09-24-2016, 09:19 AM
Interesting experience and a bit of a case of don't meet your heroes. It is an awesome bike, and the Showa big piston and Ohlins rear suspension is on another planet from the CB and is amazingly composed in the city and when pushed hard.
That said, everything else, wasn't really what I hoped for. The Brembo cast monoblock brakes don't really have an amazing bite or power that I thought they would; and I honestly prefer the feel of the relatively lower spec components on my C-ABS CB. I think would change a lot if you put a higher spec master on the bike though, as I've ridden lots of bikes with the same rotor and caliper setup and an RCS master, and they are indeed amazing.
The engine wasn't as hairy as hoped it would be -- it's got great torque and spins up incredibly fast, but it's almost like riding a well-tuned Harley in that it runs out of breath so fast (6500rpm redline) and you're kind of left sitting there thinking 'hmmm, okay, I gotta shift again already...' You also don't have the same connected feeling where you can really change your line and lean angle just by minute throttle inputs when riding spiritedly like you can on the CB. This is even with TC turned off. You end up looking at the tach a lot since you cant really feel what the engine is doing. Could it be good with mods? I don't know. It would be interesting to drag race the two bikes, as my butt dyno doesn't really feel like this thing is massively faster.
Was seriously considering buying one of these, but I think that with some Ohlins Piggybacks, a cartridge conversion, and fork brace I would way rather keep my CB. Just some meaningless ramblings -- had a fair amount of mental energy tied up in thinking about the two bikes and wanted to get it out...
That said, everything else, wasn't really what I hoped for. The Brembo cast monoblock brakes don't really have an amazing bite or power that I thought they would; and I honestly prefer the feel of the relatively lower spec components on my C-ABS CB. I think would change a lot if you put a higher spec master on the bike though, as I've ridden lots of bikes with the same rotor and caliper setup and an RCS master, and they are indeed amazing.
The engine wasn't as hairy as hoped it would be -- it's got great torque and spins up incredibly fast, but it's almost like riding a well-tuned Harley in that it runs out of breath so fast (6500rpm redline) and you're kind of left sitting there thinking 'hmmm, okay, I gotta shift again already...' You also don't have the same connected feeling where you can really change your line and lean angle just by minute throttle inputs when riding spiritedly like you can on the CB. This is even with TC turned off. You end up looking at the tach a lot since you cant really feel what the engine is doing. Could it be good with mods? I don't know. It would be interesting to drag race the two bikes, as my butt dyno doesn't really feel like this thing is massively faster.
Was seriously considering buying one of these, but I think that with some Ohlins Piggybacks, a cartridge conversion, and fork brace I would way rather keep my CB. Just some meaningless ramblings -- had a fair amount of mental energy tied up in thinking about the two bikes and wanted to get it out...