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 My test ride in GaithersburgJump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
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tsnj |
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New user Posts: 3 | I posted this on the vmc forum Sat. night and it was suggested that I post it here as well. So, here it is: Saturday Sept 1, I rode about 4 1/2 hours to Gaithersburg MD for a 3:45 scheduled ride. I got there a bit early because I wanted to try to fill the right hand saddlebag to see just how much it would hold. Why the right? Because it's the drive side which has to include clearance for the pulley so therefore has less internal capacity (that's the way the KP is). So I loaded up my trusty KP bags to capacity and strapped on a backpack with extra stuff as well, and was on my way. I'll comment further on this with each photo. I rode the tour model. As for the ride itself, within the first 20 feet I noticed a great deal of fork flex. When sitting still at a stop light I could "snap" the bars while looking down through the fairing and see/feel the flexing at the front wheel. I guess most people would never notice this, but years of riding dirt bikes with upside-downers and the last 2 on my KP have made me pretty sensitive to this. In all fairness, any bike I ride on now that has conventional forks, feels flexy. On the plus side, the fork action was nice and smooth. But then so was the ride route, smooth as glass. I actually had to look for something to hit. I found 2 manhole covers and a couple of small bumps, but nothing like expansion joints, or potholes. Still, the bumps I did hit were enough to feel the suspension stroke, but I otherwise felt nothing at all. So, I have to sum up my initial impression in the suspension action dept. as very good. Much better than my KP, even with the Penske shock. I'm 5'4" and for me the mirrors absolutely suck. Could not see a bike or car directly behind me. Completely blocked by my hands. A taller person would obviously have a different line of sight, so could probably see over the reflection of their hands in the mirrors. Yes I adjusted the mirrors before we took off. I could see just fine well out to either side. This is inexcusable. * Lifting the bike up off the stand was a piece of cake. No more difficult than a KP. * The stand was difficult to locate for deployment. Had to use my heel. For those of us with short legs this makes it difficult to get a full swing forward. On the KP I use my toes. I'm pretty sure it's the rear tip over platform that prevents this. * Seat was very comfortable. Except that the whole time riding the bike I kept feeling the seams on the rear part of the seat. I also kept getting the subtle sensation that I was being pushed forward. Neither was really a problem, I was just constantly aware of it. I consider this nothing more than a nit-pik. Toss a sheepskin over it and fugget-a-bout-it. * The bike felt quite agile in spite of it's size and weight. Impressive for someone my size. I've never felt comfortable on any other big touring bike. We did not get to ride on any twisty back roads or do much tight maneuvering, but I felt confident and at-home on this bike. * I felt some engine heat. But I didn't think that this was any more than my KP. We sat at quite a few traffic lights. It was not a terribly hot or humid day, quite nice actually. The bike I rode had the wind deflectors for the legs. * Handlebars were comfortable. Ideally, I think they were slightly high for me but close enough that I wouldn't worry about it. They are not adjustable in any way. After about a week of riding I'd probably completely forget it. * Not too impressed with the front brake. Nothing wrong with it, but I was expecting a lot more power. I added a second disk to my KP and in spite of still having air trapped in it and being spongy, it feels much more powerful than the vision brake. Yeah, there is a considerable difference in weight, but there was a major difference in feel. Maybe the EBC HH pads in my KP are superior to the Vic pads? * The floor boards were great. Even the location of the controls was good for me in the standard postion (middle of 3 postions). * I hate looking through windshields so I would have to install the optional shorty shield or cut the stock one down. In it's lowest postion, the top edge was right in my line of sight. For the test ride I wound up just raising it all the way and looking through. * I tried the cruise control for about 3 minutes. I was impressed by how responsive it was. Each push on the accel or decel resulted in about 1mph change and did so immediately. Yeah, this is how it should be, but the one in my wifes Jeep is a real piece of crap. At the very least it sure beats those friction devices any day. * The bike had the usual Vic clunkiness while shifting, however it was not nearly as notchy as my KP. I was able to repeatedly shift into neutral, first, second and back and forth while sitting