Well, I can scratch blagging a ride in slick mode, he's just sent me a text to say he's traded it in for a 1299 Panigale! I guess he really didn't like it, in fairness he did have an 1199 just before the BMW so it's a helluva different bike.
must have not been riding her hard or had it in a different mode I have a 2016 s1000rr and its an animal I wouldn't put down the cbr 1000rr as I had one loved it but it is well behind the bmw in power and I mean well behind I have done numerous trackdays and most weekend racers up here are saying the zx10rr is the new weapon
then again funny how fast bikes rated the rsv4 second last year against the bm then this year its first all down to the rider me thinks
It was a 2017 and it was a mates bike and only a couple of months old so no I wasn't riding it hard. Not saying it's a bad bike you understand just seemed too perfect, hard to put into words, I'm sure it's a completely different beast in the track but I don't do track days so 500 levels of suspension control and traction adjustment don't really appeal. He test road an earlier model And said he liked that so don't know if there was a big change in 2017 but regardless he's part exchanged it for another Ducati.
Euro 4 compliance between 16 and 17? My mate has a 16 and it's bloody good bike. Easily better than my 14 blade that's had a bit of work. As far as being too perfect, I do t buy into that argument. If a bikes good it's good. Soul and character and all the other bullshit was talked about by Ducati owners who would need a justification for spending $30k on a bike that shits itself every five minutes and r1 and zx10 owners who needed an excuse for shitting themselves when their unpredictable bikes tried to kill them randomly.........ohh but is got soul
I was told this when I sold my Mille and went back to a Blade. Said I've got plenty of character myself, I don't need the bike to have it, I just want the f*cker to work.
I was fortunate to be able to bypass the CX, although I guy I used to work with, who used to be a biker, used to profess unrequited love of the thing.
Dispatch Riders loved them, no chain, no maintenance, the odd tilt sideways when you revved it just like a guzzi
Had this email spy shot of the next s1000rr... Wow...is that tiny or what! Even @Dave dunlop would look huge on it The new blade is also noticeably smaller.........is this the design direction the future sportsb are going I wonder? The development guys must take into account the trends & the way things are heading. Big adventure bike market, more nakeds getting tweaked for touring, more 'sportier' sports tourers etc....so.........have they decided to go down the route of a more pure fast road/track bike within the category? Not saying it's right or wrong, just musing. I guess why I'm so fond of the design of the older Blade and it's counterparts is their ability to be a sports beast one moment & a luggage laden euro tourer the next. Or maybe it's just a cunning plan by ze Germans to destroy the big strapping british lads our biker bacon butty culture develops
I think this is just the niche the manufacturers are playing to now. When Yamaha released this gen of R1, they said that bikers now wanted litre track day bikes. This is why a really wanted Honda to keep the Blade as a road bike and release something like the V4 for the track dayers.
When it is released can we make sure that it is actually Euro 4 compliant - and not just Euro 4 compliant when it is on rollers being tested. Thanks.
That does look small indeed, I've cocked a leg over the new Blade and it didn't feel that much different in riding position to mine but I did notice the small screen, I'll have to test ride one sometime just to get an opinion on it even though I can't afford one. I remember the first ZX-10 that came out and was twitchy as feck, I had the B1H ZX-6 at the time and the guys in Kawasaki reckoned the 10 was virtually the same wheelbase with about 50 brake more, I also remember 2 lads bringing them back for the dealer to sell on as they couldn't handle them, if we had TC back then it wouldn't have been a problem, not sure where I'm going with this now lol. Oh yeah, small bikes, I guess if you've got the electronics to make them manageable then it's not now an issue, personally I moved on from the GSXR750 because it was getting a bit cramped and was too hard for my 51 year old bones
