more jumpers for goalposts

that sounds familiar - there's plenty of torque and power pretty much
everywhere in the rev range, so IIRC, you end up short-shifting about
4.5-5K at the most.

I really do have a hankering for another B12.

It's really hard to find one older than about 3 years that hasn't been
buggered around with, though.

 

[snip]

heh - I know what you mean. One thing about ML&S though, the mechanic
really did seem to know what he was doing, and they always seemed to
be remarkably thorough - I turned up to collect my bike, and they made
me wait for 30 minutes, because they'd decided to fully charge the
bike's battery, and it wasn't ready.

 

I would really like to try out a B12 - naked (er you know what I mean) -
ride the torque etc and get such buffeting by the wind over 80-ish that
losing your license would become a matter of determination rather than
"oops I didn't realise I was going *that* fast"

Is a naked bike at 80/90 really a struggle to maintain?

--

jeremy
['75 RD250A ] | ['02 Fazer 600 in blue]
____________________________________________
jeremy dot ovenden at hazelweb dot co dot uk

 

TBH I've never understtod this - if I want something that feels fast,
I can;t think of anything better than the gixxer thou.

No. Above 120 or so becomes more of a strain.

 

The mechanic (Darren?) seemed great. Shame about the rest of them.

 

Oh I much prefer the Fazer - the RD was a way of getting back into
biking to see if I still liked it after a ~20 yr layoff - not too much
money and get some nostalgia at the same time - and discovered that I
did indeed still like it and hence moving on to get the Fazer.

The only other 'large' bike I have ridden is my neighbour's SV650S - we
swapped for about 15 miles - he described the Fazer as being like an
armchair. I found the SV fun but I wasn't as relaxed as on the Fazer.

Given the ins grp for a B12 is close to (the same as?) the Fazer, I
don't imagine the running costs can be much different.

--

jeremy
['75 RD250A ] | ['02 Fazer 600 in blue]
____________________________________________
jeremy dot ovenden at hazelweb dot co dot uk

 

mine was the naked version.

not at all.

though to get beyond 120 or so, you need to put your head sideways
flat on the tank...

 

4-5000 miles tops from a rear 010 on a B12...

 

I'm born-again, sunny-sundays, wind speed < 5mph kind of rider so I
reckon the rubber will perish before I run out of tread

The Fazer (on which I've done maybe 2k) needed new front & rear at 7000
miles (bought at approx 5k).

--

jeremy
['75 RD250A ] | ['02 Fazer 600 in blue]
____________________________________________
jeremy dot ovenden at hazelweb dot co dot uk

 

[ML&S]

that's pretty much my take on it too. You could tell their level of
biking experience - when I turned up one time on my TRX (I can't
remember what for), one of the sales guys was so impressed with the
lack of chicken strips on the rear, that he went and got his mate from
inside the shop to show him. And when I told them I'd got rid of the
last of the strips doing Cadwell, they looked at me like I was some
kind of biking god.

 

Drinks petrol like it's Ribena, too.

 

Heh. To _maintain_ beyond 120 or so, you need to do that, if only to
avoid having your head torn off. But I can vouch that a naked b12 will
happily put 150 otc with the rider sitting fairly upright.

 

I'm not trying hard enough then. I reckon I'll get nearly 200 miles
outta my latest tankful on the Fazer.

--

jeremy
['75 RD250A ] | ['02 Fazer 600 in blue]
____________________________________________
jeremy dot ovenden at hazelweb dot co dot uk

 

Presumably this is because it *is* fast

Oh well I really should stop reading RiDE magazine.

--

jeremy
['75 RD250A ] | ['02 Fazer 600 in blue]
____________________________________________
jeremy dot ovenden at hazelweb dot co dot uk

 

sure. This was for about 10 miles on the M4...

 

There you go then - proof that race cans are environmentally friendly.
--

jeremy
['75 RD250A ] | ['02 Fazer 600 in blue]
____________________________________________
jeremy dot ovenden at hazelweb dot co dot uk

 

You get used to it. Just after passing my test I found myself trying to
crouch over the tank at anything over about 50, but now I can happily sit up
at 90 all day. Oddly enough taking the little mini screen off seemed to
improve things.

 

http://simonb.zapik.com/botofot/-005.jpg

I'm on the left, I'm sure you can guess who's on the right.