6
After months of waiting, I took delivery of a former demo with 57 miles (and some not-yet-hooned oil) yesterday. My first thumper (RS125 doesn't count) and first bike with knobbies.
Everyone online talks about how quiet the stock exhaust is, but I was still unprepared. A tech gave me an intro to the bike features, and started it up when we were still on the showroom floor. My thoughts quickly went from "Is he really going to start it in here?" to "Wow." A couple folks were having a normal conversation a few feet away, and they didn't need to raise their voices. Maybe a little louder than a 50cc 4-stroke scooter. It's the sound of basic transportation; it says "better than walking or pedaling."
The clutch pull is super light, and first gear is really short so it's easy to get going without slipping it at all. Which is good, because reports out of Thailand / AsiaPac / Oceania are that clutch lifetime is an issue with this bike.
This morning's ride was Union Sq -> Harvard Sq. -> Mt. Auburn -> Watertown -> Rt 20 -> Waltham -> Trapelo Rd; no highway but up to 45-50 in pretty heavy traffic. Drivers were up to their usual shenanigans; got cut off a few times, had a sketchy moment where someone turned left in front of me, someone failed to let me merge left so 25-30ft of the commute *may* have touched some sidewalk, left mirror may have touched the side of a bus at one point. And I ride like a granny, so I'm starting to see how folks get into fun-related trouble on dual sports and motards...this thing just makes me want to dodge and weave all over the place.
Anyway, after the first 12 miles or so:
- super smooth motor; obviously not a lot of power but surprisingly torquey for so little noise
- amazingly smooth gear changes
- still getting used to knobbies; they seem to like to tip in and then dance around a little, but are definitely grippy and getting on the power seems to help (might also just be a bike geometry thing?)
- definitely not enough front brake for me to recommend as a first street bike, BUT
- lots of engine braking
- love the gas gauge and overall design of the digital dash
- wish it had a tach; hard to hear revs with such a quiet exhaust
- I'm 5-10, and prefer to one-foot it at stop lights. The bike is so light I can walk it forward up a slight grade with that one foot, though.
- vibrations through the bars bothered me a little
Overall:
Love it. Extremely fun, back-to-basics motorcycle. Feels very "planted" over crappy pavement, motor/gearing definitely don't rocket you around but never seem to break a sweat either. Will definitely hold onto the ZRX and the Multi for other uses (anything where a real front brake is indicated), but for putting around town I bet I'll be reaching for this one again and again.