to. Heat shields along the header pipes, those beautifully engineered fold away pillion pegs on the Diavel…man just looking at the paint up close it all screams quality.

Then you get back to the shop and a new owner fires up his 899 Panigale for the first time and that “How is this even legal?” noise that erupts from the exhausts gives you goosebumps. Doesn’t matter what little detail you look at you really feel special.

There is of course this little matter of an obvious peeling sticker on a very new Diavel Carbon which is pretty sub par…

As for the shopping experience, Ducati Cape Town technically doesn’t exist. Not since Ducati South Africa folded a few years ago and was reborn under Porsche South Africa when Audi bought out Ducati as a whole.

As such they run a “satellite office” of Ducati Johannesburg through a Superbike Solutions in Somerset West which has been associated with Ducatis for years and have trained staff on hand to look after the bikes.

Right now if you buy a Ducati in Cape Town you do so via Johannesburg and it gets delivered to you at Superbike Solutions who will then also do all warranty and service work going forward.

Until recently Ducati offered the Ducati Ride Plan as part of the purchase price. Essentially this came about as part of Audi taking over and is a two year “motorplan” for their bikes. Sadly this year they decided to make it optional and although you technically always paid for it, having been built into the price it now doesn’t seem so lucrative. Then again if you finance the bike you get to throw it all in for a minimal monthly cost difference, so there is that as well.

Superbike Solutions seems like a small time venture and don’t quite have the Ducati presence that the shop had in Johannesburg when I visited there. Nowhere near it to be honest. They pretty much just house the demo bikes and the sales guy Anston is employed by Ducati Jo’burg.

So although they have pretty much the whole range of demos available don’t expect a fancy Italian cappuccino when you walk in the door or a room full of Ducati gear and paraphernalia.

That being said they have the “small town” feel about them and also are a lot easier to deal with. In the big Jo’burg shop you get that typical vibe of “you don’t look like you have the money to be here” and that you should dress up for the occasion or something. The guys are much more down to earth and ready for a chat and I honestly prefer that kind of experience.

Anston has told me there are plans for a proper Ducati Cape Town in the future…but who knows when that future is. I do expect it will happen though and it will be very similar to the Johannesburg experience.

Overall it was a magical experience riding these bikes and visiting their shop/s and I’m fully converted.

I suspect the bigger problem will come in when trying to trade in my bike for a reasonable offer and then I might end up right back at the Multistrada but do the upgrade in a few months to a year.

 

2015 Triumph Tiger X800XCX

So seeing as my Street Triple had to go in for a bit of work this morning and I only needed to come into work late I figured in my search for comfort with my next bike I’ll take up Mike Hopkins with their promotion of the Tiger 800 and go for a little spin.

After weeks of scorching death of course today would be the first sign of rain and even after checking the weather forecast I didn’t actually expect water to physically fall from the sky. Needless to say I got to the dealership more than a little bit wet, but not really uncomfortable for it as it’s the lovely summery variety.

When I got to the bike I was informed that the seat had been lowered all the way to the bottom, I’m guessing because they may have had a few people keeling over on them. I was mock offended at the notion that I’m short arsed, but then again I’ve almost seen my arse in front of their shop more than once due to the road camber so I did appreciate the notion. If I were to set it up as my permanent steed I would probably jack it up a little bit for some better leg comfort while on it, especially long distance, but it certainly was easy to manage and not uncomfortable. Much easier to lift off the stand compared to the GS’s I rode recently, but then again I also learnt my lesson there to use my arms more and not just my legs as I do on sport bikes. So no ass muscles were pulled when setting off this time.

The pleasant rain heading in had now become a little bit more angry and the wind was also picking up. Most dealerships probably wouldn’t let people out with their demos in this kind of weather, so I guess a longstanding relationship of not crashing does go a long way towards mutual trust. These are really the perfect conditions to test a bike in as it paints a truer picture of day to day riding and if it performs well in wind and rain it will perform even better on normal days.

Heading out from the shop I was immediately fighting the throttle as it just seemed way too sensitive and matching it with the clutch was way more tricky than expected going from one Triumph to another. It seems this bike is ride-by-wire whereas my STR is old school cable operated still, but beyond being sensitive as hell it also just seemed way too revvy for small inputs. The clutch on the other hand did at first seem much softer than mine, but through the ride it became a bit more taxing as it’s bite came in pretty far out where I prefer it almost on the bar. Easily adjustable but I wasn’t going to mess with the settings on such a short ride.

