Street Cup On the Way

[4 Paws_imp]

Looked at them tonight. Very nice bikes.
Very nice.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Well, I picked it up today. Rode three different bikes about 130 miles. Took the Honda to my storage facility, unloaded the FZ8 from the trailer, put the Honda in the trailer. Rode the FZ8 to the dealership the back way, over some very nice roads. Traded it in, then rode the Street Cup home through the Gantlet, that is, the 118 Raceway to the 405 Demolition Derby, through the hills and home. Then took it out for some night riding during rush hour, went to my local espresso joint to hammer some more caffeine, and just rode it around in traffic to see how it worked out.

The thing handles great, they put 40 PSI in both tires and I was wondering why the tires felt a little harsh. But it turned on a button and with TC on, it was easy to get the back to step out under power in a real fun controlled way, which was exactly what I wanted. My F700GS also has TC and can do this as well the ZX-10R. The thing has all kinds of cornering clearance and is really neutral on the brakes, or "brake" in this case with the one disk. I dunno how they did it with that twin-piston caliper but I can lock it up, or should I say, I can quite easily get the ABS to intervene with front or rear wheel. This bike seems to intervene a little later than some other bikes. You can just squeeze the lever really hard on dry pavement and hear the tire almost skidding, it's howling really well. I did get it to completely intervene a few times, and it's got a very high threshold, it doesn't seem to "anticipate" the lockup quite as early. So I'm getting used to them, they're really excellent. I don't mind ABS at all on this bike, probably because it has very good engine braking and a smooth style is what you need with this machine anyway.

The ride-by-wire throttling on this bike is just absolutely flawless, superb in every way. I noticed no hint of lurchiness. The throttle itself feels much like its connected to cables, but it's not. For example, I did not like the BMW S1000R's wired throttle feel; it didn't have a progressive feel like a regular cable set would have, it was very easy to turn and lacked feedback, and with a light return spring I expected it would be much harder to hold a steady throttle position if the road was bumpy (btw this is a very real issue with some RbW motorcycles). But not so with this Triumph, I really could not tell any difference between the wire-control and a regular cable operated set of throttle bodies. Yamaha creates "feel" by using cables and connecting them to a potentiometer under the tank, which is nice but a lot of extra parts. Triumph didn't need to do this, they got the progressive feel right, along with just enough friction between the throttle tube and handlebar to make it easy to maintain a given throttle opening. Once in a great while it feels like the engine is not responding quite as fast as one might expect when accelerating from a stop, but that's just the ECU making sure it's smooth. Never a problem, just a slight difference between direct cable and HAL taking care of things.

I put the recommended 32/36 PSI in for my second outing of the day and the bike did not want to turn in as fast, I wonder why! So I need to play with tire pressure and shock preload to see what really works. The shocks have quite a few stepped adjuster positions, at least five, so that's nice, makes it easy to get rear ride height where you need it for better turn in and/or stability. I don't mind running a bit more pressure than recommended to get a crisp turn-in for street riding since I'm not going to be pushing the tire. The Phantoms love to track rain grooves, which is another real vintage feature guaranteed to be nerve-wracking until you get used to it. The bike just barrels along the freeway effortlessly, holding 80-90 mph with no trouble at all.

The real story is the torque and real-world acceleration. I had to keep reminding myself "This is a 900-class motorcycle" because it feels like a 500cc twin in terms of handling. It really feels more like a bike of about 400 pounds, very easy to balance, turn, and exceptionally easy to maneuver for U-turns or in a parking lot. It doesn't have as much steering lock as the Street Twin likely does, because of the low Clubman bars, but it's still very easy to maneuver. The bike doesn't have a first gear. That's my story. They say it's a five-speed transmission, I call it a six-speed transmission with first gear omitted, because first is very tall. However, once you get the launch drill figured, it'll rocket away from a stoplight very convincingly. Adjusting the clutch lever (which has four distance settings) helps a lot there, too. That gigantic bucket of torque makes this bike very quick in traffic and in the canyons. It's a legitimately fast bike up to 100 mph, and pulls hard in the first three gears, hard enough to top out the front suspension quite easily. It's a rush. And it feels very very good, the way a twin should. Hammering through traffic, finding daylight, putting it where you want, very easy to do with this package.

[LongRanger_imp]

That's awesome, congrats. So you subscribe to the "ride it like you stole it" break-in procedure? I've never had the nerve to try that.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

That's awesome, congrats. So you subscribe to the "ride it like you stole it" break-in procedure? I've never had the nerve to try that.

Oh yes, very much so. Every bike for several decades. If this bike is restricted in any way during break-in I can't tell. Would not surprise me. I have not gone over 6K RPM, redline is 7K, so I have set that limit. Not much past that anyway, but remarkable how fast the revs build on this bike.

I've never had a bike exhibit any undue wear or oil consumption; I broke in my CB1100 the same way, it really doesn't consume any oil and the valves were all in perfect specification at the 8K mile check. One thing about that bike, it is built strong. Honda didn't cheap out on anything.

