As we’re doing motorbikes tonight

Riding kit, KTM Powerwear jacket, Arai Johnny Rea rep RX7-RR, Next Jeans, Five-Tens trainers.

Went to Premier Bikes in Didcot today with the ZX6R for it’s MOT and i thought “why not ride a 1290SDR?” The answer was… of course to ride it.
It had an amazing key system, you put your key in your pocket, press a button on the bars, then press start ! Proper trick !

Sitting on it, it felt lovely… comfy, happy, nice riding position, all good. Super trick dash with all the bells and whistles. Bike was set in Sport mode, i don’t know what that equates to in Traction etc, but anyway, i just left it on that.

Pulling away you realise it’s VERY smooth, this is not like the jerky 990Superduke, on and off the throttle is smooth… in fact, OFF the throttle is rather weird due to a huge lack of engine braking. It’s almost like the idle is set to 3000rpm, so when you’re trying to slow, it’s almost pulling you along as you’re trying to take a roundabout etc.
In the corners, once you get you head around the engine braking, it’s just effortless, smooth, silky stable and refined.

The engine.. well, as you can imagine the engine is the talking point with this thing, about 4000rpm the thing just comes in with a WALLOP of power, just so so much it’s completely daft. Being a naked bike you’d think you’re in control of the power, but there’s just that much of it, it’s an absolute rocket ship…. BOOM! and Woosh! and you’re looking at the dash and thinking “wwwwwooooooaaaah there…” You end up making overtakes you wouldn’t necessarily want to normally, just to feel the smack of power !

The suspension in 99% of occasions is just lovely, forgiving, effortless, but when you’re getting on with it a bit on a bumpy road and with the excess of power, well, it can get quite loose and flighty, bit on the “hhmmmm this needs a steering damper really”.

The brakes are exceptional as you’d expect… Big meaty Brembos on there stopping you.. But at times you end up coming into corners a bit too quick and the centrifugal force seems to make you want to sit up rather than being able to feather them in and let you go around corners.

All in all, it’s right up there with the 1199 Panigale i rode in the context of crazy batshit insane machines… Would i want one…. No.. I can’t actually think of any world where this bike makes sense… As incredible as it clearly is.. I have no desire to own it.

Nice, except any naked bike is crap IME unless you’re staying below 80.

Fun for a play I guess but ugly! I’m too used to fairings as well so find naked bikes tiresome for any kind of distance.

Not pretty, nope not at all.

But, billions of HP, a power band larger than the Hardron Collider, torque to remove pants from the traffic lights and a splash of orange.

I honestly don’t know how you lot stay upright and still have a license and the brain power to comprehend time warp.

But I do quite admire you, and the bike must be humongous fun.

What’s with the no engine braking? Big twins normally have it in spades, one of the reasons I’ve always like V-twins

Fly by wire throttle, so you can dial in more or less engine braking. Personally, I’d want more.

I did ask about sending your licence off to DVLA when you bought it as you may as well.

Nice….

Bad no bike pangs at present!

A guy who works for me has just got one, he’s gagging to get the first 600 miles in and get it serviced so he can go full chat and stay with his mates on Hyabusa’s

I also had the chance to test ride the Yamaha MT10 today… The report is here…

Rode Trickys Yam MT-10 today… Didn’t really know what to expect, i was thinking a naked Big Bang R1 before hand.

I’ve only ridden the BB R1 very fleetingly at Mallory and didn’t get on with it at all. So i jumped on the MT-10 wondering how it would be.

The simple answer to that is… The most outstanding machine i’ve ever ridden. Just absolutely blindingly good.

Power, handling, comfort, braking, engine, noise……….. Just everything… .Just brilliant..

I jumped off it and was gutted to give him the keys back…. but jumped back on it again, i was pleased to find, it’s still outstanding. The gearbox is effortless and silky smooth, it’s great in all gears, all rpm and all conditions..

The best bike i’ve ever had the pleasure to ride.