06-21-2019, 12:57 AM
Capo, see, that's what surprised me so much about the Speed Twin's motor. All my high hopes for it were based off of my love for the T120's motor. Everything you described regarding the 1200cc P-Twin's intoxicating pull and pleasant, throbbing vibes was present and accounted for with the T120. It has no revs, but it also never felt thrashy, and it revs so slowly that I wasn't always banging into the redline, whether I meant to or not.
I figured the ST's motor would sound and feel similar, but with way more grunt, more revs, and a lot more poke on top, particularly since the ST weighs about eighty lbs less than the T120. Instead, what I discovered was a motor that felt as if it had no flywheel. Whereas the T120 always gave me the sensation of having two big pistons forming a big ol' lump of Twin-style grunt off the bottom, with no power available anywhere else, the ST had none of that Twin goodness. Instead, it was just a very quick-revving motor that immediately ran out of revs, and rather than sounding and feeling smooth and mellifluous, it felt thrashy and overstressed.
It felt like a thrashier Street Triple motor, except that the fun ends right where the Street Triple's midrange begins.
I'm sure some of my perceptions of the bike were colored by having just spent two solid days riding the revvier, more powerful Z900, and the smoother, much slower-revving CB1100, but each time that I rode a T120 I was coming straight off of a Street Triple R or XSR900, so the difference in rev factors was even more pronounced, and still I felt and enjoyed the T120's basic Big Twin-style grunt and smoothness.
All the reviews I've read regarding the ST mention its lack of top end, which also applies to the Thruxton and Thruxton R, but they also describe this mountain of wonderfully streetable grunt. That's what I was expecting. Instead, I found that the thing revs so quickly and freely, I was zipping into the 7,000 rpm range without even trying, which would be fine, if there were four more thousand rpm to go, but there aren't. The party is already over before it even really started, and the accompanying soundtrack isn't smooth and soothing at all. It's full of sound and fury, signaling...a lot of annoying vibration!
All in all, not what I was expecting. This is also true of the handling, only in the opposite direction. Pure surprise, pure bliss.
I figured the ST's motor would sound and feel similar, but with way more grunt, more revs, and a lot more poke on top, particularly since the ST weighs about eighty lbs less than the T120. Instead, what I discovered was a motor that felt as if it had no flywheel. Whereas the T120 always gave me the sensation of having two big pistons forming a big ol' lump of Twin-style grunt off the bottom, with no power available anywhere else, the ST had none of that Twin goodness. Instead, it was just a very quick-revving motor that immediately ran out of revs, and rather than sounding and feeling smooth and mellifluous, it felt thrashy and overstressed.
It felt like a thrashier Street Triple motor, except that the fun ends right where the Street Triple's midrange begins.
I'm sure some of my perceptions of the bike were colored by having just spent two solid days riding the revvier, more powerful Z900, and the smoother, much slower-revving CB1100, but each time that I rode a T120 I was coming straight off of a Street Triple R or XSR900, so the difference in rev factors was even more pronounced, and still I felt and enjoyed the T120's basic Big Twin-style grunt and smoothness.
All the reviews I've read regarding the ST mention its lack of top end, which also applies to the Thruxton and Thruxton R, but they also describe this mountain of wonderfully streetable grunt. That's what I was expecting. Instead, I found that the thing revs so quickly and freely, I was zipping into the 7,000 rpm range without even trying, which would be fine, if there were four more thousand rpm to go, but there aren't. The party is already over before it even really started, and the accompanying soundtrack isn't smooth and soothing at all. It's full of sound and fury, signaling...a lot of annoying vibration!
All in all, not what I was expecting. This is also true of the handling, only in the opposite direction. Pure surprise, pure bliss.