I hit the famous De Waal Drive and was immediately surprised by the surprising amount of wind hitting my head. I purposely didn’t wear ear plugs so that I get the completely raw experience, but I could almost swear it was worse than my STR which has virtually no windscreen simply because it’s more compressed or channeled towards your head. Oddly I don’t recall experiencing this on the GS and GS Adventure I rode some weeks ago which I pushed to 160 km/h quite comfortably. Granted I don’t recall if I had earplugs in on that day or not, probably did.

The seat is very comfortable as expected and generally the leg to peg ratio is also lovely but like I said earlier could probably be enhanced a little by jacking the seat up slightly. Oddly I found that where the STR gives you no options to move around, here you almost have too many options which isn’t necessarily a good thing as it doesn’t hug you as well. By this time I also noticed the rather odd and completely square mirrors which had the bizarre notion of making me spot the top box on the back and each and every time thinking it’s a car sitting right on my ass.

I also noted that the bike in question didn’t have heated grips, but it did have cruise control presumably as standard. An odd configuration, but at the same time I’ve always believed that with hand guards fitted the need for heated grips is somewhat irrelevant in our African climate and riding in this weather with my summer gloves on did confirm that somewhat.

Granted I can’t really compare this cruise control setup to any other as it’s the first time I’ve ever used it on a bike, but it was very strange. Firstly the button placement next to the throttle seems strange to me as it’s tricky to hit them and hold the throttle steady. Fitting it on the left would make it so much easier to operate. I’ve never used cruise control in a manual car either, but I would have assumed that you could change gear without it disengaging, but then I guess that would cause the car to rev up so probably not, which might explain why it disengages here when you touch the clutch. I’m not sure I would use this very often on a day to day basis, but with those long trips and the endless straight sections in the Karoo it could certainly be life changing.

It’s round about this time hitting the M3 and settling into some lane splitting due to traffic that I realised just how much bigger the Tiger is, or at least feels, than the GS800. It just feels very wide and bulky and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there isn’t all that much difference between the 800 and the 1200 versions or that they share some frame parts.

It’s a lighter bike than the GS from a lifting off the stand, top heavy perspective, but it does feel like it needs a bit more input to the bars to get moving. The GS seems much more prone to steering through weight shifting while the Tiger wants direct control input from the bars and leaning doesn’t seem to do much.

I’m being a little unfair towards the Triumph here as I road the two GS’s on a short trip in a balls to the wall fashion without too much contemplation to what it was doing. On the Triumph I was doing real world day to day riding and therefore had time to contemplate and evaluate the bike much more deeply.

The engine is a strange creature. More so for me jumping from the 675cc version but also compared to the GS. I found the GS engine very boring as the torque delivery was so linear and at the same time it didn’t make much of a noise at all. The GS Adventure had a Remus pipe on and was much better for the noise factor and could be heard at cruising speed while the stock one was whisper quiet. The Triumph is very quiet at lower revs and seems oddly gutless compared to my Street Triple but then it starts to make a familiar and lovely sporty noise when you rev it out and gets moving properly. It’s with regards to the engine that I wish I had ridden the road going version without the knobblies on and larger wheels as it may have delivered a very different road bike experience that I was looking for. As much as I disliked the GS engine on the day, I feel that the Tiger engine in this form is less usable for daily road riding. My offroad nutter friends believe the same thing for offroad use and that’s why they all have BMW’s.

Another thing that is painfully obvious is that Triumph is new to this whole fuel mapping electronic throttle business by virtue of the fact that is was pretty tricky to understand without prior instruction and a bit finicky. Granted if you owned the bike you would read the manual and get to know it intimately, but from a first contact point of view it’s very troublesome. My understand from messing around with it is that there are three preset profiles, one for Offroad, one for on road and then a Rider mode which should read as “Custom”. Essentially you need to go fiddle in the menus to set the Rider mode where you can then put traction control on and off as well as ABS and I recall in each of them there was a road and offroad version as well. Then there is the fuel mapping which was Sport, Normal and I think Rain but don’t quote me on that. So there is no way of quickly jumping to Sport for instance on the fly, unless you happen to have configured your Rider mode as that beforehand.