still with the bike running. On my KP, I usually just kill the engine with the handlebar switch and then easily click for neutral while watching for the idiot light. * I was told that the existing seat does not have an optional backrest. Whole seats are being made by Mustang and Corbin for those who want that option. I didn't ask about the heated part though. I don't know if this means that you'd have to buy those seats as extras i.e. no credit for the stock seat(?) like we've been doing all along. * At the Javitts show, I was not too impressed with the color choices but knew I had to reserve judgement till seeing them outdoors. At the test ride the choice became very clear to me. I really really dislike the all silver engine on the silver bike, sort of like an albino. The black bike was just....too black for me. The cherry does have a much better appearance in daylight than under sodium vapor and multicolor show lignts, but I'm still not in love with it. For some reason it reminds me of a GW. Still, it would be my choice by default. Since one of this bikes major appeals is for smaller riders, the 2 issues that affected me (kickstand and mirrors) because of my size could easily be corrected in engineering. I can only assume they did not have shorter test riders during development. Hey I have family in MN, I could move out there to be a development rider! Yeah, I've been dyin' to leave stinky ol' NJ. Ok, here's the saddlebags. Empty, duh. Just by eyeball, I don't think there is a significant difference in capacity between right and left. Sorry gbman, didn't get to try out a 12 pack, but I'm pretty sure that broken up you can get at least 3 sixers in there, maybe 4. | ||
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| tsnj |
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New user Posts: 3 | Sorry, the server went a little nuts while I was uploading and did a double post. I also tried editing to add captions for the photos but the edit function timed out on me. Jeeze. I'll try to add them here. Hopefully the sequence doesn't get screwed up. In case this doesn't work out right, here's a link to the original post: http://forums.thevmc.com/members/mindex.asp Well being that that is a members link it may not work. 1. Ok, here's the saddlebags. Empty, duh. Just by eyeball, I don't think there is a significant difference in capacity between right and left. 2. Here it is filled up. I just started cramming stuff in there randomly. I'm sure more careful packing would result in a little more available space. This also did not utilize the little bit of extra space in the cover. It may actually be more efficient to use the liners. 3 & 4. Front and rear views to give a better look at the extra space in the covers. 5. This is everything that I put in it. It is the entire contents of both of my KP bags, with the exception of a couple of bungee cords. 6. Emtpy trunk. That little rectangle panel is the access to the wiring and bolts. There is enough space in there to store a few really small items if you needed to. 7. Filled trunk. Yes it closed completely without much forcing. 8. Stuff the trunk was filled with. Same as the saddlebag plus a jacket, backpack, and camera bag. The backpack only had a couple of water bottles in it. My toolbag (top middle) contains allen wrenches, a few combo wrenches, 8" adjustable, channel locks, screw drivers, tire plug kit, co2 bottles, pre-moistened hand cleaners, a few shop rags, small vise grip, siphon, really lightweight jumper cables, and probably a couple items I've forgotten about. The top right is one set of Frog Toggs. The lower right is chaps. Also amongst this stuff is a sheepskin seat cover, Kinpin manual, ziplock of pre-moistened Windex wipes and micro cloth, jacket liner, 6' cable, 3 locks, 1 pair of Totes rubber boots, and finally the camera bag. Beemer and GW guys may still stick their noses up, but compared to a KP, I'm impressed. 9. The air filter access is above the front fender, behind the headlight area, just in front of the bottom triple clamp. Pull the 2 bolts and pull the tab. That orange piece is the air filter frame. Just below that you can see the tie down loop for transporting the bike. Sure beats having to try to rig up something to the handlbars and risk screwing up the fairing in the process. 10. There is also a threaded hole in the front tip over points (can't remember what the official name of these are) that you can screw in an eyebolt to attach tie downs for transporting. 11. Leg wind deflector front view. It's difficult to get a good photo of these and they're hard to describe. 12. Leg wind deflector rear view. 13. Left handlebar switches. It's a busy place! I could have sworn there was a button somewhere for cycling through the digital read out. 14. Highway peg top view. I couldn't reach these babies no how! 15. Highway peg bottom view. This is how they attach. 16. Gps mount. This is the best I could get at the time. | ||
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