I checked on the service, I think I'll just pay the hour labor to have them reflash the ECU and clear the reminder, if that's part of the service. Otherwise there is an interface similar to the GS-911 and others that allows the service reminder to be reset, it's only about $100 plus shipping from the UK. This service department looks pretty good, I like the dealership. The sales manager and I are the same age and have very similar backgrounds.

[use2b_imp]

Congrats , I know that 270-degree-crank has a nice roll to it and remember to put some stabil in the Wolf and CB

[pdedse]

So you get a Wolf and a Triumph within weeks of each other. Come on, man, let us breathe! : )

Congrats, that's gotta be fun feeling out these bikes!

[the Ferret]

I have a feeling Ulve is one of those guys that can't be kept happy with one bike for too long. What I call a motorcycle transient

remember this thread from 2014? lol

http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread....=transient

[Django]

An apposite quote from Wilhelm Busch in this respect is: "Each desire once fulfilled immediately begets another.

(Wilhelm Busch, German poet, * 15.04.1832, † 09.01.1908)

[Nemo_imp]

Awesome bike!! Congrats! My son has a ST and he loves it. Bought it this summer. He has since replaced the bars to Renthal Fat, had the tank powder coated in bronze and added the Rizoma aluminum headlight fairing (before it was stock for the Cup).

These bikes have the sexiest factory sound/tone ever (noise, as Ferret will call it)!

Enjoy it!

[Ulvetanna_imp]

An apposite quote from Wilhelm Busch in this respect is: "Each desire once fulfilled immediately begets another.

(Wilhelm Busch, German poet, * 15.04.1832, † 09.01.1908)

German philosophy and poetry...anytime you feel like quoting, please do so!

I have a feeling Ulve is one of those guys that can't be kept happy with one bike for too long. What I call a motorcycle transient

remember this thread from 2014? lol

http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread....=transient

I think forum member CIP57 explained it best:

I think for the most part motorcycles are for enjoyment not transportation. You can buy a bike for 10-15K ride it for two years at a cost of about 2g's a year. Can't do that with a car or people would trade them in too.

The thing about motorcycles is that while so many of them appear as though they would please, in the longer term they do not live up to their looks.

No one is going to wear out a motorcycle, not for the last fifty years for sure, unless that rider makes it a personal goal to do so. I know a guy who did exactly that, Mike Case. [url=http://www.sportrider.com/bikes/then-and-now-honda-cbr900rr-20th-anniversary-cbr-timeline]He had a CBR900RR, the first year model, and set out to break it, we think. He had well over 200,000 miles on it the last I heard. He must have really liked the bike, too.

I have had a few bikes I've really liked and rode a great deal. Naturally when we are younger and less able to afford more than one or two of these things, we ride just the one bike most. This creates a great familiarity with that particular bike, which often translates into a much higher skill level than might be thought. The one bike over all the years that I really return to as the very best at everything was an air-cooled 1989 BMW R100GS. And at this very moment I'm having "Voila!" revelation. That bike had almost exactly the same horsepower and weight as this new Street Cup. It was a shaft drive, 56 HP at the rear wheel, and weighed about 463 lbs wet. It also had just a single front disk with a twin piston caliper. And it was of course a twin.
[attachment=5792]
I found I could ride that motorcycle under any kind of circumstances. I used to ride it on weekends with the racer boy crowd, and what with the huge cornering clearance and wide bars, on the tighter roads it would just leave some riders with eyes like saucers trying to figure out what just happened. It was terrific for "adventure bike" riding, the low CG made it very easy to handle and I rode many hundreds of miles of offroad on that motorcycle. It was very comfortable on the freeway, as well. A guy could really just "live" on that saddle for hours at a time. That bike was a great machine and I regret trading it, but there was something else that came up which was a higher priority. It had the highest mileage of any one bike I ever owned, 43,000 miles in two years or so. And I owned another bike at that time which I rode a lot.

That other bike was also a twin, a [url=http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/2013/12/article/honda-hawk-gt-born-before-its-time/]Hawk GT 647, called by Honda fans the "RC31". I believe it made about 37 HP at the rear wheel and weighed 412 lbs wet.
[attachment=5793]
That bike was everything the article states. It was very much loved by some of the top people in the industry, the Erion Brothers, Keo Watanabe, Dan E. Coe, and of course yours truly here. That thing handled better than just about anything on the planet at the time, and was in fact a Ducati-beater, particularly if one was head downhill on Angeles Crest Highway. The Clubhouse Boys will never admit this, though.

So this new Triumph has perfectly captured all the qualities I loved so much about those two twins, but with completely modern technology. I've most definitely chosen the parallel twin as my mill of choice; my GS's with the Rotax engines have really impressed me. Here again, the F700GS is about 470 pounds, with 75 HP but impressive torque. And it's got ABS and traction control as well.

We try a lot of stuff over the years; some people have the idea that it is admirable to know what you want and have life all figured out from a perspective of philosophy, world view, personal choices, and faith (or lack of faith) from an early age, say around 15 or so. Then life is easy. It's all thought out, and those who change their minds about things must be unpredictable and thus, not trustworthy. I know some people like that, and they are about as interesting as watching paint dry.

So we try a lot of stuff, and in the end generally gravitate to what felt and worked best. What felt and worked best for me over the years was two cylinders, mid-400-lb range, great handling and versatility.