I stopped at the other side of Hout Bay just above Llandudno to take these pictures and messed around with the riding modes because as I mentioned earlier the engine was feeling a bit gutless downstairs. I still suspect I didn’t actually have it in Sport mode as I hit the corners along the coast on my way back to Cape Town, and suffered a bit of placebo as it seemed to be better somewhat.

With the sun out and the wind somewhat more predictable and now being comfortable with the bike it was time to push it a little bit. Maybe because the knobblies were still quite new with less than 2000km on them or purely because of the bike, I felt much more comfortable on these tyres than the KTM and GS’s I rode recently where they had a very definite step mid lean.

Here I was only really weary of the tyres being a little narrower and so didn’t want to overextend myself. An odd notion of understeer was apparent in some corners and I was constantly modulating it with the rear brake to keep it in line. Maybe it’s my road bike sensibilities pushing a little too fast into corners and holding onto the front brakes a bit too late into cornering since it did seem to dissipate when going a little bit easier…but what’s the fun in that. Either way, it didn’t feel quite as immediately confidence inspiring as the GS did which I rode just as hard if not harder, also on very familiar roads.

Suspension wise the bike was very soft. There is so much fork dive, especially in town, that when I did some brake tests later I locked up the front wheel for the first time ever in my bike riding memory. The rear brake locks up for any reason at all, but I’m lead to believe this is by design for offroaders. The deeper issue is that this bike doesn’t have electronic suspension adjustment. Not from a too lazy to lift a spanner perspective, but from a value point of view which I’ll also touch on later.

As I was heading up the hill from Camps Bay I figured out the Rider mode thing and this time I was sure it was in Sports mode properly. Revved it out properly passing some cars and I must say it does pick up speed very well and is probably a whole lot faster than the GS in sheer all out acceleration, but in overtaking from 80-120 or 120+ in same gear there probably won’t be too much between them. It certainly is much more exciting on the higher revving engine and it makes a good enough noise to keep most people happy.

It’s a tricky beast to launch hard from a standing start, but I think mostly just because I still find myself concentrating heavily to miss the super wide pegs on these kinds of bikes without hanging myself on them in the process. Even by the end of the ride I still didn’t quite get the clutch and ride-by-wire to match naturally and needed to make a conscious effort to pull away nicely. Sure through ownership one acclimatizes and your own bike is always best, but this has been one of the most challenging ones I’ve just jumped onto.

Back at the Mike Hopkins ranch I was taking a stroll through the showroom and my fundamental conclusion is that the Tiger 800 isn’t a bad bike in any which way, but even as a Triumph die hard you would be silly to buy one. Why? Because it’s just not a great value proposition. 2015 models are standing on the floor for R 159 999 and that’s without any extras while at BMW you can have the 800GS for R 137 345 and it comes with Heated Grips and Electronic Suspension standard. For R 156 680 (still cheaper than the Tiger 800) you can guy the 800GS Adventure which is probably a waste of money too. But forgetting the competition if you have Triples in your blood stream you can for R 5000 more than the Tiger 800 get the 2015 1200 Explorer model that is on special right now with Panniers, Hand Guards and Heated Grips. Sure I haven’t ridden it (yet) but it seems a much better deal considering the extras, more power and the fact that it’s shaft driven meaning no messy chain lube nonsense.

In conclusion it’s not a bad bike by any margin, but you can do much better for the same money. If you were to venture outside Triumph I would simply get the BMW 800GS and spend the difference in price on adding a nice exhaust and a top box and/or panniers to the mix.

 

 

Achtung!

So today I rode a mate’s GS800 and his mate’s Adventure.

I didn’t exactly expect it to convert me but more of a “ride all the bikes” experiment.

As even he’ll admit the engine itself is boring as all hell on the road. I rode the F800ST previously back to back with my Buell and it was the same story. It’s essentially too linear in it’s torque delivery and therefore doesn’t have a powerband of any kind at all. You also can’t hear it AT ALL above say 100km/h. It really is a train motor, essentially like a non-turbo diesel. Which is great for off-road I believe, so it’s just a bit too biased in that regard for my needs.

Suspension though is a charm, even on the road and you can definitely feel the different between comfort, normal and sport. Even sport though is nowhere near properly sport compared to my bike which is essentially track bike in comparison. Definitely easier on the body than mine.

