... I am still wearing the stupidest grin I've had since I bought the SV after having brought the Blade home today.
Strange how a 2.5 mile trip from work seemed to actually take an hour and a half!
First a bit of gentle pootling through town, Tesco's to fill up, then the open roads.
Started off our relationship with a few nice clear A roads, sweeping curves and plenty of Northamptonshire's finest speed cameras to restrain myself with. Just enough traffic on the roads to keep me nicely hemmed in and forced me to concentrate on getting the feel for it rather than succumb to FireBlade silliness.
First thoughts were along the lines of what a nice, smooth little bundle of fun.
Feeling like I'm curled in a comfortable ball and looking down the nose of a rather short, slightly tubby bike.
Responsive, cornering like it was on rails, engine purring away.
All in all, rather like being curled up on the sofa with a contented cat...
... then the traffic petered out, the roads were my own and had turned to a nice mix of sweeping and twisty B roads. It was about this point I discover the cat on my sofa was actually a tiger!
There is no way this is taking my SV's place in my heart - they are such totally different machines that I just know I'm going to enjoy them both equally. Also, unlike the SV, I have come back from this initial ride with a whole host of little things I need to do:
- * lower the seat for a more secure position rather than just for the height issues.
* adjust or replace the levers for the rather pathetic span of my little hands.
* fit a DB screen, again, not for the obvious reason of wind, but just so I'm not able to look down the front of it! That freaks me out.
* fit adjustable rearsets to it.
The rearsets are actually the most important. The riding position seems to be so precise that I feel it really makes a difference that my left lower leg is 1/2" shorter than my right.
I almost feel twisted on the bike, and there were moments, shifting into a sharp bend, when my left knee was pressing quite hard against the edge of the fairing.
I've never noticed this before, and once I did it really disturbed my riding.
Oh yeah, and if this bike ends up being the death of me - please don't blame it. Tiger's eat people occasionally, it's thier nature.
