A few days before heading to the TT, my Daytona decided she wasn't going anywhere, probably the reg/rec, but that's another story.
I ended up borrowing a ST1050 of a mate for the trip. It’s a 08 bike with 10k on the clock, which you can’t say had an easy life.
Anyway, first impressions – not as big as I’ve feared, not as upright as I’ve hoped (I think the clipons are lower on it).
Heavy when stationary, if I’d drop it, I’d probably leave it on the ground and walk home.
Headlights, dipped beam is not too bad, but the main beam... there’s hardly any difference!
Acceleration – bl**dy hell, my previous Aprilia was torqey, but this thing is different. Whilst the Falco wanted to rip your arms out, this one pulls smoothly through the revs, and then you look at the speedo and get a shock. Bike is deceptive.
Panniers – must be getting old, because I love them. Fill up, fix on the bike and you’re done. They do make the bike a bit wider, but filtering on a congested motorway wasn’t an issue (car drivers did help).
Brakes – couldn’t get used to them. I’ve got small hands and even the lowest setting on the lever was too big for me.
Heading down the motorway, it was great. At normal speeds it just munched the miles, but go over a ton and it gets a bit windy and a bit buzzy. Aprilia was better at high speeds, but then again, how often are you riding in a place with no speed restrictions. Heading back from the ferry, 60 miles of A road, 100 motorway at normal speed, got me 55 mpg
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There is a lot to be liked about this bike, handling, comfort, economy. I’ve seen these bikes being ridden at some proper pace on a few org meetings. I’ve done approx 600 miles in a week on it, the weird thing is the bike did everything I asked it to, but for some reason, as much as I would be looking forward to riding it again, somehow I don’t see myself buying one