Ergonomically it’s also miles more comfortable than mine and you could do 500km on it without even getting stiff I imagine.

Oddly I found the indicators a pain as you can’t feel them click on properly.

He has some aftermarket foot pegs one which made it very tricky for me to stop even with a lower seat on.

I did enjoy the “Meerkat” and can see why the off road okes love doing it.

As a shorter guy his aftermarket windscreen was a bit in my face vs the Adventure I rode later but even so it actually has wind protection.

Which also means I noticed the crazy heat on both bikes. Especially coming up through the seat under your ass. At one point though it maybe has a heated seat and I accidentally put it on but then the other GS did it too later.

Semi knobbly off-road tyres are a non issue with traction control it seems, unlike my bare bones experience on a KTM recently.

Overall its a great bike and I can see why people go nuts for them. It’s just not the right bike for me, which makes me wonder about the 1200.

The Adventure version was more to my liking largely because it had a Remus pipe on which in this case changes the engine quite dramatically as compared to most bikes.

You can now hear it at speed and it revs up a bit differently and has a stronger sense of powerband.

Being taller with a standard seat it was actually easier to stop as the pegs didn’t get in my way.

Both are hell to lift off the stand though and I found myself cramping when first picking up each bike. Getting on it like a horse and leaving it on the stand is awesome though.

Wind screen worked better for me on this one as well.

Having spent a bit of time on the other bike first I was full of confidence now so laid chase to my own Street Triple…forgetting the warning about the front tyre being at it’s end.

Kept up well enough in the straights until I over committed on a downhill left hander and the front washed out. Don’t know if traction control saved my ass or I did it myself but needless to say I took the straight lines through corners after that instead of the max lean ones.

I’m definitely awakened to BMW, just not GS’s.

The R1200RS might still deliver.

Honda NC700X vs VFR1200FD

On a pure spur of the moment jaunt, my mate invited me to join him this morning to test ride the Honda NC700X from Honda Cape Town.

Since he actually wanted to try the dual clutch automatic version and they only had a manual transmission demo they offered him the VFR1200FD which uses pretty much the same dual clutch automatic system and that’s where I ended up tagging along.

I got on the NC700X first and was initially caught off guard by what I can only assume is a throttle cable in need of adjustment as the bike would only really respond at a rather large throttle opening…so I stalled like a noob.

Of course having that massive storage space where the petrol tank should be goes a hell of a lot way towards practicality. A full face helmet goes in there easily facing upwards with the visor towards the sky but more importantly I suspect you might very well get a 15-inch Macbook Pro in there with a little bit of creativity. Smaller laptops will be no problem at all and add a metrosexually questionable man-bag to that and you’ll never need any luggage or backpack for your daily commute.

Once on our way up towards Kloof Nek I was immediately impressed by the engine because it didn’t feel even remotely as underpowered as I expected from the 44kw mentioned on the spec sheet. It’s all torque and you can leave it in a higher gear forever and a day just riding it on the throttle which is very responsive once you are moving.

The clutch and gearbox combination give the bike’s price-tag away rather quickly but there’s nothing really wrong with it apart from being a bit clunky. Every shift is a true one and it would be impossible for a beginner to get it wrong.

I think the brakes are perfect, because I have absolutely nothing at all to say about them, which tells me they were doing what they were supposed to…stop the bike without drawing attention to themselves. Very smooth and progressive, not grabby at all and I never felt like I needed more. It’s probably helped by the general sense of lightweight that the bike possesses so it never feels like you need super brakes to slow down a train.

And that lightweight notion is what brings me to the handling. I was genuinely surprised by how easy this bike was to ride, it literally requires no thought to just chuck it into corners and not once did I feel I was over thinking my riding like I’ve found myself doing on some bikes in the past. It’s not hard work, it’s just a natural progression which encourages a surprising pace.

We didn’t have any highway to ride heading towards Llandudno so I forced it into a steady 120km/h at one point to get a feel for what it would be like. My partner in crime claims I must not have been in top gear because it felt pretty good to him, but my opinion is that it felt like it was working a little too hard to maintain that speed.

On the topic of highways and commuting, I guess I’ve spent too many years on naked bikes because anything with a windshield seems to simply concentrate air straight onto my helmet and I found the NC700X uncomfortable in this regard compared to the Street Triple I rode a few weeks ago which had nothing even resembling a windshield in comparison.

Naturally I can’t really comment on the fuel economy after such a short ride, but there are enough statistics out there that proves this is an astonishingly cheap bike to run as a daily commuter.

All in all I was very pleasantly surprised by the “little” Honda and it went from a massive compromise of fuel over fun in my mind to my new favourite beginner/commuter bike, stealing the crown from the ER6 I usually recommend to people starting out.

Why wouldn’t I buy one? It pretty much comes down to the price vs features. The fact that the manual NC700X doesn’t have ABS as standard is a disgrace in my opinion, especially being marketed towards beginners who need it more than most. Especially when you consider other bikes for less money like the KTM 390 Duke which comes with ABS as standard for less money and probably about the same power to weight ratio even though it has a smaller engine.

On the flip-side the dual clutch automatic does come with ABS…but costs R17 000 more than the manual version according the Honda’s latest pricing as of April 2013…which unless you absolutely must have an automatic makes it a silly bike to buy for the money.

And here’s why I don’t need an automatic…

I was wondering why the VFR1200FD was holding itself back behind me and I just assumed that I was going much too slowly for its tastes. Then we stopped and had a chat and apparently I was cranking the little NC over like it was on a racetrack…didn’t really feel like I was putting that much effort into it.

And then I got on “The Tank” which requires all the effort in the world just to get around a little corner.

Firstly I should say that I’m not against automatics by any means, I drive a dual clutch sports car after all because it makes a lot of sense on so many levels. Not only is it faster than I am at changing gears, but it does so consistently better and more economically with absolutely no effort required making it fantastic for my commute to the office in bumper to bumper traffic.

But on a motorcycle I don’t have bumper to bumper traffic, it’s simply not applicable to me and therefore I find myself asking why would I want this on a motorcycle.

Now sure enough I can understand the notion of beginners to lean towards it, especially in North America where manual cars are the exception to the norm. It reduces a significant learning curve if the concept of gears and clutches isn’t ingrained in your behaviour like it is down here at the bottom of Africa, but at the same time I also feel that it removes so much of the interaction between man and machine that makes motorcycling so much more special than driving a car.

A car has four wheels and keeps itself upright. Whether you get a gear change right or wrong doesn’t really make a difference to the overall experience and usually just amounts to some discomfort to your passengers. On a bike though it changes the entire equation and therefore offers a certain satisfaction when getting it perfect combined with so many other things not applicable to cars.

Now before the car people jump up and down telling me how satisfying it is to use a manual gearbox in a car, let me just say that I fully agree. It’s like loading a sniper rifle and pulling off the perfect headshot when you get it right…but as I mentioned earlier this happens maybe ten percent of the time and the rest of it is being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic where it’s like operating a gatling gun for hours on end and never hitting anything.

So once I accepted the fact that I was on an automatic bike and that there was no other way to get back to the shop I got to spend a little bit of time with it.

There is a parking brake which isn’t unlike a choke on older carburetor bikes fitted to the left handlebar. Somewhat worrying though is the lack of clutch, I guess I didn’t think this through and expected something to be there like the rear brake on scooters. Of course there is no shifter either, something I guess I expected to be there when operating in manual mode, but is of course replaced by buttons on the handlebars.

This lead to some confusion which I still think is a bit daft and I was only corrected after the ride. Much like paddles on a modern automatic car there are identical buttons on the left and right handlebar, much like the overtake flasher button on most bikes but larger. Where I assumed the left is shift down and the right is shift up, it turns out the left is shift up and the right is to switch between manual and automatic modes, with the down shift actually being hidden on the bottom of the left handlebar where you expect the horn to normally be.

Bizarrely while riding it I got the impression that the buttons were just wrong way round and that left was gear up and right was gear down and this made no sense to me…obviously I was the one being the retard.

Another thing one doesn’t think about (while constantly searching for the clutch) is that when you buddy revs at your while standing at the lights you can’t simply return the same by opening the throttle because as I very quickly learnt that of course makes the bike go forwards (and potentially over backwards) into the car in front of you.

No idea how one would go about doing burnouts of if they are even possible but I assume if one were to hold the front brake down and open the throttle that it would still spin up the rear wheel.

Overall the “Drive” mode is a terrible experience in town as it tends to keep the revs low and holds onto higher gears very obnoxiously like a naughty child who won’t listen to what their parents tell them. It should be a better option on the open road I would imagine.

Sports mode is what I would use by default, as the bike holds onto gears and remains very responsive and quick to change down should you need it. Ultimately I don’t see myself ever really using the fully manual option as it defeats the purpose somewhat.

There is a minor audible clunk when it changes gears but it’s generally imperceptible through the drive train and it never did anything really odd that seemed potentially dangerous or threw me off mid corner or any of those things I expected from a non-CVT automatic.

However, when pulling away from a stop and turning at the same time one really needs to baby the throttle and wait for the clutch before committing making things a bit slow at such low speeds and something I easily compensate for by feathering the clutch on a manual bike. That being said this is much the same for my car which is actually much more uncomfortable when pulling away in first and disengaging the clutch.

Apart from the weirdness of the gearbox though I found the VFR to probably be one of the most terrible bikes I have ever ridden in town. It is heavy and I don’t mean that so much in weight as in slow steering and it’s urge to pick up when braking a little into corners.

The brakes are superbike deadly and don’t seem to fit in with the general sports tourer appeal of the motorcycle. You hardly touch them and it wants to stop dead and pick itself up at the same time, meaning that it’s extremely hard work to ride it at pace and keeping up with the NC700 was quite a challenge for its lack of nimbleness.

Sure it’s a completely unfair comparison as the two bikes aren’t even remotely the same and I would imagine on the open road at higher speed touring pace it will be in its element compared to the 700X, but I would never ever want to commute on one and lane splitting would require some serious viking bravery.

More astonishing though is that for more than double the price of the NC700X it certainly doesn’t feel like anything special. For that kind of money I would definitely be looking elsewhere. I’m inclined to go ride a BMW K1300S now, just to see if it’s a general Sport Tourer problem or just this particular VFR being a bit of a fatty.

Overall it was a fun ride with a couple of surprises, some very pleasant and some not so much.

2013 Triumph Street Triple R

Well a big thank you to Mark from Mike Hopkins Motorcycles for their demo bike which myself and two mates really enjoyed riding this morning.

Bike seems to have been the euro-spec press launch bikes without ABS so I couldn’t really test that out, but I’m sure it will work just like any other bike’s.

Very comfortable seating position, surprisingly so as I felt very racy in the shop when I sat on it, but after the ride I can honestly say it was equally as if not more comfortable than my Buell. Compared to the CB1000 my friend brought along which was comfortable enough but I could find the exact placement on the seat that worked for me.

The optional crash protection bars don’t work for me as the right side bolt protrudes exactly where my leg goes. Granted I was in jeans this morning and in full leathers it might be a lot better but I won’t be putting them on my bike. I did find they spoilt it aesthetically anyway, so it’s an easy decision to make.

The engine is beautiful. Really super smooth with enough horsepower and torque to make it fun and easy to ride at the same time. The highly modified CB was too much bike in comparison when you hit 6000 RPM and too little grunt down low with a super heavy clutch as well. Stock CB is actually a nicer day-to-day ride I would imagine.

Gearbox is also fantastic, no clutch required if you are that way inclined and geared perfectly to the motor. Combine that with the lightweight chassis and perfect riding position and this is a true all-in-one road bike like I’ve never seen before…other than Buells of course.

Initially I thought the bike was getting 60km/l which I thought was ridiculous so I reset it while riding and it just kept going up. Turns out it was km/h and the average for the trip, not the fuel economy, which was actually 5.5 l/100km still pretty damn impressive.

Bad things? The mirrors are shockingly useless! Unlike conventional pivot hinged on a stalk this is adjustable inside the cover on the stalk. They are tiny, oddly shaped and not nearly adjustable enough. It’s easier to not use them at all and just turn around instead.

Grabbing the sides stand with your foot it also a bit odd, as there is no catch to grab it on but this should be overcome with practised ownership.

Didn’t do any highway stuff but did at least 140km/h in sections and it was no less comfortable with regards air resistance and buffeting than any other naked bike. If you are used to it there’s no problem, superbikers would probably take notice.

Overall I am astounded by how good this bike was to ride, I mean I expected it to be good but it really delivers. So much so that my friend with the CB has also been convinced and we might actually approach Mark about a discount if we buy two together.

I still want a white one, but the black is actually really nice with and excellent metallic finish. If I didn’t have two black bikes before I would have been tempted.